A permanent power feed to a dock around Georgian Bay costs $1,200 to $6,500 with us. That covers the feeder, a disconnect and receptacles that meet the code. A boat lift is quoted on top, as a job of its own. Where your dock lands in that range is decided by three things on the site, not by the fixtures, and you can usually tell which end you are at before anybody visits.
What the $1,200 end looks like
A crib dock at the bottom of a short, open slope, with a panel in the cottage that has two spare spaces.
The feeder goes down in a trench through soil, comes up at a disconnect you can see from the dock, and ends at one or two receptacles with ground-fault protection and a light. The metal on the dock is bonded back to the system. One notification of work covers it, and the inspector sees the trench open and then sees the finished job.
That is the whole of a simple job. No sub-panel on the dock, no lift, no rock. It is the simple end of our dock and boathouse wiring range.
What pushes it toward $6,500
| Driver | $1,200 end | $6,500 end |
|---|---|---|
| Distance | Short, open slope | Long lot, or across a road allowance |
| Ground | Soil | Shield rock, surface conduit |
| Dock | Crib | Floating, flexible shore connection |
Distance, because of voltage drop
The Canadian code limits voltage drop to 3% on a feeder or a branch circuit and 5% in total, from the service to the point of use. On a 120 V circuit, 5% is 6 V.
A dock a short walk from the cottage never comes near that limit. A dock at the bottom of a long lot, or across a road allowance, does. Past a certain length the conductor has to go up a size, and then another, to keep the voltage at the dock inside the limit. That is copper you pay for because of distance, not because of the load at the end.
This is also why we ask what you want at the dock before we size anything. A light and a receptacle today, and a lift and a pump next year, is a bigger cable in the same trench. Digging the trench twice is the expensive way to learn that.
Rock, because of the trench
On the Shield shoreline around Parry Sound, the soil between the cottage and the water can be a few centimetres over granite. A trench that takes an hour in sand turns into surface-run cable in protective conduit, anchored to the rock, with more fittings and more labour per metre.
The same slope in the sand at Wasaga Beach is a spade and an afternoon. Two docks of the same length can sit at opposite ends of our range for this reason alone.
The other two drivers bite in other places. Long feeders turn up on the Muskoka lake chains at Gravenhurst and Huntsville. Floating docks are common in the sheltered Midland and Penetanguishene harbours.
Water level, because of the floating dock
A floating dock moves up and down, and the cable to it has to move with it without being stretched, crushed or chafed.
Georgian Bay is part of Lake Michigan-Huron, and Georgian Bay Forever puts that lake’s historical range at 6.33 feet. It set its record low of 175.57 metres in January 2013, and in 2020 it broke its monthly record highs eight months in a row. A connection that suited a dock in 2013 is at the wrong height for the same dock in a high-water year.
So on a floating dock the cost goes into the moving part: a flexible connection at the shore with enough slack for the full range, strain relief, and a route where ice cannot trap it. It adds to the job, and it is the part that stops the feed failing in a high-water spring.
The lift, and why it has its own line
A boat lift motor is a separate circuit with its own control, and often its own mounting problem on a floating section. Lift motors differ in the voltage and the current they need, and that decides the feeder before anything else is chosen, which is the reason to tell us about a planned lift when the dock feed is first quoted, even if the lift is a year away.
What it does not cost much of
The ESA fee. A notification of work is required for anything at the dock. A small no-service job starts at $46 at the contractor rate. Who may file it, and the fee at each rate, is on our page about whether electrical work in Ontario needs an ESA permit.
One detail matters for the schedule, not the price. The ESA 2026 fee guide defines a small job as 1-10 outlets and says a job requiring a rough-in inspection and a final inspection does not qualify. A buried dock feeder needs the trench inspected before it is filled, so plan on two visits.
The panel, often. Many cottage panels have room for one more circuit or a small feeder. If yours does not, that is a separate decision, and the electrical panel upgrade cost around Georgian Bay is set out on its own page. Do not let a dock quote carry a panel you do not need.
Before you ask for a price
Four things decide where your dock lands in the range. Have them ready when you call:
- The rough distance from the panel to the dock, paced out, and whether a road or a driveway is in the way.
- Crib or floating.
- Soil or rock on the way down.
- What you want at the dock: light, receptacles, a lift, a pump, a boat charger.
A photo of the panel with the door open answers the spare-capacity question.
If there is already a feed and it is the one a breaker keeps tripping on every spring, say so. A repair to an existing feeder is priced differently from a new one, and a feed that is nearly right is not always worth replacing.
The code side of the job, including the ground-fault rule that most older docks fail, is in the dock and boathouse wiring rules under Section 78. When you are ready for a price on your own shoreline, our dock and boathouse wiring service works from the three things above.