For most Canadians, a jump at the gas pump is an irritation. In Radisson, Quebec, it can shape the cost of almost everything else. The tiny Nord-du-Québec community is currently seeing regular gasoline at about $2.37 a litre, while the nearest city accessible along its main southern road is Matagami, 620 kilometres away.
That distance changes the meaning of an expensive litre. Fuel must reach the community, groceries and tradespeople travel long distances, and residents sometimes have to head hundreds of kilometres south for services unavailable locally. Radisson has lived with even steeper prices before — local officials say gasoline reached $2.83 a litre in the spring — but the latest numbers offer a striking look at what isolation can cost.
A $2.37 Pump Price Stands Far Above the Canadian Average
Radisson’s $2.37-a-litre gasoline is particularly striking against the national backdrop. CAA listed Canada’s average price for regular gasoline at $1.749 a litre on September 6, 2026. That puts Radisson roughly 62 cents higher, or about 36% above the national average at that moment. For a 60-litre fill, the difference is substantial: approximately $142.20 in Radisson versus $104.94 at the Canadian average, a gap of more than $37 on one tank.
Yet residents have recently endured an even larger shock. Sébastien Lebrun, president of Radisson’s local council, said gasoline climbed to $2.83 a litre during the spring. Filling the same hypothetical 60-litre tank at that price would have cost nearly $170. The figures help explain why the current $2.37 price can simultaneously look extraordinary to outsiders and somewhat familiar to people who have watched northern fuel prices swing even higher.
Radisson Sits at the End of a Very Long Road
Radisson is small even by northern-community standards. Statistics Canada’s 2021 census counted 203 residents, down sharply from 468 in 2016. The community sits near the northern end of the paved Billy-Diamond Road, the 620-kilometre corridor connecting Radisson with Matagami and the southern highway network. That geographic reality is central to understanding why everyday transportation has a different weight there.
The route is unusually isolated. The Société de développement de la Baie-James says the km 381 roadside complex is the only full-service road stop along the 620-kilometre Billy-Diamond Road, providing gasoline, lodging, food and emergency mechanical assistance. In a large southern city, a driver can often compare several stations within minutes. On this corridor, the distance between meaningful service points is measured in hundreds of kilometres. Fuel planning is therefore not merely about finding the lowest price; it is part of basic trip preparation.
Residents May Drive Less Locally, but Long Trips Change the Math
One unusual feature of life in Radisson is that an expensive gasoline price does not automatically mean residents are filling their tanks every week. Lebrun said his home and office are close enough that he typically buys gasoline only about once every six weeks. A compact community can keep routine local mileage relatively low, softening some of the immediate effect of the pump price.
The problem appears when a resident must head south. A round trip between Radisson and Matagami is roughly 1,240 kilometres by the Billy-Diamond Road. As an illustration, a vehicle consuming eight litres per 100 kilometres would burn about 99 litres over that distance; at $2.37 a litre, gasoline alone would cost roughly $235. At 10 litres per 100 kilometres, the bill approaches $294. Those are illustrative calculations rather than typical household costs, but they show why a medical appointment, shopping trip or other unavoidable journey can turn a high pump price into a major expense.
Expensive Fuel Shows Up in the Grocery Aisles Too
Fuel costs do not stop at the service-station sign. Lebrun said Radisson’s food supply is handled by a single transport company and reported that higher fuel costs have led to a transportation surcharge equivalent to about 50% of the base transportation price. With hundreds of kilometres separating the community from southern distribution networks, freight expenses can become part of the shelf price long before a resident reaches the checkout.
Independent research points in the same direction. An Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques study that collected local prices across James Bay communities found Radisson had the highest food costs among the five places examined. Researchers attributed much of that premium to the considerable cost of transporting goods to the isolated community. Residents sometimes use trips south to stock up on non-perishable food, while a local bulk-buying initiative has also been attempted. Even then, the study found that delivery charges can erode the savings that bulk purchasing would ordinarily provide.
Medical Care Can Turn Distance Into a Fuel Expense
Radisson does have local health services, so not every medical need requires a 620-kilometre drive. Research by IRIS found that the community’s health centre provides primary and emergency care and makes some use of telemedicine. But specialized treatment is a different matter. The study reported that residents needing certain specialist services generally travel to Amos, about 800 kilometres away, or Val-d’Or, roughly 870 kilometres away.
