Compared with May 2021, consumers paid 48 per cent more for gasoline last month and it is one of the main drivers behind another surge in Canada’s inflation rate which skyrocketed to its highest level in nearly 40 years.

Stats Can says the consumer price index in May rose 7.7 per cent compared with a year ago which is its largest increase since January 1983. It is also up from the 6.8 per cent increase in April this year.

Nearly everything going into your grocery cart cost more in May with food bought at stores rising 9.7 per cent compared with a year ago. That also matches the increase seen in April.

Fresh vegetable prices increased 10.3 per cent in May, following an 8.2 per cent gain in April. Prices for other fresh vegetables, including onions, peppers and carrots, contributed the most, rising 10.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis.  Increased input costs and the recent introduction of tariffs amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed prices of fish, frozen and fresh, higher by 11.7 per cent this May compared to the year prior.   Meat prices were up but not at the same pace as April.  In May the price of meat increased by 9 per cent.

The cost of accommodations like hotels and motels is up 40.2 per cent and if you bought food from restaurants you were seeing a 6.8 per cent increase.

On a provincial basis, Saskatchewan saw inflation increase the least at 7.0 per cent among the provinces. The biggest increase in the consumer price index was in Prince Edward Island where it went up 11 per cent which Statistics Canada says is due mainly to higher prices for gasoline (+57.7%) and fuel oil and other fuels (+120.2%).