The price of power: what electricity costs households
- Electricity generation capacity — whether the grid is being built fast enough for demand.
- Gas prices — what Canadians pay at the pump.
- Housing cost burden — the share of household income going to housing.
- Food bank use — food insecurity and reliance on food banks.
- GDP per capita growth — living-standard growth and the denominator problem.
- Currency strength — the Canadian dollar against its G7 peers.
This metric reads electricity as a line on the monthly bill rather than as megawatts on a grid. On the most basic measure, the price per kilowatt-hour, Canada's abundant hydro makes its power the cheapest in the G7 and among the cheapest in the developed world. That is a real dividend for citizens. The honest picture, though, requires two adjustments: how much electricity a household actually uses, and who can comfortably afford the bill.
On the all-in residential price (energy, network charges, and taxes), Canadians pay about US$0.12 per kWh, the lowest in the G7. Italians, Germans, and Britons pay more than three times as much; even American households pay about half as much again. Hydroelectricity supplies the bulk of Canadian generation at low marginal cost, and several provinces pass that on through regulated rates.
A low rate is not the same as a low bill. Canadian homes are large, the climate is cold, and in the cheap-hydro provinces many heat with electricity. The average household uses roughly 11,000 kWh a year, about three times a typical Italian or German home. Multiply the cheap rate by that heavy usage and the typical annual bill, around US$1,370, sits fourth-lowest in the G7, still below the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, but well above Japan and Italy, whose high rates are blunted by frugal consumption.
At ~US$0.123/kWh, Canada's all-in residential price is the cheapest in the G7, about a third of Italy's (3.4×), Germany's (3.3×), and the UK's (3.3×), and two-thirds of the US rate.
At ~11,000 kWh a year, Canadian households use roughly 3× a typical European home. The typical annual bill (~US$1,370) is therefore only 4th-lowest in the G7, still below the US, Germany, and UK.
Within Canada, a residential customer pays 8.3¢/kWh in Montréal but 22.9¢ in Calgary, a 2.8× gap. The advantage is concentrated in the hydro provinces; Alberta and the Maritimes pay far more.
Home energy is about 2% of household spending on average, light by international standards. But 6.2% of households were energy-poor in 2021 (11% including transport fuel), rising to ~25% in Atlantic Canada and ~21% among households earning under $55,000.
Hydro-Québec's annual city comparison shows a Montréal residential customer paying 8.3¢/kWh, the cheapest in North America, while the same customer pays nearly three times that in Calgary, and six to seven times more in New York or San Francisco. Canada's hydro cities (Montréal, Winnipeg, Vancouver) anchor the low end of the entire continent; its fossil- and import-dependent regions sit much higher. The "cheap power" story is, at root, a hydro story.
At about US$0.123 per kWh, Canada has the cheapest residential electricity rate in the G7. High household use pulls the typical annual bill back to 4th-lowest.
- Compared with
- The G7, on GlobalPetrolPrices residential electricity rates (2023–2025 average, all-in, USD per kWh).
- Where Canada sits
- Canada's all-in residential rate of about US$0.123 per kWh is the lowest of the seven, about a third of Italy's or Germany's. Its typical annual bill, around US$1,370, is 4th-lowest in the G7.
- Which way it is moving
- Flat. The page reports a single 2023–25 average and no time series for the rate, so it shows no direction either way.
- What the verdict follows
- Position in the peer set. The rate leads the G7, while the bill estimate and the 2.8× gap between Calgary and Montréal show the advantage is smaller and less even than the rate suggests.
- Data basis
- GlobalPetrolPrices.com residential rates, 2023–2025 average (all-in), with Hydro-Québec city prices (rates April 1, 2025), Statistics Canada household consumption, and the Fraser Institute 2025 Edition for affordability. Page last reviewed June 2026 · Data current to the 2023–25 average, the latest GlobalPetrolPrices residential rates.
Primary sources
- GlobalPetrolPrices.com — Electricity prices by country — residential rates (2023–25 average, all-in), the single comparable cross-country series.
- Hydro-Québec — Comparison of Electricity Prices in Major North American Cities, 2025 — city-level residential prices (¢/kWh), the within-Canada and North-American spread.
- Statistics Canada — Household energy consumption — average annual household electricity use (~11,135 kWh).
- Fraser Institute — Energy Costs and Canadian Households, 2025 Edition — home-energy share of spending (~2%) and energy-poverty rates by region and income.
- ODYSSEE-MURE / EIA / Ofgem — national typical household electricity consumption (used for the annual-bill estimate).
Methodology notes
- Definitions. "Residential price" is the all-in price a household pays per kWh (energy + network + taxes). "Annual bill" is that price multiplied by typical annual household consumption. "Energy poverty" (Fraser) is spending more than twice the median share of income on energy.
- The annual bill is a Benchmark Canada estimate. It combines one comparable price series (GlobalPetrolPrices) with national consumption reference values drawn from different statistical offices on differing bases. It is reliable for direction (Canada moves from cheapest rate to mid-pack bill), but the dollar figures are indicative, not precise.
- Two price bases. The G7 chart is in USD/kWh (GlobalPetrolPrices). The city chart is in Canadian cents/kWh for a defined Hydro-Québec residential customer. The two are kept separate. The city series is used only for the within-Canada / North-American spread, not merged with the G7 USD series.
- Affordability. A clean cross-country "share of income" comparison was not built: comparable G7 median-household-income data on a single basis is not readily available. The affordability lens is therefore Canada-specific (Fraser Institute), which is the strongest available evidence. Directionally, Canada's combination of low rates and relatively high incomes places it among the most affordable in the G7; the regional and income inequities are the live concern.
