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“I almost didn’t fill up,” said Barb Linkletter at a Vancouver station on Monday afternoon where customers at all eight pumps were buying no more than $30 or $40 worth of gas.

But “I feel fortunate that I can (buy gas at the higher price). For some people, this will be really hard.”

Kulwinder Bassi, who was filling up his Black Top cab, said he wasn’t happy with the hike but “I have no choice” but to pay it.

Vancouverites, who already pay the “highest gas prices in North America, bar none,” will have to get used to pain at the pump, said Dan McTeague, petroleum industry analyst at gasbuddy.com.

He said the US benchmark wholesale price for gas sold for the Pacific Northwest market jumped to 86.2 cents a litre from 79.8 cents a week before.

The 6.3 cent increase plus GST shot the pump prices up to $1.479 from $1.409.

McTeague also said Metro Vancouver drivers can expect the price to rise another cent a litre on Wednesday, to $1.489.

He said the hikes are caused by a scarcity of local refineries after they consolidated in the 1980s and 1990s, high demand for gas in the US, an increase in crude oil prices to $66 from $52 a barrel a year ago, and taxes in Metro Vancouver of 49.2 cents a litre.

He said the increase in gas prices doesn’t just affect individual drivers but increases the cost of all goods because businesses pay the increase, too.

“It has a dramatic and direct impact on the economy because consumers have less disposal income and pay more for all goods,” he said.