The price of regular gas is 159.9¢ per litre today, at most stations in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
The price of gas regionally has come down since the B.C. government cancelled the carbon tax effective April 1 of this year.
The reduction of the tax to $0 aligned B.C.’s carbon tax rate with the new federal carbon tax rate.
“The elimination of the carbon tax means people in British Columbia will no longer be required to pay the consumer carbon tax, taking approximately 17¢/L off the cost of fuel,” a provincial government press release said at the time.
But locals and regional leaders have noted that the price at the pump still doesn’t match other communities.
For example, in Cranbrook on July 27, drivers can fill up for 129.9¢/L. In Kelowna, the price of gas is 134.9¢/L.
Metro Vancouver communities pay a motor fuel tax for TransLink.
The South Coast British Columbia transportation service region (SCTA) that pays the extra tax includes areas outside of Vancouver, such as Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Burnaby, and north to Lions Bay.
Yet, even though those communities have the extra 18.50¢/L to support transit, their price at the pump can be less than in the corridor.
On July 27, drivers could fill up for 153.9 ¢/L in Burnaby, for example.
No conspiracy
The Squamish Chief contacted regional stations and their parent companies, by phone and/or email.
The Squamish Nation Gas Bar, which typically sells gas at slightly less than the rest in Squamish, falls under the Nchkay Development Corporation, the economic arm of the Nation.
Folks with Nchkay declined to comment for this story.
Green Lake Station Café and Fuel in Whistler owner, Greg Naundorf was willing to go on the record. He stressed there is no conspiracy of stations in the Sea to Sky.
"It's illegal to discuss prices with other stations, so I don't speak to any of them,” said Naundorf.
"I get a delivery and receive the invoices, and the price is based on that. It's that simple."
Other stations referred The Squamish Chief to their parent companies or did not provide a comment by press deadline.
‘A luxury premium?’
The issue of higher gas prices in the corridor has long been a thorn in the side of former Sea to Sky MLA Jordan Sturdy, who recently posted publicly about it, urging residents to contact the premier and energy minister to demand action.
“This is a luxury premium that is being imposed by the fuel companies,” Sturdy said. "Why [do] they feel they can justify an excess of 24¢/L to charge us in the Sea to Sky?”
Previously, in 2019, the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) collected all the data needed for a proper submission to the Canadian Competition Bureau on the issue. In 2021, the BCUC acknowledged there was an unexplained bump in the cost of fuel in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
“They're welcome to do it again, post carbon tax elimination, but then I'd like to see some action on it,” Sturdy said.
He is calling on the Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions, Adrian Dix, to take existing data and create a submission to the competition bureau.
“If we recognize there's a problem, then let's at least attempt to do something about it, or at least figure it out, or understand why. I just don't understand the reticence [of the provincial government] to put together a submission to the Competition Bureau and forward it off to Ottawa. Like, why not? What's the downside?”
"It's not like it's a whole pile of work. They just need to package the submission and send it off. And it could be that, though, the Competition Bureau will come back and say, 'Well, you just don't have enough competition.'"
While he acknowledged that he hasn’t done a deep dive into the data, given his surface research, he said he doubts that anywhere else in B.C. deals with the constantly elevated fuel prices in the Sea to Sky.
"I think it's probably fair to say that the Sea to Sky is the most expensive place to buy gas in North America,” he said.
“When we're concerned about affordability in the Sea to Sky, these are one of those things that impact affordability.”
He pointed to local companies that involve trucking and how much they are having to pay for fuel.
Sturdy, a Pemberton farmer himself, said the extra money paid locally for fuel could have more than supported a regional transit system. Sturdy was on the committee working toward regional transit when he was in office.
“I think what we were proposing with a regional transit system was a fuel tax of three cents a litre, [which] was going to pay for it for the first few years. [It would] pay the local government share anyway for the first three years. And even if we doubled that to six cents, it was going to pay both the provincial and the local government share.”
The Green Party’s Jeremy Valeriote, current MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky concurred.
“If we were being charged fairly and getting transit, then that would be OK,” he said. “Currently, we're being overcharged, and we're not getting transit.”
He acknowledged Sturdy’s work on the matter.
“I'm trying to tackle it, but what I want to do is wait for the discussion on a fuel tax for regional transit to be resolved before, so that we can at least have that ready to go, and then try to bring in some of the teeth of the Fuel Price Transparency Act,” he said.
Valeriote campaigned on getting the Sea to Sky regional transit, and it is in the Green Party and NDP provincial government’s Co-operation and Responsible Government Accord.
“Government will commit, in collaboration with BCGC, to implement frequent, reliable, affordable regional transit on key interregional routes on Vancouver Island, along Highway 16, and along Highway 1, with a focus on Sea to Sky corridor transit in 2025,” reads the agreement.
