Canada · licence fees

Hunting Licence Cost by Province

By Hunters Guide. Every fee below was read from that government's own page on September 21, 2026.

Most provinces charge about $10 to $35 for a resident's base hunting licence. PEI's is $5 and the NWT's is $0. A deer or comparable big game licence adds roughly $10 to $70 on top of it.

That's less than most people expect. In hunting, the sticker shock is gear, not paperwork.

Why a range and not one number? Thirteen governments sell thirteen different products. Some sell one licence that covers deer. Others sell a card, then a licence, then a tag. Two territories don't charge for the licence at all and price the tag instead.

How much is a hunting licence in each province and territory?

Two figures per jurisdiction: the base licence or certificate a first-time resident buys, and one deer or big game licence as a second reference point. Each number links to the government page it came from, with the date we read it. Click a province name for our own guide. It walks through the credential and the purchase in order. For every species, from turkey to moose, see hunting tag fees by province. Timing has its own page: how long to get a hunting licence.

One cell reads "not published," on purpose. Nunavut's 2026-27 guide states that licence and tag fees apply to all classes of hunters. Then it lists tag fees and surcharges by species, with no figure for the harvesting licence itself. So the row carries the tag and leaves the licence blank. Prince Edward Island deserves a second look for the opposite reason. Its fees really are that low. It also publishes no big game season at all, which is why the second column names upland and migratory species instead of a deer or moose licence.

Why don't those columns line up?

A hunting licence fee is whatever a province or territory charges for the document it calls a licence, and that document covers a different bundle of permissions in every jurisdiction. Four things push the figures apart.

Structure is the big one. Alberta sells a $35.00 Wildlife Certificate, then a $50.00 deer licence on top. New Brunswick folds deer and game birds into a single $29.00 licence. Put Alberta's certificate beside New Brunswick's licence and you're comparing a doorway to a room.

Then there are tags and seals. Yukon prices its resident big game licence at $10 and sells a seal per species: $50 for a deer, $10 for a moose. The Northwest Territories lists its hunting licence at $0 and charges $24 per big game tag. Nunavut works much the same way, with a $10.00 tag plus a surcharge per species. In those three, the tag column is the real fee.

Surcharges muddy it further. British Columbia's $32 licence is really $25 plus a $7 Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation surcharge. Nova Scotia puts a $5.15 Wildlife Habitat Stamp beside its licences, and New Brunswick attaches a $5 conservation fee. Some governments fold these into the headline number. Others list them on a line of their own.

And finally, tax. Quebec's fees already include it. Ontario publishes before 13% HST, while British Columbia and Alberta publish before 5% GST. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut give no tax note at all. The table reports each figure the way its own government does.

Which rows need a note beside them?

A row needs a note when the first purchase is split across two documents, or when a surcharge or tax rule changes what the headline figure means. Grouped by region, here's what the table can't fit in one cell.

West. British Columbia's fee page gives the $7 HCTF surcharge a column of its own and states that prices do not include 5% GST. Over on its species licence page, deer is $12 plus a $3 surcharge. Saskatchewan's licence page calls the $20 Wildlife Habitat Certificate a one-time purchase, which the licence system includes with any hunting or fur licence bought in 2026. That makes it a first-year cost, not an annual one. Manitoba has a different gap. Its fee list, effective April 1, 2026, has no base licence at all, so that cell names the $37.00 Game Bird licence as the entry-level product.

Central. In Ontario the first purchase is two lines: an $8.57 Outdoors Card that lasts three calendar years, and a $22.76 one-year small game licence. The province states that all fees are subject to 13% HST unless footnoted. Quebec runs the other way. Its purchase page states that the fees include tax and the contribution payable to the Fondation de la faune du Québec. So its $68.41 deer licence is what you'd pay at the till. Most of the others aren't.

Atlantic. Nova Scotia sells a Wildlife Resources Card at $7.78 plus HST as a separate first step. Its licence cost summary lists the $5.15 Wildlife Habitat Stamp beside the $17.26 small game and $27.87 deer licences, all plus HST. New Brunswick's service listing prices the Deer and Game Bird licence at $29.00 plus a $5 conservation fee, and states that fees exclude HST unless otherwise specified. Newfoundland and Labrador has no general licence in its 2026-27 fee table. The $10.00 small game shooting licence stands in. Resident moose is $52.00, and small game licences bought in person carry a $3.00 vendor fee.

North. Yukon's licence page lists the resident big game licence at $10 and the small game licence at $5. GST is added to all listed fees, the page states. Deer seals cost $50, against $10 for moose. The Northwest Territories' resident page states that fees are charged for the tag and vary by species. Its July 2022 fee schedule puts both the General Hunting Licence and the Hunting Licence at $0, with resident big game tags at $24. Nunavut's 2026-27 guide prices a resident tag at $10.00, with a $5.00 surcharge on caribou and a $25.00 surcharge on polar bear and grizzly.

Hunter education isn't in any of these figures. It's a separate one-time cost, set by whoever teaches the course. The credential side is covered in our national licensing guide, and every provincial walkthrough sits under guides.

Questions about hunting licence costs

How much is a hunting licence in Canada?

Most provinces charge about $10 to $35 for the base resident licence. PEI's is $5 and the NWT's is $0. A deer or comparable big game licence adds roughly $10 to $70 on top. Three examples: Yukon lists its resident big game licence at $10, Alberta lists its Wildlife Certificate at $35.00, and Quebec lists a white-tailed deer licence at $68.41, taxes included. Every figure comes from that government's own fee page, linked in the table above.

Which province has the cheapest hunting licence?

PEI, at $5 for a resident game hunting licence (ages 18 to 59), plus a $20 conservation fund fee. Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador sit at $10: Yukon for a resident big game licence, Newfoundland and Labrador for a small game licence. The Northwest Territories lists its hunting licence at $0, but it charges $24 per big game tag instead. It's a loose comparison. Each government bundles different things into that first purchase, so the row-by-row notes matter more than the ranking.

Do hunting licence fees include tax?

It depends on the province. Quebec says its fees include tax and the contribution to the Fondation de la faune du Québec. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon publish their figures before tax, and say so on the page. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut publish figures with no tax statement beside them at all.

Is the deer licence separate from the hunting licence?

In most provinces, yes. A deer or big game licence is its own line, on top of the base document, in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. New Brunswick is the exception in the table: its Resident Deer and Game Bird licence covers deer in one purchase. Yukon and the territories sell a seal or tag per species instead of a separate licence.

Why is Prince Edward Island so much cheaper than the rest?

Because PEI charges just $5 for a resident game hunting licence, and youth and seniors pay nothing for it. Most of the cost is the annual Wildlife Conservation Fund, $20 for ages 16 to 64. There's no big game season on the Island either, so no deer or moose licence gets added on top. Figures from the province's Buy a Hunting Licence Online page, published September 2, 2026 and checked September 21, 2026.