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When you pay $1.70 per litre at a Toronto gas station, how much of that is actually taxes? The answer surprises many people — and understanding it helps you predict how price changes will affect your wallet and contextualize the policy debates you'll hear about carbon pricing and provincial fuel taxes.
Ontario has a unique tax structure compared to every other Canadian province. Here's a complete, plain-language breakdown.
The Components of a Toronto Gas Price
A rough breakdown of a $1.55/L price at a Toronto station in 2026:
- Crude oil cost: ~$0.62/L (roughly 40%) — tied to the global price of oil (WTI/Brent)
- Refining & marketing margin: ~$0.40/L — cost to turn crude into gasoline plus distribution and retail margin
- Provincial gasoline tax (Ontario): $0.09/L (9 cents — see below)
- Federal excise tax: $0.10/L normally — $0.00 during the April 20 – September 7, 2026 suspension (see below)
- Federal carbon charge: $0.00/L (removed April 1, 2025 — see below)
- HST (13%): ~$0.18/L (applied to the full pre-HST price including the other taxes)
These figures are illustrative for a typical 2026 scenario. Exact amounts shift with crude prices, policy changes, and refining economics.
Want the exact numbers for your own fill-up? The calculator below breaks a Toronto pump price into its tax components — enter your litres and today's cents-per-litre, and toggle whether the federal excise suspension (April 20 to September 7, 2026) still applies.
Ontario's Provincial Gasoline Tax: 9 Cents per Litre
Ontario levies a provincial gasoline tax of 9 cents per litre. This was cut from 14.7 cents/L to 9 cents/L effective July 1, 2022, as a temporary relief measure when pump prices spiked above $2/L. The cut was extended several times and the 9-cent rate was subsequently made permanent — so for Toronto drivers, 9 cents per litre is the current provincial tax.
For comparison, British Columbia's provincial fuel taxes (including the Metro Vancouver transit levy) run far higher, and Quebec charges roughly 19 cents/L. Ontario's 9-cent rate is now one of the lower provincial gasoline taxes in Canada — one reason GTA pump prices, before HST, sit below Vancouver and Montreal.
The Federal Excise Tax — On Holiday Until September 2026
The federal excise tax on gasoline is normally a flat 10 cents per litre, set by the federal Excise Tax Act and unchanged since 1995. It is not tied to carbon pricing — it exists to fund federal transportation infrastructure, and it applies to every litre of gas sold in Canada, in every province.
In 2026 there is a temporary twist: Ottawa suspended the excise tax from April 20 to September 7, 2026 (gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel) as an affordability measure during this spring's oil-price spike. That is why Toronto prices dipped in late April even as crude rose. The suspension is national and scheduled to end on Labour Day — the calculator above has a toggle so you can see your fill-up both ways, and it's worth building the 10-cent return into any fall fuel budgeting.
HST on Gasoline
Ontario applies the 13% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to gasoline — a 5% federal portion plus an 8% provincial portion combined into a single tax. The HST is charged on the full pump price including the excise and provincial gasoline taxes, so it is effectively a "tax on a tax." Because it is a percentage, the HST component grows as gas prices rise: at $1.40/L the HST is about 16 cents, and at $1.70/L it climbs to roughly 20 cents per litre.
Businesses can recover the HST they pay on fuel used for commercial purposes through Input Tax Credits (ITCs), so the HST burden falls more heavily on individual consumers than on businesses — an important asymmetry when thinking about who actually bears fuel tax costs.
The Federal Carbon Charge: Removed in 2025
For several years, the federal carbon charge (often called the "carbon tax") was a visible line in every Ontario gas price, added under the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act because Ontario did not have an equivalent consumer-facing carbon price of its own. By early 2025 it had reached roughly 17.6 cents per litre.
That changed on April 1, 2025, when the federal government set the consumer fuel charge rate to zero, effectively removing the carbon charge from gasoline at the pump. As a result, Toronto drivers in 2026 no longer pay a federal carbon charge on gasoline — a roughly 17-cent-per-litre reduction in the tax stack compared with 2024.
The final Canada Carbon Rebate payments tied to the consumer charge were issued in 2025. Because both the charge and its rebate have been wound down, neither now factors into the price you pay or the money you get back.
How Ontario Has Used the Gas Tax as a Policy Lever
The 9-cent provincial rate is itself the product of a political decision. When prices spiked in 2022, the Ontario government cut the gasoline tax from 14.7 to 9 cents/L to give drivers direct, visible relief, then repeatedly extended that cut before making it permanent. The provincial gasoline tax is the one lever Queen's Park can pull directly — it cannot touch the federal excise tax, crude prices, or refining margins.
Watch provincial budgets and election cycles: the gasoline tax rate is exactly the kind of number governments adjust when fuel affordability becomes a political issue.
Municipal Taxes
Canadian municipalities do not levy their own fuel taxes. The City of Toronto has no gas surcharge — every tax on the gasoline you buy in Toronto is either federal (excise tax, the federal portion of HST) or provincial (the 9-cent gasoline tax, the provincial portion of HST).
How This Compares to Other Provinces
A rough comparison of total government tax load on gasoline (cents per litre, excluding HST/GST) in major Canadian cities in 2026:
- Toronto: ~19 cents (10¢ federal excise + 9¢ Ontario gasoline tax; no federal carbon charge) — just 9 cents while the 2026 excise suspension lasts
- Vancouver: ~40+ cents (BC's provincial fuel taxes plus the Metro Vancouver transit levy)
- Montreal: ~29 cents (10¢ federal excise + ~19¢ Quebec fuel tax)
- Calgary: ~10–23 cents (federal excise plus Alberta's variable provincial fuel tax)
On top of these per-litre taxes, Ontario then adds 13% HST on the full price. The removal of the federal carbon charge in 2025 is the single biggest reason the 2026 tax stack on Toronto gasoline is meaningfully lower than it was in 2024. For the complete picture — every province's fuel tax, sales tax and local levies side by side — see the gas tax by province table and calculator.
What You Can and Can't Control
You can't change the tax structure, but you can minimize the taxes you pay by minimizing the total litres you purchase — which brings us back to the basics of fuel-efficient driving, choosing the cheapest station available, and using rewards programs that effectively return a portion of the taxes as points or cash back.
Understanding the tax structure also helps you evaluate political promises. When a politician promises to "cut gas prices" in Ontario, the lever they actually control is the 9-cent provincial gasoline tax — not the federal excise tax, HST formula, crude prices, or refining margins.
Related: Gas Price Trends in Ontario 2026 · 5 Ways to Save on Gas in Toronto