There are two primary reasons for last week's sudden jump in Whitehorse gasoline prices to 119.9 cents per litre of regular unleaded, says an analyst of retail prices across the country.

Michael Ervin of MJ Ervin and Associates said Friday the price crude oil has gone up, and local retailers can no longer hold the line on their prices.

The Whitehorse price of 112.9 cents per litre held for an extended period of time, despite an increase in crude oil and subsequently wholesale gas prices of 12 cents per litre over the last six months, he pointed out.

In a market like Whitehorse, Ervin said, dealers are reluctant to be the first to raise their price lest the other stations don't follow suit.

"Then the first dealer will have no choice but to bring the price back down again and suffer the consequences from the consumers,” he told the Star from his office in Calgary.

For the last six months, Ervin said, local retailers have been absorbing the diminishing profit margins as the wholesale price continued to rise alongside the rising price of crude.

Normally, the margins for Whitehorse gas stations are larger than they are down south because of the need to make up for lower volumes than a typical retailer in a city like Edmonton, as well as the additional cost of transportation, he explained.

Ervin said with a larger profit margin, Whitehorse dealers were able to hold their prices at 112.9 cents per litre for all of 2010. It reached a point last week, however, where there was no choice, and it's not surprising all the stations hiked their prices together, he said.

The last weekly survey conducted every Tuesday by MJ Ervin and Associates showed the price of gasoline in Vancouver was at 120.1 cents per litre, but at 101.9 cents per litre in Edmonton.

Labrador City was the highest among the cities surveyed, selling at 129.5 cents per litre, while Lloydminster, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, was the lowest at 93.4 cents per litre.

The Canadian average was 113.5 cents per litre.

A litre of regular unleaded is selling today in Dawson City for 139 cents per litre, and for 121.9 cents per litre in Watson Lake.

The price of gas has not reached 119.9 cents per litre since the spring of 2008, when it hit 119 cents per litre in April, on its way up to a record high of 146.4 cents per litre in July 2008.

The rocketing price of fuel, however, was hit later in '08 as the worldwide recession was settling in.

The price ended the year at 86.9 cents per litre, a full 60 cents per litre cheaper than five months earlier.

The stalled economy continued to hold prices below $1 per litre for most of 2009.

Records indicate the price of regular unleaded first broke $1 per litre in the Whitehorse market back in the spring of 2004, when it hit 102.2 cents per litre.

Thirty years ago, drivers in Whitehorse paid 44 cents per litre for regular gas.