Canada gas prices: compare the right place and unit

A litre of regular costs noticeably different amounts in Calgary, Vancouver and Montréal, and a big share of that gap comes from tax policy, not from the stations. If you use GasBuddy Canada or another price app, set your city or postal code first, then compare the same grade and report time at stations you can actually reach. This page explains what’s inside a Canadian pump price, how the provinces we cover differ as of November 2026, and where to find the city guide for your area. We don’t publish live prices.

Start with your province or city

Alberta and the Prairies

Quebec

Montréal Gas Prices

What makes up a Canadian pump price

Natural Resources Canada breaks a retail litre into crude oil, refining and marketing costs and margins, plus taxes (NRCan). The tax layers work like this:

Federal excise tax. Normally a flat 10¢ per litre on gasoline. It was suspended on 20 April 2026, and legislation passed in October 2026 keeps it at zero until 31 January 2027. It returns at 5¢/L from 1 February 2027 and the full 10¢/L from 1 April 2027 (Department of Finance Canada). Expect prices across the country to step up on those dates, other things being equal.
Provincial fuel tax, a fixed amount per litre that varies by province (table below). A few places add a regional transit tax on top.
Carbon pricing. The federal consumer fuel charge ended on 1 April 2025. It had applied in Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut and Yukon (Finance Canada). BC ran its own carbon tax and eliminated it on the same date (Government of BC). Quebec uses a cap-and-trade system that has covered fuel distributors since 2015 (Quebec Environment Ministry), and NRCan notes it’s now the only province where carbon pricing still reaches fuel.
Sales tax, charged on top of all of the above. GST or HST applies to the price including the excise and provincial fuel taxes. Ordinary provincial sales taxes don’t apply to gasoline, except in HST provinces and Quebec’s QST (NRCan).

Provincial gasoline taxes, as of November 2026

Province	Provincial tax on gasoline	Sales tax on fuel	Source
Ontario	9.0¢/L	13% HST	Ontario.ca
British Columbia	14.5¢/L; 20.0¢/L in the Victoria area (incl. 5.5¢ BC Transit); 27.0¢/L in the Vancouver area (incl. 18.5¢ TransLink)	5% GST	Government of BC
Alberta	0¢/L since 1 October 2026 (normally 13¢/L; paused under the fuel tax relief program)	5% GST	Alberta TRA, Alberta.ca
Saskatchewan	15.0¢/L	5% GST	Saskatchewan eTax Services
Manitoba	12.5¢/L (since 1 January 2025)	5% GST	Manitoba Finance
Quebec	19.2¢/L, plus 3¢/L in the Greater Montréal (ARTM) area	5% GST + 9.975% QST	Revenu Québec, CAA-Québec

Sales-tax rates are from the CRA’s GST/HST rate table. NRCan’s national table (last updated 2 September 2026) matches these provincial figures and describes Alberta’s pause as running through 31 December 2026. Tax rates change; check the linked page before relying on a figure.

Why prices differ between provinces

Provincial tax is the biggest fixed gap. For now, a Saskatchewan litre carries 15¢ more provincial tax than an Alberta litre, and a Vancouver-area litre carries 27¢. Those differences show up at the pump every day.
Regional transit taxes. Only three areas add a local gasoline tax on top of the provincial one: Vancouver, Victoria and Montréal (NRCan). That’s why Abbotsford can undercut Burnaby, and why leaving Montréal island for Laval doesn’t help (the ARTM area includes both).
HST and QST. A percentage tax grows with the price, so Ontario’s 13% HST and Quebec’s GST-plus-QST add more cents per litre than a 5% GST does at the same pre-tax price.
Quebec’s carbon market, which still applies to fuel distributors there, unlike elsewhere.
Border programs. Some provinces soften the edge where rates differ. Saskatchewan’s Fuel Competition Assistance Program helps stations within 56 km of their nearest Alberta or Manitoba competitor (Saskatchewan eTax Services), and Quebec reduces its fuel tax in certain border and remote regions (CAA-Québec).
Everything that isn’t tax: crude costs, refining and marketing margins, distance from refineries and local competition. These move daily and aren’t something a tax table can explain.

Worked example: provincial tax on one 50-litre fill

These are the fixed provincial (and regional) taxes only, at the November 2026 rates above. Federal excise is currently 0¢, and GST/HST/QST would come on top. The point is the size of the gap, not a full price.

Where you fill	Provincial + regional tax per litre	Tax on 50 litres
Alberta (pause in effect)	0¢	C$0.00
Ontario	9.0¢	C$4.50
Manitoba	12.5¢	C$6.25
Saskatchewan	15.0¢	C$7.50
Greater Montréal	19.2¢ + 3.0¢ = 22.2¢	C$11.10
Metro Vancouver	27.0¢	C$13.50

So the same 50 litres carries C$7.50 more provincial tax in Regina than in Calgary right now, and C$13.50 more in Vancouver. When the federal excise tax comes back, it adds 5¢ and then 10¢ a litre everywhere, which is another C$2.50 and then C$5.00 on that fill.

Keep units visible

Canadian pumps price fuel in cents per litre, usually with a tenth of a cent: an illustrative 159.9¢/L is C$1.599 per litre. Buying 40 litres at that rate costs C$63.96. If another station is 3¢ per litre cheaper, the gross difference on that purchase is C$1.20, before any extra driving.

US prices are shown in US dollars per US gallon. Comparing one with a Canadian price needs both a volume conversion and a currency conversion; our fuel price converter does both, and you should use a current exchange rate for a real cross-border decision.

What a national average can tell you

CAA’s gas-price page publishes national average comparisons over time. That’s good context for budgeting or spotting a trend. It doesn’t tell you the price at a local pump, and its update time should stay attached to any number you quote.

Avoid false precision

Don’t call an area estimate a station report, a forecast a current quote, or a collection timestamp the moment someone saw the pump. If a source doesn’t explain which it is, use the number cautiously and confirm the price before you buy.

Why is gas so expensive in Canada right now?

There’s no single answer, and day-to-day moves follow crude and wholesale markets that nobody can call reliably. The structural part is above: provincial fuel taxes from 0¢ to 27¢ a litre, GST or HST on top, and carbon pricing that’s now limited to Quebec. The federal excise tax is temporarily zero, so prices would be higher without that relief, and they’re set to rise again when it returns in February and April 2027.

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Fuel Route Guide is an independent publication and is not affiliated with GasBuddy or the fuel retailers mentioned here. It is not GasBuddy Canada or a live national price feed.