Current data release
- Retail prices
- July 2026
- Consumer Price Index and wages
- August 2026
- Data retrieved
- Artifact
costwatch-2026-08· schema 3.0.0 · methodology 1.0
Sources
| Table | Dataset | Used for | Latest month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18-10-0245-01 | Statistics Canada — Monthly average retail prices for selected products | Current food prices, provincial price comparisons and the grocery basket | July 2026 |
| 18-10-0004-01 | Statistics Canada — Consumer Price Index, monthly, not seasonally adjusted | Price change over time for all items, food from stores, shelter and transportation | August 2026 |
| 14-10-0063-01 | Statistics Canada — Employee wages by industry, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality (Labour Force Survey) | Average hourly wage: wage growth and work-time measures | August 2026 |
Adapted from Statistics Canada data. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Data are used under the Statistics Canada Open Licence. Each figure keeps the Statistics Canada series (vector) identifier it came from.
Measures
Reference periods
Statistics Canada releases retail prices, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and wages on different schedules. Price levels, the grocery basket and work time use the latest month of retail prices (July 2026). Comparisons of price change with wage growth use the latest month available for both the CPI and wages (August 2026). Values are never mixed across months within a single comparison.
Price change
Price change over time uses the CPI (not seasonally adjusted) for the same month a year or more earlier. “Groceries” means the CPI for food purchased from stores, which excludes restaurant meals. Percentage changes are calculated from the published index values and rounded to one decimal, as Statistics Canada does. Average retail prices are shown as current dollar levels and for comparing provinces; they are not used to measure inflation because product mix and package sizes change.
Wages
Wages are the average hourly wage rate of all employees (full- and part-time, all industries, aged 15 and over) from the Labour Force Survey, not seasonally adjusted, so changes compare the same month in different years. The survey average reflects who is employed as well as pay rates: when lower-paid jobs are lost or gained, the average can move without any individual's pay changing.
Cost pressure
Cost pressure = cost growth − wage growth, in percentage points, for the same period and geography. A positive value means costs are rising faster than wages; a negative value means wages are ahead. Provinces are grouped as lower pressure (below −0.5 points), moderate (−0.5 to +0.5) and higher (above +0.5), comparing grocery prices with the hourly wage.
Work time
Minutes of work = price ÷ hourly wage × 60, using the Canada average hourly wage for the same month as the prices ($37.17 in July 2026), before tax. It illustrates relative cost, not take-home pay.
Grocery basket
One of each of: ground beef (1 kg), chicken breasts (1 kg), milk (4 L), eggs (1 dozen), butter (454 g), block cheese (500 g), white bread (675 g), bananas (1 kg), potatoes (4.54 kg), pasta (500 g), priced at Canada average retail prices in July of each year since 2017. Quantities are fixed and there are no substitutions. The basket shows a price level, not an index, and is not representative of a household's full grocery spending.
Purchasing power
The dollars needed in an earlier month to buy what $100 buys today = 100 × CPI(earlier month) ÷ CPI(latest month), for each category.
Mortgage calculator
Payments use semi-annual compounding, as is standard for Canadian fixed-rate mortgages. The minimum down payment is 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the portion from $500,000 to $1.5 million; below 20% down, a CMHC insurance premium (2.8%–4.0% of the loan) is added to the principal. Results exclude taxes, fees and insurance and are not financial advice.
Limitations
- Retail prices are averages across stores and brands; they do not reflect any particular store or sale price.
- Where Statistics Canada does not publish a price for a province, or marks it too unreliable to publish, the province is left out rather than estimated.
- Statistics Canada revises some series, notably the Labour Force Survey each January. Figures reflect the retrieval date above.
- Territories are not yet included because the wage series used here covers provinces only.
- Housing costs are represented only through the shelter component of the CPI.