VICTORIA You could call it paying the price of COVID-19. The cost of just about everything over the past year seems to have shot up. You can see it across the board, said Terry Hogan, a resident of Saanich, on Wednesday. From clothing to lumber. The price of food, the price of gas, just about everything, said Janet Zupanc, another Saanich resident. We have some bad news for you, as of midnight tonight, the B.C. carbon tax is also increasing. It means life is going to get even more expensive, starting with the price at the pumps. That will push average prices here on the island and more specifically, Victoria, to the $1.48 range, said Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.