The Saskatchewan Government has doubled the annual road-use charge on EVs from $150 to $300 starting on June 1, 2025.
The surcharge is collected by Saskatchewan Government Insurance and is used to fix roads and fund road projects around the province.
According to the news release, the doubling of the charge is meant to ensure that EV owners pay their fair share to the province’s infrastructure.
These vehicles contribute to wear and tear on provincial roadways, but since they do not consume traditional fuels, they do not contribute to highway maintenance through the provincial fuel tax.
Saskatchewan was the first Canadian jurisdiction to introduce an EV-specific road-use charge. Alberta has since joined them, with their own $200 tax on EVs that started in January of this year.
SaskEV, the provincial lobbying association, is frustrated by the news. In a statement to CBC, Tyler Krause from SaskEV had this to say:
While I agree that, at some point, an EV tax is necessary to deal with road maintenance costs, we’re not at that point yet. We just don’t have enough EVs to justify this kind of tax.
Saskatchewan is not a hotbed for EVs, with the province accounting for only 0.4% of overall EV sales in Q4 2024. In 2024, Saskatchewan only saw 1,394 EV registrations.
