Angela Fuentes, owner of Road Runner Driving School, spends an average of $150 every day to fill up her fleet with gas. She decided that she can't afford those fuel bills, so she made the difficult decision to bump up the cost of 10 hours of driving lessons to $600 from $500.
'We try to keep the prices low and competitive for the customer,' Fuentes said. 'Sometimes we teach them how to put in gasoline, and when they see the price, they say, Oh my God. What is this?'
Calgarians are finding ways to cut costs as gas prices surge heading into the May long weekend. The price at pumps hit 189.9 cents per litre Wednesday, up from 126.6 cents for regular unleaded gasoline six months ago.
The last time Calgarians paid more than 189.5 cents was June 2022, when the war in Ukraine drove up gas prices. Now, Calgarians are finding new ways to slice their bills amid a growing affordability crisis.
At Okotoks Driving School, manager Nelson Chateauneuf says his firm is cutting back on advertising due to the jump in gas prices. 'We just gotta take the loss right now,' said Chateauneuf. 'Hopefully it comes back down.'
Price of Gas 'Just Doesn't Make Sense'
Terry Korenowski, like many others, is cutting down on his driving. He no longer takes casual trips to the park or the ice cream shop, and has reduced outings with his grandchildren. 'It's atrocious and absolutely ridiculous,' said Korenowski. 'This is Alberta. We should be paying 75 cents a litre for fuel at the best of times in this province. It just doesn't make sense to me that we're afflicted with this.'
Marilyn Kilborne said she is changing her daily habits due to the outsized jump at the pump. 'I'm not liking it,' she said after picking up groceries at the Glenmore Landing Shopping Centre. 'It's made everything more difficult. I try to do a lot of walking now, I walk a lot. I only go out when I have to. It's just putting everybody into a different lifestyle.'
Vincent Blais, an automotive service technician student at SAIT, said he needs his car to get to school and his part-time job. He simply doesn't have the option to walk more. But the price of gas is making it harder to make ends meet, he said, while adding he spends about $80 a week on fuel, up from $50 or $60. 'It definitely does make the individual lives harder for everyone who relies on their vehicle, especially people who are maybe lower income, like myself,' he said. 'It just generally makes everything harder to afford nowadays.'
Gregory Lavallee, also a student, said he spends a big chunk of his paycheque on fuel. He lives outside the city and commutes to school and work. 'To make money, I have to spend a large portion of it on gas,' he says.
