A local investment advisor, author and Chartered Professional Accountant has done the math and says a big portion of the increases seen in gas prices in recent months is a direct result of market changes and the value of the Canadian dollar.

Larry Short, Senior Investment Advisor with Short Financial, a branch of IA Private Wealth in St. John’s, says in 2014 gas in Newfoundland and Labrador averaged $1.31 per litre, while the price of Brent crude was $98.97 cents US a barrel.

What many people forget says Short, is that the value of the Canadian dollar was higher then than it is now.

In 2014, the Canadian dollar was $1.04 to the US greenback. The Canadian dollar is now valued at $0.77 US, a difference of roughly 26 per cent.

That translates to a whopping 54 cents in the difference, and when you compare the price of a barrel of oil today compared to what it is now, that helps to account for another large increase totaling roughly 70 cents per litre.

Short indicates that if the price of oil was still $99 dollars US a barrel and if the Canadian dollar still $1.04, we’d still be paying $1.34 per litre. “So there’s no massive conspiracy that there’s a huge haul being dragged in by the provincial government to be used to pay down the deficit, this is simple math.”