Adedokun Waliyu 
Gas prices are set to soar again in the Greater Toronto Area as the war in the Middle East continues.
The price is expected to rise seven cents at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to an average of 166.9 cents/litre, Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, told the Toronto Sun.
The gas analyst noted that he doesn’t expect any changes on Sunday, which means drivers won’t see a change until at least Wednesday.
In an attempt to save a little, McTeague suggested motorists wait until the evening to fill up their tanks.
“Gas stations like this idea of dropping their retail margins during the day, which is why I always say to never buy your gasoline in any major city across Canada before 6 p.m.,” he said. “You’ll save 10 cents a litre.”
The increase comes after the GTA saw a brief dip in the price of gas on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s assurances earlier in the week that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open for oil shipments.
However, by Thursday, the price of crude oil was back up to over $100 a barrel, after an Iranian strike hit commercial ships, with no signs of the American-Israeli war with Iran slowing down.
About 20% of the global supply of oil passes through the strait that links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It’s the only route to the open ocean for oil producers in the Gulf, but the passage has been effectively closed amid the war, with Iran repeatedly threatening to attack any ship that passes through.
That includes a vessel that was carrying $90,000 worth of rice from Thailand bound for a Toronto food bank, one of three cargo ships “hit” by a projectile in the channel on Wednesday.
“Our vendor has said she’s not sure whether or not (the rice containers) were destroyed but the boat was not sunk,” Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington said. “But we know that they will be delayed for sure, if not destroyed.”
