The Yellowknife All-Items Consumer Price Index (CPI), better known as the rate of inflation, jumped again in February, according to the NWT Bureau of Statistics.
It was a 1.7 per cent increase compared to one year ago.
Some of the top items to spike were food and shelter. Between February 2023 and February 2024, Yellowknife’s food prices jumped by 3.6 per cent, while shelter was up 5.7 per cent.
“The increase in shelter was largely a result of higher prices for fuel oil and other fuels (7.4 per cent), while the rise in food stemmed from a variety of grocery store items including dairy & eggs, vegetables, and fruit & nuts,” stated the release from the bureau on Tuesday.
When broken down, food from stores rose by 3.7 per cent compared to 2023, whereas food from restaurants jumped 3.2 per cent.
Not everything went up, though. Clothing and footwear dropped by three per cent and recreation, education and reading were on the decline, albeit by a marginal 0.2 per cent. Same goes for health & personal care, dropping by 0.1 per cent.
The biggest decline overall was household operations & furnishings at 5.9 per cent.
Items that saw the biggest jump in prices included tobacco products and smokers’ supplies, which climbed to 8.8 per cent in prices since last December. It’s a repeating pattern for this month as those prices rose by 7.7 per cent in February.
The NWT isn’t alone in their rising prices as costs increased in all provinces ranging from 0.9 per cent in Manitoba to 4.2 per cent in Alberta, according to the index.
By comparison, prices increased 2.8 per cent for Canada as a whole, 4.2 per cent for Edmonton, 2.5 per cent for Whitehorse and 3.1 per cent for Iqaluit.
The next update for Yellowknife is due to be released on Apr. 16.
-by Devon Tredinnick