The Northern Mile Brief: week of 20 September 2026

Fuel, border and market shifts for Canadian carriers.

Diesel averaged 267.1¢ a litre across Canada this week, per the NRCan survey printed 15 September 2026.

Across the ten index provinces the cheapest was Alberta at 243.1¢ and the dearest Quebec at 296.3¢, a 53.2¢ spread for the same product in the same country.

Where fuel sits

At or above the national average: Quebec 296.3¢, Newfoundland and Labrador 282.3¢, British Columbia 277.7¢, New Brunswick 276.3¢, Prince Edward Island 273.0¢, Nova Scotia 270.0¢.

Below it: Ontario 261.0¢, Manitoba 247.3¢, Saskatchewan 244.1¢, Alberta 243.1¢.

Surveyed but outside the index: Northwest Territories 213.8¢, Yukon 249.9¢.

The border

We tracked 9 crossings this week.

Carrying delays: Peace Bridge at 5 minutes, Pacific Highway Crossing at 5 minutes.

Clear: Ambassador Bridge, Blue Water Bridge, Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, Lacolle Border Crossing, Coutts-Sweetgrass, Emerson-Pembina.

The dollar

The loonie closed at 1.4002 against the US dollar on 18 September 2026, up 0.1 per cent.

Crude is priced in US dollars, so a soft loonie feeds into what refiners pay to bring it in. It also changes what fuel costs you on the US side of a cross-border run.