Gas drops below $1 per litre as price war rages in Sask. town

Visitors driving through Blaine Lake, Sask. this weekend got a treat at the pumps as a gas war between the town’s two stations saw prices drop below a dollar per litre.

Melissa Johnson, one of the employees at the Blaine Lake Esso said the battle began Monday when they noticed their competitor, Gas Plus, dropping prices.

“Usually we stay competitive with our gas price,” she said, speaking to CTV News by phone from the community located roughly 80 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

“We don't stay the same price, we always stay within the two cents."

“Once they started lowering theirs, we started lowering ours and then it just escalated from there.”

She said the battle continued on through the day.

“It just continued and continued, which brought us down to 94.9,” she said, adding Gas Plus was 96.9. “And it stayed that way until we closed at 11 at night.”

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She said the low prices caught the eyes of drivers.

“When people caught on to the lower gas price, we had lineups out to the highway.

“People were coming with jerry cans and slip tanks. And they were all taking advantage of filling up at 94.9.”

She said the price dropping was something that has been happening between the two stations for several months.

“Over the last like six months to a year, we've noticed that they keep gas dipping on us and keep going down three, four cents, even more at some times," she said.

“So we were on it this Monday. And so that's what kind of drove to this escalation that we just had on Monday.”

Johnson said that despite attracting more customers — and perhaps proving a point —Monday’s price war cost the station.

“It was a loss. But the boss knew that when we went into dropping the price,” she said.

The owners of Gas Plus declined CTV News' request for comment.