Where inflation is highest and lowest in Canada right now

Figures for September 2026, released by Statistics Canada on October 19, 2026. The October numbers arrive on Monday, November 16.

Canada's inflation rate was 3.1% in September. Almost nobody actually lives at that number. Across the thirty places Statistics Canada measures it ran from 2.08% in Toronto to 6.08% in Whitehorse — a gap of four full percentage points.

The five highest

Two things jump out. Whitehorse tops the country at 6.08%, well clear of any province. And every other place on this list is in Atlantic Canada — all four Atlantic provinces made the top five, and all four got worse this month.

Prince Edward Island is the mover. It jumped 1.20 points in a single month, from 4.45% in August to 5.65%, which took the top provincial spot off Nova Scotia by two hundredths of a point. That is close enough that November could swap them straight back.

The five lowest

Ontario is the lowest of the ten provinces, at 2.53%. That is not a one-month result — Ontario has now come in below the national rate for 19 consecutive months, a streak running back to March 2025.

But read the right-hand column before you conclude the bottom five are all doing well. Only the first three — Ontario, British Columbia and Iqaluit — are actually below the national rate. Quebec and Saskatchewan rank in the bottom five while still sitting above 3.09%. "Low" here means relative to a country where most places are higher, not low in absolute terms.

If you only count provinces

Drop the capital cities and both lists change at the edges. This is the cut most people mean when they ask which province has the highest or lowest inflation.

Manitoba takes the fifth-highest spot once Whitehorse is removed, and Alberta takes fifth-lowest once Iqaluit is. Note the direction column: every province in the highest group rose except Manitoba, and every province in the lowest group fell except Ontario and Quebec. The country is pulling apart.

The full ranking of all ten provinces, with the three capitals and a 19-month trend chart, is in inflation by province.

The twist: Toronto is lower than every province

Statistics Canada also publishes a rate for sixteen individual cities, and this is where the ranking above gets interesting. Toronto came in at 2.08% — lower than Ontario, lower than every other province, and the lowest of all thirty geographies in the table.

The three lowest cities in the country are all in Ontario — Toronto, Thunder Bay and the Ontario side of Ottawa-Gatineau. At the other end, Charlottetown and Halifax are the only cities above 5%, which matches what their provinces are doing.

Why does Toronto come in below Ontario as a whole when Toronto is a third of the province? Because the provincial figure also carries everywhere else in Ontario, and those places are running hotter than the city. It is the same arithmetic that lets the national rate sit at 3.09% while nearly half the places measured are below it.

If you are in Bradford or Barrie, neither figure is exactly yours — Statistics Canada does not publish a rate for either town. Toronto's 2.08% and Ontario's 2.53% bracket your likely reality, and that is as precise as this data gets.

Why there is no number for Yukon, NWT or Nunavut

This is the part that trips up most "inflation by province and territory" lists you will see, including some from large news outlets.

Statistics Canada does not publish a Consumer Price Index for Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut. It publishes one for Whitehorse, one for Yellowknife and one for Iqaluit — three capital cities. Measuring a full territory would mean pricing a consistent basket across communities that are hundreds of kilometres apart with wildly different supply costs, and StatCan does not attempt it.

So when you see a map of Canada shaded by inflation with all thirteen provinces and territories coloured in, at least three of those shades are either a city standing in for a territory, or an estimate someone made up. On this page the capitals are labelled as cities every time they appear.

What this means for your mortgage

Here is the uncomfortable part: none of it changes your rate directly.

The Bank of Canada sets one policy rate for the whole country. It does not set one for Prince Edward Island at 5.65% and another for Ontario at 2.53%. It looks at the national figure, at its own core measures, and at the wider economy, then makes a single decision that lands on everyone.

And inflation is not what your mortgage is priced off in the first place. Fixed rates follow Government of Canada bond yields. Variable rates follow your lender's prime, which follows the Bank's policy rate. Inflation is one input into moving that policy rate — two steps back from your payment, not one.

How to read any regional inflation list

1. Check whether "territories" means territories. Three of them are cities. If a list does not say so, it has not checked.
2. Check the base. Ontario has the lowest inflation in Canada and some of the highest housing costs. A small percentage of a large number is still a large number.
3. Low does not mean below average. Two of the five lowest places this month are above the national rate.
4. Ranks move on small gaps. PEI leads Nova Scotia by 0.02 points. Treat month-to-month rank changes as noise unless the gap is wide.
5. Ask what the list actually covers. "Lowest in Canada" means something different across provinces, cities, or all thirty series. Ontario is lowest of the provinces; Toronto is lowest of everything.

Source. All figures calculated from Statistics Canada Table 18-10-0004-01, Consumer Price Index, monthly, not seasonally adjusted, all-items, September 2026 release (published October 19, 2026). Year-over-year changes computed from published index values for September 2026 against September 2025; Statistics Canada states the national figure as 3.1%, which is the computed 3.09% rounded. Core measures from Table 18-10-0256-01, Bank of Canada definitions. Table 18-10-0004-01 covers 30 geographies — Canada, the ten provinces, sixteen metropolitan areas and the three territorial capitals; this page ranks the ten provinces and three capitals. Figures as published and subject to revision. General information, not financial advice.