Valeriote has said he expects an announcement on regional transit this fall.
But last week, he told The Squamish Chief that to get regional transit in place (so that discussion on the fuel tax for it can move forward), there needs to be vocal pressure from stakeholders so it is clear that it is supported.
Province cites transparency measures
A spokesperson for B.C's Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions told The Squamish Chief that the difference in fuel pricing is exactly why the government brought in the Fuel Price Transparency Act—to shine a light on unfair price gouging and to ensure that companies are held publicly accountable.
“The province’s Fuel Price Transparency Act allows the BC Utilities Commission to analyze and identify unjustified markups by fuel suppliers, and this has helped control fuel prices,” the spokesperson said, adding that the province is not contemplating a review of the gasoline and diesel prices in the Sea to Sky region.
“The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) was named as the independent administrator of the Fuel Price Transparency Act and given the power to collect and publish data on fuel pricing in order to promote competition in the market,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
According to the ministry spokesperson, the BCUC believes that the retail market has adequately adjusted prices and passed on the savings from the removal of the carbon tax to B.C. consumers, as per the conclusion of their report published on June 17, 2025.
Regarding the federal Competition Bureau, the spokesperson said it does not regulate fuel prices, but it will investigate if there is evidence of anti-competitive behaviour in the market, such as price-fixing or restrictions in supply.
Geographic proximity to those communities that pay the extra dedicated 18.50¢/L means that gas stations in the Sea to Sky compete with gas stations in Vancouver, the spokesperson said.
“BCUC staff found that the geographic proximity of Whistler and Squamish to Metro Vancouver resulted in these retailers forming a single larger market (p. 11 of this report).”
“As a consequence, gas stations in the Sea to Sky Corridor can set pump prices according to what motorists are willing to pay, rather than matching them to pump prices in the Lower Mainland.”
Expert analysis highlights global factors behind gas prices
The federal government says that gas prices are mostly influenced by four factors: taxes, competition and consumer choice, the amount of fuel sold, and the type and location of gas stations.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis with GasBuddy—which is a popular app that provides crowd-sourced fuel prices at stations across North America, as well as analysis—broke down which factors play the biggest role in what drivers pay at the pump.
He said, overall, the price of oil is the predominant factor in what a station is going to charge.
The price of oil rises or falls literally every second of every day, depending on changes to the outlook for oil, he added.
Oil prices are impacted by global events, such as wars in the Middle East, uncertainty over the economy, and similar issues.
“That is what can change and fluctuate on a daily basis,” he said.
“There's the cost of refining, which one would think is a set amount, but logistics, supply and demand can change at the refining level,” he added.
“So essentially, the cost remains the same, but the value of that produced product can vary independently of oil.”
Often, the price of oil and gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel all move in tandem, De Haan explained.
"If oil goes up, gas, jet fuel, and diesel go up, and if oil goes down, normally, all three of those go down. But there can be extenuating circumstances like refining outages, which have hit the West Coast pretty hard this year,” he said, adding that much of our fuel on the coast of B.C. comes from refineries in the U.S., like California, where there are about nine refineries.
B.C. only has two, and neither has high production rates, according to the federal government.
Closer to the pump, the pipeline tariff plays a part in the cost drivers pay, as well, he said, stressing this tariff has nothing to do with the current trade war with the U.S.
“It's essentially a tariff for that gasoline to get from point A to point B,” he said.
He added that despite public ire, the profit margin made by the station is the smallest portion of what people are paying at the pump.
“Generally, as you get from the well head where the oil is being produced down to the station, there is less money in it as you get closer to the gas pump where you're actually pumping it,” he said.
“So, oil producers generally make the bulk of the profit. The government also makes a bulk of it. But then, as you get to the pump, that's generally where you make the smallest amount of money.”
Ultimately, though, De Haan said the GasBuddy app was created to help motorists find more competitive stations.
“You can, you can inquire with the business. You can work with your government to understand why they may be charging this, but at the end of the day, you know, if you're willing to pay that, you're willing to pay that.”
One way to help with gas prices is for Canada to have its own refineries, rather than be dependent on the U.S.
“I’m American, and I find it ironic that I'm saying Canada shouldn't be as reliant on the States,” he said.
"If you want to be more in control of what your fuel prices are, it would be well rooted for Canada to diversify its sources of product like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, oil, etc. So, there is a valid point to be made that with the U.S. being a little bit more uncertain, that Canada should develop more of its own resources.”
The BCUC publishes daily price information for communities across B.C. on its website.
With files from freelance journalist Will Johnson (The Squamish Chief) and Braden Dupuis (Pique Newsmagazine)
