Ottawa's number, in the middle of the pack
Ottawa's average one-bedroom apartment now rents for $1,900 a month, according to a new cost-of-living breakdown from Ottawa Life Magazine. That figure lands Ottawa inside a national range where a single person renting a one-bedroom apartment is spending roughly $2,800 to $4,100 a month once everything else, groceries, transit, utilities, is stacked on top of rent. For a family of four, the same breakdown puts total monthly costs, including rent, groceries, childcare and transit, at $4,700 to $7,500.
Groceries are doing a lot of the damage
Food is a big part of why those totals climb so fast. Overall food prices are forecast to rise 4% to 6% in 2026, and are already 27% higher than they were five years ago. Dalhousie's Dr. Sylvain Charlebois told Global News the average family of four should expect to spend about $1,000 more next year just to buy the exact same amount of food they bought this year. Meat is expected to see the steepest single jump, projected at 5% to 7%.
Why everything costs more to move, too
It isn't only what's on the shelf. Gas prices are up about 26% year-over-year, according to the Ottawa Life breakdown, and that pushes up the price of anything that has to be trucked, shipped or delivered, which in practice means almost everything in a grocery store or on a store shelf. For Ottawa households already budgeting around a $1,900 rent, a 26% jump in fuel costs is the kind of increase that shows up in a dozen different bills without ever appearing as its own line item.
