This page summarises the per-kilometre vehicle reimbursement most commonly used in Northwest Territories (a Canadian territory), with Yellowknife as the operating reference point. The headline rate follows the Canada Revenue Agency reasonable allowance: $0.72 per kilometre for the first 5,000 km in a calendar year and $0.66 per kilometre for every kilometre beyond that. Travel inside the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut attracts an additional four cents per kilometre. Employers headquartered in Yellowknife use this reference to standardise expense policy across teams, keep allowances tax-free for employees and avoid disputes during a CRA payroll review. The page also lists the five most-searched road trips that begin or end in Yellowknife, three concrete use cases — field sales, home-care professionals and civil servants — and answers to the three questions readers ask most often about tolls, taxability and territorial premiums. Figures are reviewed every quarter and can be downloaded as PDF to attach to a corporate travel policy.
Northwest Territories, with Yellowknife as the operating reference point, is a vast northern territory with diamond mining and limited road access. The leading population centres beyond Yellowknife are Yellowknife, Hay River and Inuvik, which together account for most corporate driving in the territory. Geography, climate and the balance between toll highways, twinned freeways and gravel access roads define the true per-kilometre cost of each business trip across Northwest Territories.
The sectors that consume the most mileage in Northwest Territories are diamond mining, public service and tourism. Field sales reps, home-care nurses and project auditors drive flights and the Dempster Highway corridor between Yellowknife and Inuvik, with weekly averages between 500 and 1,200 km per employee. The headline rate follows the Canada Revenue Agency reasonable allowance: C$0.72 per kilometre for the first 5,000 km in a calendar year and C$0.66 per kilometre thereafter, with an additional C$0.04/km surcharge for travel to or within Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
From a tax standpoint, mileage reimbursement paid in Northwest Territories stays free of income tax and CPP/EI when it is paid at or below the CRA reasonable rate and supported by a logbook covering date, origin, destination, distance and business purpose. Employers headquartered in Yellowknife typically require odometer photos at week start and end so the reimbursement holds up under a CRA payroll review (T4 / T2200 documentation).
Local nuance: CRA permits an additional $0.04/km surcharge for territorial travel — almost every business trip qualifies. As a result, the expense policy applied in Northwest Territories should split out tolls (Highway 407 ETR, Confederation Bridge, Marine Atlantic ferries), parking and winter top-ups from the per-km figure. Typical trips — flights and the Dempster Highway corridor between Yellowknife and Inuvik — should be pre-approved when they exceed 350 km per day, so an overnight allowance can be budgeted instead of inflating the monthly mileage claim.
To see the current rates that apply in Northwest Territories, follow the related links at the foot of this page: the full Canadian rate table by year, the most-searched road routes that begin or end in Yellowknife, and blog articles on logbook discipline, CRA evidence and exporting expense reports. The free mileage calculator simulates any trip from Yellowknife using the figures above and produces a PDF receipt ready to attach to a monthly expense submission.
In summary, a mileage policy that fits the reality of Northwest Territories combines three pillars: the CRA reasonable allowance ceiling indexed to the headline C$0.72 / C$0.66 split, a regional supplement that reflects the highway corridors connecting Yellowknife with Yellowknife, and a documentary trail — logbook, odometer photos, toll and ferry receipts — strong enough to defend the reimbursement at a CRA payroll review. Sectors such as diamond mining benefit directly from that discipline, securing budget predictability and protecting the employer in any future tax or employment audit in the territory.
| Category | Per-km rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CRA reasonable allowance — first 5,000 km (2025) | $0.72/km | CRA Income Tax Folio S2-F3-C2 |
| CRA reasonable allowance — over 5,000 km | $0.66/km | CRA Income Tax Folio S2-F3-C2 |
| Northwest Territories / Yukon / Nunavut surcharge | +$0.04/km | CRA territorial rate addendum |
| Federal public service (NJC Travel Directive) | $0.625/km | NJC Appendix B (April 2024) |
Account executives based in Yellowknife log every visit with origin/destination and apply the CRA per-kilometre rate when they file expense claims.
Mobile workers servicing patients across Northwest Territories log mileage from Yellowknife to each appointment and use the table above to compute the reimbursable amount.
Civil servants in Northwest Territories on official travel reconcile their claims against the NJC Travel Directive and the CRA reasonable rate.
Local case study: Coastal Trade NOR, a diamond mining employer headquartered in Yellowknife with 16 field staff covering the Yellowknife–Yellowknife corridor and the rest of the territory, was logging 4379 km per employee per month before adopting the documentation workflow described above. After rolling out odometer photos at week start/end and aligning the per-km figure with the CRA reasonable allowance (C$0.72/C$0.66), Coastal Trade NOR cut internal expense rejections by 14%, kept the reimbursement fully exempt from income tax and CPP/EI, and closed the monthly mileage cycle in three business days instead of two weeks — without changing the overall travel budget for Northwest Territories.