Commuters aren't the only ones hit hard from soaring fuel prices. Charities like Toronto's Meal on Wheels program are suffering because of the money it is now costing them to deliver their services.
Meals on Wheels says it can only afford to give its volunteers $5 a day as a reimbursement for gas money but that's hardly enough to cover a person's driving costs.
A typical volunteer will often drive about 24 kilometres to deliver hot meals in their area. Now, the price of gas is keeping people from volunteering, said Jim Graham, an official with the organization.
"A lot of the volunteers are retired people themselves," he said. "They're seniors and it does affect them for sure."
In East York, at the True Davidson chapter of Meals on Wheels, the organization has lost ten of its 30 volunteers. In the last two years that they've lost these volunteers, gas prices jumped from $1.08 a litre to $1.32 a litre.
In Vancouver, one Meals on Wheels chapter was forced to close down.
"Down the road we may lose two-thirds of our volunteers and we won't be able to provide the service," Graham said.
A loss of service has far-reaching implications, he said. Many of their clients would be forced into assisted living at the expense of the tax payer.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Brad Giffen
