I believe the price of a barrel of oil has gone up quite a bit over the past year. If the relative value of the currency of a country has fallen (this possibly happened in the UK), it could also contribute to higher gas prices (oil has been tagged to US dollars). Since Canada is a major oil exporter (it's mostly from Alberta and Newfoundland), when the price oil goes up, it frequently stimulates a rise in the value of the dollar. This cushons some of impact of a oil rise...but not a total shield from an oil price rise. There are also seasonal factors (refining and supply and demand) often cited for rises.