Though some of the main consumer items Canadians buy became less expensive in Dec. 2022 (the latest year for which statistics are available), they were still higher than the same period in 2021. This is one of the reasons the Bank of Canada recently raised interest rates yet again to bring down prices.

As you can see in dashboard below, gasoline and energy were the highest in most jurisdictions, which is why they are sometimes excluded from the overall inflation tally. The largest gaps between these two commodities and the rest were in Manitoba and B.C.

Transportation is one of the eight goods and services in what Statistics Canada calls the Consumer Price Index “basket.” The price of food has also been a big concern, especially among opposition parties on Parliament Hill who have crticized  the major food companies such as Loblaw for being too “greedy”. This pressure prompted the federal Competition Bureau to “study” the issue. In the meantime, Loblaw has ended its price freeze on no-name products.