'Got the perfect storm shaping up': Gas prices expected to climb even higher on Vancouver Island

With gas prices in the capital region hitting record highs at 208.9 cents a litre, and sometimes even 216.9 cents per litre, people are making adjustments in their lives to compensate.

"Well regrettably we’ve got the perfect storm shaping up, it’s all hitting the fan at once," said Lindsay Meredith, marketing strategy and economics professor at Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University.

Meredith says you can blame these high prices at the pumps on a lack of supply.

While Canada doesn’t import oil products from Russia, we do from the United States, and when that country is short, less supply will be heading north to Canada, says Meredith.

"Today, Biden announced a ban on the importation of Russian oil products," he said Tuesday. "That’s contributing to a shortage of gas in the United States and it will in Canada."

That ban stems from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Meredith says other conflicts are adding to the global shortage.

"I don’t think we can look for a lot of help (from) our Saudi friends in OPEC to flood the market," said Meredith. "They are busy trying to recover from things like COVID-19, as well as battles with the Yemenise."

"Finally the Venezuelans are not really on-tap at the moment big time either," he said.

That leads us looking to our domestic production for relief.