Gas Prices

[whatnext]

Times is hard....apparently our well-paid government workers can't afford to drive to work.

B.C. union calls for full-time remote work due to spiking gas prices
B.C.'s average price jumped to around 173 cents this week. In Greater Victoria on Monday, it was 207 cents a litre.
Canadian Press
43 minutes ago

The B.C. General Employees' Union is asking for provincially regulated employees to be allowed to work from home full time due to high fuel prices.

The union, which represents 35,000 public service workers among more than 95,000 members, says in a statement that the temporary allowance would help alleviate the burden facing members due to gas prices that have surged amid the Iran war.

The union also says the province should look at ways to provide temporary relief for workers who must travel extensively in their jobs and can't use public transport, especially if gas prices remain elevated....

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highl...-home-due-to-spiking-gas-prices-12077927

[SpongeG]

Last week the commute was better, but I attributed it to the spring break. Today it was again really light and I wonder if its because people aren't driving due to the prices.

I topped up at Costco on friday night and it was 185.9, everywhere else was 199.9 to 2.04.9 Costco had very long lines.

[s211]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Times is hard....apparently our well-paid government workers can't afford to drive to work.

B.C. union calls for full-time remote work due to spiking gas prices
B.C.'s average price jumped to around 173 cents this week. In Greater Victoria on Monday, it was 207 cents a litre.
Canadian Press
43 minutes ago

The B.C. General Employees' Union is asking for provincially regulated employees to be allowed to work from home full time due to high fuel prices.

The union, which represents 35,000 public service workers among more than 95,000 members, says in a statement that the temporary allowance would help alleviate the burden facing members due to gas prices that have surged amid the Iran war.

The union also says the province should look at ways to provide temporary relief for workers who must travel extensively in their jobs and can't use public transport, especially if gas prices remain elevated....

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highl...-home-due-to-spiking-gas-prices-12077927

Hey unions! Get off your lazy backsides and stop trying to find new ways to avoid having to lift a finger.

[jollyburger]

In an effort to avoid paying higher gas prices at the pump, people in Vancouver and other cities in the Lower Mainland are increasingly choosing to use e-bikes and e-scooters.

The provincial car share service, Evo, says that it is noticing a spike in usage of its e-bikes and e-scooters.

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/03/31...kes-and-e-scooters-amid-high-gas-prices/

[cganuelas1995]

Now is the perfect time to respond with "gas prices amirite hahahahahaha" whenever someone asks you "what's up?"

[WarrenC12]

E-scooters are just too much fun.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by s211

Hey unions! Get off your lazy backsides and stop trying to find new ways to avoid having to lift a finger.

Unions, the same ones that have heavily invested in pensions that have ties to commercial real estate want to ensure there's more remote work.

There's also the matter of remote work. If one can do their work remotely then it opens up the potential to eventually contract out or offshore their jobs.

People may hate RTO but there's a necessary purpose to having offices and people commute to hubs. The whole economy has been built on this consumption.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Unions, the same ones that have heavily invested in pensions that have ties to commercial real estate want to ensure there's more remote work.

There's also the matter of remote work. If one can do their work remotely then it opens up the potential to eventually contract out or offshore their jobs.

People may hate RTO but there's a necessary purpose to having offices and people commute to hubs. The whole economy has been built on this consumption.

I'm not sure that's a great reason.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I'm not sure that's a great reason.

Do you remember businesses suffering in 2020-2021 due to an overall lack of consumption? Translink/BC Transit shortfall due to less fuel tax revenue? Like it or not, we need people in business districts. This helps sustain employment and promotes consumerism.

I wish employers and governments would be honest with people. Bringing up "collaboration" pisses people off.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Do you remember businesses suffering in 2020-2021 due to an overall lack of consumption? Translink/BC Transit shortfall due to less fuel tax revenue? Like it or not, we need people in business districts. This helps sustain employment and promotes consumerism.

I wish employers and governments would be honest with people. Bringing up "collaboration" pisses people off.

Counterpoint: Working from home improves quality of life, health, and reduces the environmental impact of commuting.

We can work from home and capitalism won't collapse.

[SpongeG]

The gas was 218.9 this morning. This is the third day of this week that traffic from Surrey to Vancouver via Hwy 1 was lighter than usual, monday it took me just under 40 minutes and tuesday about the same, today was really congested at the east end of the Port Mann and crawled along until about North Road and then it was not too bad. Under normal conditions it would take 60-90 minutes to do the same commute. I think people are cutting out driving perhaps.

