The World's Coldest Capital?

Years ago we had a neighbor who worked in the embassy of a certain European country which I will not name...

To my amazement, she commented one day that embassy workers at her embassy got bonus hardship pay when they were posted to Ottawa because it was the world's coldest capital city.

Really?! I exclaimed... What about Moscow?

No, it's warmer, she replied.

So as I reflect on her words, wondering about other cold places... such as Tibet, I discover (from Wikipedia) that its capital - Lhasa - isn't that cold :"the valley location protects the city from intense cold or heat and strong winds. The city enjoys nearly 3,000 hours of sunlight annually and is thus sometimes called the "sunlit city" by Tibetans. The coldest month is January with an average temperature of −1.6 °C (29.1 °F)"

What about Lapland? Its capital - Rovaniemi - seems to have average
winter temperatures similar to Ottawa's. But then I see that Lapland is
actually a province of Finland, and its capital - Helsinki - has milder
winter temperatures!

Maybe we are the world's coldest capital!

(But is living here really such a hardship that people deserve bonus
pay?!!)