Motorists flocking to Washington state to flee Metro Vancouver gas prices
鈥淚鈥檇 say 90 per cent of the B.C. plates driving through are coming for gas,鈥 a member of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. 鈥淪ome of them say they鈥檝e driven for 40 minutes and then they鈥檝e been idling for an hour (waiting to pass through customs).鈥
It鈥檚 always been thus, but with gas prices in Vancouver at $1.50 a litre, going to Bellingham, Wash., where gas is 90 cents a litre, in Canadian pennies, is pretty attractive.
In other words, you save almost $50 every time you fill an 80-litre tank in Bellingham instead of Metro Vancouver, even with a 77-cent Loonie.
On top of a supply shortage, federal, provincial and transit taxes add up to 49.3 cents on every litre. The tax on gas in Washington state is 23 cents a litre.
Those differences go a long way to explaining why, in January alone, 903,679 cars crossed into the U.S. at the Peace Arch, Pacific Highway, Aldergrove and Sumas border crossings, according to the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University. That鈥檚 the highest January total since 2015.