The cost of commuting is getting higher, and these N.L. drivers are feeling the pinch

Gas prices are down slightly in Newfoundland and Labrador, but it doesn't mean much to the drivers feeling the pinch at the pump, which has seen record high after record high in recent months.

The maximum price of gasoline dropped 1½ cents per litre Thursday — the first drop in prices since Dec. 16.

Prices vary across the province, but a litre of unleaded self-serve will now cost as much as $1.73 on the Avalon Peninsula. Drivers will pay as much as $1.74 in Deer Lake and Corner Brook, $1.75 in central Newfoundland and nearly $1.80 in western Labrador.

According to Wade Locke, acting head of the Department of Economics at Memorial University, there are several factors that play into high gas prices, including high inflation, gas taxes and carbon taxes and the price of oil rising as markets begin to move out of the latest wave of COVID-19.

For Victoria Battcock of Cape Broyle, the prices aren't a welcome sight.

"I hate to go to the gas station, and I dread reading the gas story every Thursday," Battcock said Monday. "It's painful."

Battcock commutes five days a week from Cape Broyle to St. John's, a round trip of 130 kilometres. It takes $94 to fill her Nissan Qashqai.

"Before this year, I didn't even look … but lately I've had to kind of look at the numbers and kind of figure it out," she said.

"I fill up more than once a week, so it's not just a once a week 'oh, here's my gas money' kind of thing.' I'll be driving back and forth, and then by Wednesday night or Thursday I'll have to fill it up again."

Eric Legge of Cartyville on Newfoundland's west coast is in a similar position. Legge works as a nurse in Stephenville Crossing, commuting over 110 kilometres each trip.

"Over the past six to eight months, we have found that our gasoline prices increasing dramatically, probably up by an extra 30 per cent. Right now, that's costing us an additional I would say six or seven dollars on a round trip," Legge said last week.

"Seven trips in two weeks, you're probably talking close to 170 to 200 dollars extra."

The rise in gas prices, paired with rising inflation across the country, is forcing Legge and Battcock to look at the bigger picture when it comes to budgeting and spending.

"You have to be aware of [it] and make sure that you have enough dollars kept aside before the next pay period," Legge said. "So you always to be very much aware of the cost of going to work."