The carbon tax officially kicked in on January 1 and 27 days later prices have gone up at most pumps in the Foothills but not as drastically as everyone first thought they would.

The price of fuel in High River is hovering just above $1.00 a litre.

Senior Petroleum Analyst at GasBuddy.com Dan McTeague says it could be worse so the Foothills should take advantage at the lessend hike at the pump.

"There really hasn't been much movement in terms of gasoline futures on the Chicago market," he says. "Prices are pretty much where they've been for the past couple weeks and that means I guess no news I suppose is good news. You could be paying a lot more if you look at other provinces that have seen much greater spikes."

Prices went up by 4.5 cents for gasoline & 5.5 cents for Diesel in the new year and McTeague says carbon tax or not most residents are paying more for fuel at this time this year than they did in 2016.

"You're still paying much higher prices than this time last year, but the reality is that there was also a threat that it can go even higher. That hasn't happened and it looks like we're going to be fairly quiet until the second week of February."

McTeague says there will be a slight jump at the pumps due to one specific reason in the US when it comes to refineries.

"Around the middle of February they tend to change to a lower specification of gasoline as they start to prepare for spring time gasoline and that tends to add a penny or two to the price of gas."

For the latest gas prices follow the link.