Every other article in this section is built, implicitly, around provincial grid electricity — the $0.10-0.18/kWh range covered in our public fast charger pricing guide and time-of-use rates guide. For roughly 292 remote Canadian communities not connected to a provincial or territorial grid, none of that applies — electricity comes from diesel generation, and it costs dramatically more.
Quick answer: In Canada's remote, diesel-reliant communities — concentrated in the territories and northern parts of several provinces — unsubsidized electricity costs can run up to $1.14/kWh in parts of Nunavut, roughly 7-11 times the $0.10-0.15/kWh most Canadians pay. Even with heavy government subsidies, residents in these communities often still pay around $0.30/kWh — double the southern Canadian average. In the Northwest Territories specifically, thermal (diesel) zone communities pay a base rate of 36.50 cents/kWh for the first 1,000 kWh, climbing to roughly 85-89 cents/kWh beyond that in winter before subsidies, versus 32-41 cents/kWh in the territory's hydro-connected communities. At these rates, charging an EV in a diesel-reliant community can cost 4-10 times what it would in a low-cost province — a real, underdiscussed barrier to EV adoption in the North that has nothing to do with cold-weather range loss.
Why some Canadian communities aren't on "the grid" at all
The provincial electricity rates covered throughout this site assume a connected grid — power generated somewhere and delivered through transmission infrastructure to homes and businesses. That assumption breaks down entirely for Canada's remote communities, roughly 292 of them, many in the territories and in the northern reaches of provinces like Ontario, Quebec, and BC, which are geographically isolated from any provincial grid and rely instead on local diesel generators to produce their own electricity. Diesel generation is inherently expensive — fuel has to be trucked, barged, or flown in, often over long distances and sometimes only during specific ice-road or shipping seasons, and the generation itself lacks the economies of scale a large provincial grid benefits from.
What this actually costs, by the numbers
The clearest, most extreme illustration is Nunavut, where unsubsidized electricity rates can reach $1.14/kWh at peak — compare that to the $0.10-0.15/kWh range that describes what most Canadians pay, and you're looking at roughly 7-11 times the cost. Government subsidies bring this down substantially for residents — to around $0.30/kWh within standard household usage limits — but that subsidized rate is still double what most Canadians pay unsubsidized, underscoring just how large the underlying cost gap actually is.
The Northwest Territories offers a more granular, zone-by-zone picture. In thermal (diesel-reliant) zone communities — a list that includes places like Aklavik, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk, among roughly 20 total — the base residential rate runs 36.50 cents/kWh for the first 1,000 kWh in a billing period, climbing to roughly 89 cents/kWh beyond that threshold, plus additional riders that bring the effective winter rate for higher usage to around 85 cents/kWh. A territorial cost-of-living subsidy knocks about 13.43 cents/kWh off thermal-zone bills, but that still leaves rates well above what a grid-connected Canadian pays. NWT's hydro-connected communities fare meaningfully better — Norman Wells around 36.50 cents/kWh (68 cents beyond the threshold in winter), Behchoko/Dettah around 41 cents/kWh flat, and Fort Resolution, Fort Smith, and Hay River around 32 cents/kWh — still above the southern Canadian average, but a fraction of the thermal-zone rates in the same territory.
Yukon's situation sits somewhere in between: most of the territory's population, including Whitehorse, is served by a hydro-heavy grid with rates closer to the rest of Canada, but a small number of genuinely isolated communities — Old Crow is the clearest example — remain off that grid entirely and rely on diesel, with renewable projects (a solar installation in Old Crow's case) underway specifically to reduce that reliance. We weren't able to confirm a specific current per-kWh rate for Old Crow or Yukon's other isolated diesel communities in researching this piece — if you live in one of these communities, your local utility or band office is the most reliable source for your actual rate.
What this means for actually charging an EV
Translate these rates into real EV charging cost, and the gap becomes stark. At a representative low-cost provincial rate of around $0.12/kWh and 20 kWh/100 km efficiency, charging costs roughly $2.40 per 100 km — the kind of figure that shows up throughout this site's other charging-cost content. At NWT's thermal-zone winter rate of roughly 85 cents/kWh, the same 100 km costs around $17 — more than 7 times as much. At Nunavut's unsubsidized peak rate of $1.14/kWh, and accounting for the reduced cold-weather efficiency that's typical in extreme northern winter conditions (say 25 kWh/100 km rather than 20), the same 100 km would cost roughly $28.50 — nearly 12 times the low-cost provincial figure. Even at Nunavut's heavily subsidized $0.30/kWh rate, that same 100 km still runs about $6-7.50, roughly 2.5-3 times the low-cost provincial baseline.
Why this matters beyond the sticker shock
It's worth being direct about what this means practically: for a household in a diesel-reliant remote community, the electricity-cost advantage that makes EVs financially attractive almost everywhere else in Canada is dramatically smaller, or in the most extreme cases (unsubsidized Nunavut rates) potentially erased entirely compared to the cost of gasoline, which itself is also more expensive to transport into these communities than in the south. This is a genuinely underdiscussed dimension of EV adoption in the North — most coverage of northern EV challenges focuses on cold-weather range loss and sparse charging infrastructure, both real issues, but the underlying electricity cost itself is a barrier that exists independent of either of those and deserves to be part of the conversation.
The bottom line
Roughly 292 Canadian communities aren't connected to a provincial grid at all, relying instead on diesel generation that costs dramatically more than what most Canadians pay — up to $1.14/kWh unsubsidized in parts of Nunavut, and 85+ cents/kWh in NWT's thermal zones even with subsidies factored in. At those rates, EV charging costs 4-12 times what it would in a low-cost province, a real financial barrier to EV adoption in the North that exists independently of cold-weather range loss or charging infrastructure gaps. If you live in one of these communities, confirm your actual current rate with your local utility before assuming any of this site's other provincial cost comparisons apply to you.
FAQ
Why is electricity so expensive in some northern Canadian communities? Roughly 292 communities aren't connected to a provincial or territorial grid and generate their own power from diesel, which is expensive to produce due to fuel transport costs and a lack of the economies of scale a large connected grid benefits from.
How much more does it cost to charge an EV in a diesel-reliant northern community? Potentially 4-12 times more than in a low-cost province, depending on the specific community and whether subsidized rates apply — from roughly $17 per 100 km in NWT's thermal zones to as much as $28.50 per 100 km at Nunavut's unsubsidized peak rate, versus roughly $2.40 per 100 km at a typical low provincial rate.
Do northern residents get any subsidy on their electricity bills? Yes — programs like the Northwest Territories' Cost of Living Subsidy and various Nunavut subsidies reduce rates substantially, though even subsidized rates (around 30 cents/kWh in Nunavut) remain roughly double the southern Canadian average.
Are all northern Canadian communities affected equally? No — hydro-connected communities within the territories (like Norman Wells or Fort Smith in NWT, or Whitehorse in Yukon) pay meaningfully less than genuinely isolated, diesel-only communities like NWT's thermal-zone communities or Yukon's Old Crow.
Sources: Pembina Institute, "The True Cost of Energy in Remote Communities"; Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Residential Electrical Rates. Rates in remote and territorial communities are updated periodically and vary by specific community and subsidy program — confirm your current rate with your local utility.
