The price of gas in the Greater Toronto Area went up 6.5 cents overnight to almost $1.40 per litre at most stations — and by Wednesday morning its expected to go even higher.

The average price per litre of unleaded gas in Toronto Tuesday morning was $1.39, up from an average of $1.33 on Monday, according to the website Gasbuddy.com.

Another website, Tomorrow's Gas Price Today, is predicting the price of a litre will exceed $1.41 on Wednesday.

Many stations in the city were quiet before the morning rush hour, in stark contrast to Monday evening, when drivers formed long lines after hearing reports that a big spike was coming.

Dwight Archer was the only person filling up at a pump on Wellington Street West and Spadina Avenue at 6:30 a.m. Archer drives in from Milton to work a night shift at a downtown hotel.

"It hurts. It honestly hurts, it's painful, but like I said, what am I going to do?," he said. "If I don't fill up, I don't drive to Toronto and I don't make money to feed my family. So it's something I have to do."

Jump little to do with oil prices: McTeague

Former MP and gas price guru Dan McTeague told CBC that marketplace speculation is to blame for the price jump at the pump, and that the price of oil had little to do with the jump.

"This is simple profit-taking in the market, particularly one run now by unregulated commodity speculators," he said. "They've driven out the real consumers and producers of the product and have now replaced them with financial investments that are greater than, if you will, consumer demand."

Crude oil for June delivery was trading at $101.77 US a barrel Tuesday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 78 cents from the previous day's close.

He said the $1.39 price isn’t justified, as it’s about eight cents a litre above the international price of gas. The price of gas will go down eventually, as "there is really little room for the prices to increase," he said.

But in the short term, he predicts prices will rise in Toronto.

"They will go up tonight. Unless something changes in the market, they could go up by as much two to three cents a litre," McTeague said.

The last time prices were so high in Toronto was in 2008, when gasoline shot up to $1.37 a litre as oil was trading at $140 a barrel. This time last year, a litre of gas in Toronto cost 96.3 cents.

Prices spiked in other major metropolitan centres around the country — the average price per litre in Montreal is now $1.45 after a five-cent increase overnight, according to Gasbuddy.

There was a similar jump in Vancouver, where prices went up 4.6 cents to $1.44.

The spike hasn't affected western Canada — litre of gas in Calgary costs $1.21 Tuesday, whereas prices were stable in Saskatoon at $1.31, according to Gasbuddy. Prices were also stable in some smaller Ontario cities, as prices rose only 1.5 cents in Ottawa to $1.29 and stayed largely stable in London, where a litre costs $1.33 on average.