The federal government has announced that they will be repealing the consumer side of the federal carbon tax, with an Order In Council imposed to remove that starting March 31st. The move comes as another hike in the tax was expected to go through on April 1st.
While the change in prices may come once the month switches around, for now, GasBuddy Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says prices won't see drastic changes right away.
"We could certainly see after the carbon tax was paused, that'll be effective April 1st, but for now we won't see any real change that the pump gas prices aren't likely to change. There's a question of whether or not this is going to be shifted, the carbon tax ending on consumers still could be shifted to businesses and that could still be then funnelled back down to consumers."
Once the pause does take place for the country DeHaan says we could potentially see prices decline by 10-15 cents a litre, so long as the cost of the carbon tax isn't shifted to the consumer.
DeHaan says there is still much to be unknown about the effect of a pause on the Carbon Tax.
At the very least, the country is seeing gas prices drop independently, which DeHaan calls rare for this time of year.
That may not be effortless, as DeHaan says there are multiple more factors to consider regarding gas prices heading into the spring.
"There's still a lot of hurdles to potentially cover, especially between Canadian trade tariffs and the carbon tax. Oil prices have struggled as of late, that's another piece of good news for those filling up. But for now, as I mentioned, as long as the Carbon Tax is not shifted from consumers to businesses, this may bring lower gas prices as we get into the month of April."
The latest prices on GasBuddy for stations in Estevan show a price of $151.9, up four cents compared to last year.