Skip to content

When gas prices go up, Aldergrove residents head South

Overal reduction in Canadian cross border traffic, but one reason has locals heading South
16456520_web1_DSC_0285
The Lynden border crossing, pictured early in the morning on Tuesday, as Canadians line up to go South. (Sarah Grochowski)

Gas prices in the Lower Mainland have reached a new high, breaking North American records, according to Dan McTeague, petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.

The price hike has some Langley, and especially Aldergrove residents, travelling south.

On Sunday, gas prices in some places around the Lower Mainland reached 169.9 cents per litre, according to GasBuddy.com. The highest price was reported in White Rock at 170.9 cents per litre.

McTeague posted on Twitter warning of the increase on Friday, and he doesn’t suspect any relief in the coming days.

“This range is going to stay in effect guaranteed until Wednesday,” he said.

“I hate taking my tax dollars out of Canada, but at $3.53 USD a gallon I’m only paying about $1.20 CAN a litre in Blaine,” Langley resident Michelle Connerty, who ran for council last fall, said about her Friday morning trip across the border.

Canadian residents who once drove to buy gas and goods in the U.S. have been deterred in recent years by Canada’s dropping dollar, according to the fall 2018 Border Barometre update by the Border Policy Research Institute (BPRI).

Cross-border volumes are impacted by changes in the Canada-U.S. exchange rate, the report stated.

“The most striking trend in border traffic has been a severe reduction in passenger traffic since 2000,” noted the BPRI report.

“The number of passengers and pedestrians entering the United States has gone from approximately 97 million in 2000, to 43 million is 2017.”

Year-to-year trends showed that the flow of cross-border passenger cars fell most sharply in 2001 – with the 9-11 terrorist attacks and associated tightening of border security.

A local of Aldergrove, Rick Bowman, chooses to stay in Canada and “bite the bullet” when it comes to rising gas prices.

“I don’t like the hassle of border line-ups, nor being questioned by border officers,” Bowman said.

“That being said it’s hard to deny how much you can save, especially if you have a large SUV or truck with a big fuel tank,” he added.

The Cascade Gateway – five border crossing stations within Whatcom County including Peach Arch, Pacific Highway, Sumas, Lynden, and Point Roberts – has seen some recovery in passenger numbers up until 2017. Though, according to the report, it hasn’t fully rebounded from its former bustling glory in the 1990s.

Half of Canadians who do cross through the Cascade Gateway are commuting to make purchases like fuel, whereas Americans cross into Canada to vacation, the BPRI report says.

Tiffany Cooper, a resident of Aldergrove, admitted to purchasing nearly all of her family’s fuel from the States.

“We have NEXUS and get gas in the U.S. pretty much 100 per cent,” Cooper told the Aldergrove Star.

“While there, we usually grab milk and cheese, but I wouldn’t go down especially for that,” Cooper added.

Other local families, like Kassandra Ford’s, cross through Lynden border every so often not only to fill their vehicle tank with gas but two jerry cans, as well.

“The amount we save on gas alone is crazy,” Ford said, “Just two weeks ago when we went, it worked out to be only $1.12 CAN a litre.”