The consequences are broader than the price of gasoline. The same research noted that medications have had to be delivered from Abitibi-Témiscamingue after the local pharmacy closed, while expectant mothers may need to leave Radisson before delivery because specialized obstetrical care is unavailable locally. In that context, transportation is not always discretionary spending that can be postponed when fuel becomes expensive. For some households, the necessary trip south is tied directly to health, making fluctuations at the pump difficult to avoid through ordinary cost-cutting.
A Tiny Community Can Still Be Heavily Dependent on Cars
Radisson’s compact size might suggest that residents can largely avoid driving, and some daily trips are indeed short. However, essential employment and services are not all concentrated inside the residential core. IRIS found that La Grande-Rivière Airport is about 32 kilometres from Radisson, and residents frequently travel south to reach services that are unavailable in the community.
That led the researchers to treat vehicle ownership as a practical necessity when calculating the area’s cost of living. Their model included at least one automobile for every household type and a second vehicle for a family of two adults and two children. The distinction matters. In many southern communities, rising gasoline prices can encourage transit use, shorter journeys or walking. Radisson has fewer substitutes once a trip extends outside the settlement itself. A resident might walk to work or the local store on an ordinary day yet still depend heavily on a vehicle for the journeys that matter most.
Radisson’s Broader Cost of Living Is Already Exceptionally High
The pressure created by transportation becomes clearer when fuel is viewed alongside the full household budget. IRIS calculated that a single adult in Radisson required an annual “viable income” of $56,348, the highest figure among the James Bay communities in its study. The estimate rose to $71,978 for a single-parent family and $115,889 for a household with two adults and two children.
Researchers said Radisson’s unusually high requirement was driven primarily by food costs. That is important because gasoline acts both as a direct household expense and as an input into other prices. A family may reduce recreational driving, but it cannot easily eliminate the transportation embedded in groceries, household supplies or services brought in from outside. Radisson also had relatively inexpensive housing compared with the other communities examined, showing that cheaper accommodation does not necessarily translate into a low overall cost of living when basic goods must travel such extraordinary distances.
Contractors and Repair Bills Carry the Distance Premium Too
The same transportation problem affects more than supermarket deliveries. According to Lebrun, companies that travel to Radisson to perform repairs or other work routinely pass transportation costs on to their customers. A service call that might involve a short drive in southern Quebec can require far more travel, fuel and employee time when the destination is hundreds of kilometres up the Billy-Diamond Road.
That fits the broader economics of gasoline pricing described by CAA. Pump prices are influenced not only by crude oil and taxes but also by location, retail competition, sales volumes and operating costs. Radisson combines several characteristics that can make distribution expensive: extreme distance, a very small permanent population and a supply chain serving a remote region. None of those factors proves that a particular station price is inevitable, but they explain why simple comparisons with Montreal, Quebec City or another large market can be misleading. In Radisson, remoteness is part of the cost structure surrounding nearly every delivered service.
The Gasoline Problem Exists Beside a Giant Source of Electricity
There is an unusual contrast at the heart of Radisson’s story. The community was created during development of the James Bay hydroelectric project and sits only about five kilometres from the Robert-Bourassa generating station, according to Quebec’s northern business network. Hydro-Québec remains closely tied to the area’s economy, and the surrounding region contains some of the province’s most important hydroelectric infrastructure.
Yet abundant nearby electricity does not make gasoline cheap. Cars, trucks and freight fleets still depend heavily on liquid fuels, and those fuels must be delivered through the northern transportation network. Radisson therefore illustrates the difference between producing enormous quantities of electricity and solving the practical logistics of road transportation in remote areas. The Billy-Diamond Road itself grew out of the James Bay development era and was renamed in honour of Cree leader Billy Diamond in 2020. Energy infrastructure made permanent road access possible, but distance continues to shape what residents pay.
The Pump Price Is Really a Measure of Remoteness
The $2.37 figure is dramatic, but focusing only on the number misses what Radisson reveals about northern living. The community has two filling stations and road access throughout the year, yet it remains linked to the south by a corridor where the only full-service intermediate stop sits at km 381. Maintaining that connection is itself expensive: in 2025, the SDBJ awarded a $64.975-million contract to rehabilitate pavement, culverts and guardrails between kilometres 538 and 620 of the Billy-Diamond Road.
For residents, those enormous distances become visible in much smaller transactions — a tank of fuel, a bag of groceries, a contractor’s invoice or the cost of travelling for specialized care. Radisson’s experience is therefore less a story about residents simply paying too much to drive around town and more about the economic premium attached to keeping a remote community connected. Gasoline is merely the most visible price tag on that isolation.