[Alex Mackinnon]

On the flipside, I can charge my car for 7 c/kWh at night. That's about $6 for a full charge with about 400 km range.

My Mach E is also hardly efficient as far as EVs go. It's never made more sense to buy an EV than now.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

It's never made more sense to buy an EV than now.

I've been driving electric since 2017. It made even more sense to have an EV back in 2022 when the war in Ukraine caused prices to surge over $2.40/litre. Who knows, with the current conflagration in the middle east we may yet exceed those highs.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

I've been driving electric since 2017. It made even more sense to have an EV back in 2022 when the war in Ukraine caused prices to surge over $2.40/litre. Who knows, with the current conflagration in the middle east we may yet exceed those highs.

The cars are considerably cheaper/better now than 2022 and the infrastructure has improved.

I bought my first one in 2013, and it made sense back then as well.

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Do you remember businesses suffering in 2020-2021 due to an overall lack of consumption? Translink/BC Transit shortfall due to less fuel tax revenue? Like it or not, we need people in business districts. This helps sustain employment and promotes consumerism.

I wish employers and governments would be honest with people. Bringing up "collaboration" pisses people off.

Or we need to shift it to something else. Transfer the fuel tax to something else, like vehicle registration.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

Or we need to shift it to something else. Transfer the fuel tax to something else, like vehicle registration.

Registration based on weight and kms driven. Alas, the sticker shock if we get anywhere close to Washington State tags will blow peoples minds.

Will need to have the default option be monthly and it needs to be seamless. Outside of the lower mainland, will need to do some math to figure out how to do it equitably -- if you don't somewhat regularly have access to the massively expensive bridges, maybe your fees are reflective of costs in your area.

Maybe as part of it, replace Lions Gate, Second Narrows. Improve the lane markings.

[WarrenC12]

I too have been EV only since 2018. The best time to get an EV was sometime in the past, the second best is today. Gas will always be volatile and (long term) seems to increase faster than general inflation.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

There's also the matter of remote work. If one can do their work remotely then it opens up the potential to eventually contract out or offshore their jobs.

People may hate RTO but there's a necessary purpose to having offices and people commute to hubs. The whole economy has been built on this consumption.

Rewind to March 2025.

Originally Posted by The office IT expert, who when COVID came around started working from home

I sure hope I didn't drive ten minutes across town to reboot a router!

It was not a router crash. It was the ransomware encrypting the network hardware after it had spent the previous night eating through the office servers. Alerts went unheard because nobody was checking the inbox before they too were reduced to a series of nonsensical 0's and 1's. Backups could not be recovered because it had failed four years prior, with nobody paying attention to the hardware.

True story. It took us down for over a month and ended up costing us to bring in a third party contractor to manage our IT, so yes you are correct that working from home invites outsourcing. Dude never got fired for this BS and still clings to his four days of the week sitting on the couch at home playing Xbox while answering escalated support tickets. There's a lot of "oh, you're just anti-union" sentiment when you see articles like that but it's a stereotype that's been running for decades that unions are untouchable, overpaid and lazy.


Oh right, we were talking about gas prices.
I have to head to the coast tomorrow and I can't believe that I'm looking at a $200 gas bill. Just the gas bill. Part of that is my fault for driving a 44 year old car but even with an aftermarket knock sensor and a functioning emissions system to use lower octane fuel it still stings.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Rewind to March 2025.


It was not a router crash. It was the ransomware encrypting the network hardware after it had spent the previous night eating through the office servers. Alerts went unheard because nobody was checking the inbox before they too were reduced to a series of nonsensical 0's and 1's. Backups could not be recovered because it had failed four years prior, with nobody paying attention to the hardware.

True story. It took us down for over a month and ended up costing us to bring in a third party contractor to manage our IT, so yes you are correct that working from home invites outsourcing. Dude never got fired for this BS and still clings to his four days of the week sitting on the couch at home playing Xbox while answering escalated support tickets. There's a lot of "oh, you're just anti-union" sentiment when you see articles like that but it's a stereotype that's been running for decades that unions are untouchable, overpaid and lazy.


Oh right, we were talking about gas prices.
I have to head to the coast tomorrow and I can't believe that I'm looking at a $200 gas bill. Just the gas bill. Part of that is my fault for driving a 44 year old car but even with an aftermarket knock sensor and a functioning emissions system to use lower octane fuel it still stings.

44 year old car?! I salute you for maintaining it so well.

[jollyburger]

Liberals plan to suspend federal fuel excise tax until Labour Day

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/natio...uel-excise-tax-until-labour-day-12139211