Cost to Wire a New House in Ontario (2026): Per Square Foot, Per House, What the Package Includes and Leaves Out, and Three Houses Added Up

The numbers

The three size bands come from the only itemized Ontario source we found, an Eastern Ontario licensed contractor (April 2026). The poles, the transformer and the long rural run are on the hydro connection cost page, not here.

What the Package Includes, and What It Does Not

The low per-foot numbers are real, they are just short. A “rough-in from $5” price usually leaves out the service, the permit, or the exterior and appliance work, and you meet those lines later as extras. A complete package for a new house should name every one of these:

• The 200 A service: meter base, the underground or overhead service conductors, and the main panel.
• Every branch circuit, with the receptacles, switches and plates. Standard devices, not a designer line.
• Hard-wired, interconnected smoke alarms and the CO alarms; the rules are on the smoke and CO alarm page.
• Circuits for the furnace or air handler, the HRV, the AC or heat pump, the range, the dryer, the water heater if electric.
• Exterior receptacles and a basic rough-in for the exterior lights.
• Labour to hang the light fixtures you supply.
• The ESA notification, the inspections and the meeting with the inspector.

And the usual exclusions, which a fair quote lists in writing: the light fixtures themselves, low voltage and data, the EV charger unit, a generator, solar, a battery, trenching where no machine is on site, and the utility’s own connection charge. If they are not in the electrician’s number, they are in nobody’s.

On our own builds in Simcoe, Muskoka and Georgian Bay, I am the builder and the electrical is done by the licensed electrical contractors I hire, under their licence and their ESA notification. Anyone you hire for electrical work in Ontario must be an ESA Licensed Electrical Contractor. A general contractor is not licensed to do it, and neither is the handyman who did a nice job on the deck.

Three Houses, Added Up

The package line uses the default or the size band, the fixtures are our allowance, and the add-ons sit near the middle of the rough-in ranges in the next section.

Before HST and before the utility connection. House C also carries the trench to the garage in the subpanel line; if the excavator has gone home by then, add $400 to $800 to bring a machine back.

House C is the rural case. In the country the generator inlet is not a luxury: when the power goes, the well pump goes, and so does the water. That is why it is on the list before the drywall, not after the first ice storm.

Run It Now or Pay Double Later

An open stud wall is the cheapest place in the world to run a wire. A 4 dollar wire before drywall is a 400 dollar wire after it, once somebody has to fish it, cut the ceiling, patch it and paint it. These are the rough-in prices from the same Eastern Ontario contractor:

Whole-home network cabling on a new build runs $2,500 to $7,000 from a Toronto low-voltage contractor, and packages with cameras and mesh Wi-Fi go to $15,000. Which circuits are worth running for the next 30 years is on the how to wire your home page; where the lights and outlets go room by room is on the lighting and outlet planning page.

1. Decide before the rough-in inspection, not at it. Once ESA authorizes the rough-in, the insulation goes in the next week. Nothing gets covered by insulation or drywall until ESA authorizes it, and after that every change costs more.
2. Run the EV circuit even if you drive a pickup. $1,000 now against $2,000 to $2,800 later, and the next owner may not drive a pickup.
3. Put the heat pump on the drawings. If the house may go all electric, the panel and the service need to know on day one; the service capacity calculator does the load arithmetic.
4. Get the fixture allowance in writing. A $4,000 allowance and a $9,000 lighting store visit is one of the most common electrical surprises on a new house.

How the Money Gets Paid

A new-house electrical contract is paid in three stages on a typical job: the underground service at 10 to 15 percent, the rough-in at 55 to 65 percent, and the finish at 25 to 30 percent. On House B’s $24,000 package, at 12, 62 and 26 percent, that is $2,880 for the service, $14,880 at rough-in and $6,240 at finish. $2,880 + $14,880 + $6,240 = $24,000.

Tie each payment to a passed inspection, not to a date. The rough-in money is due when ESA has authorized the rough-in, and the last payment when the final has passed and the Certificate of Acceptance is on its way. That one clause saves more arguments than any handshake.

Questions people ask

Sources and further reading

• ESA 2026 Fee Guide: the actual ESA fees for a new house, a service change, an EV charger and renovation work, contractor and homeowner rates.
• ESA contractor locator: where you check the 7-digit licence number on an electrician’s estimate before you sign.
• ESA notifications and inspections: when a notification of work is needed, who files it, and the rule that nothing is covered until an inspector authorizes it.