When I watched Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s documentary “Housing Hell,” I considered it misguided because it completely avoided the topic of immigration. How can a film about Canada’s housing affordability crisis not address how the influx of over one million new residents a year affects supply and demand?
Green party leader Elizabeth May, however, said that Poilievre’s documentary is flawed because Canada actually has the “cheapest” places to live in North America.
“Memo to Pierre Poilievre – you need to re-do your housing hell video in light of Economist magazine finding that the most livable and cheapest cities in North America are in Canada!” May posted on X, adding the hashtag, “#FactsMatter.”
University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe noted that the study May was citing, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living Index, “does not include home prices, mortgage payments, or even rent… It is a useful survey, but not for housing.”
Another social media user pointed out that in the report, “the cost of living is just indexed to New York at 100. This doesn’t say they’re affordable. Just that, for example, Vancouver is somewhere between 70-80% as expensive as the economic capital of the world.”
The Economist’s North America data exclude Mexico.
Some might get on board with May’s message and list off a few towns in Manitoba and Saskatchewan that are still affordable. But the Economist article May linked to only references Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal (under the subheading “For living on the cheap, go to Canada”). And besides, as people have pointed out time and time again, Canada’s affordable small towns generally lack employment opportunities.
Elizabeth May, and those similar to her, think that because they have high salaries, benefits, gold-plated pensions, and real estate, everything is dandy.
May lives in seaside Sidney, B.C., where the median house sale price in December 2023 was $953,500. May claims that she rents her Sidney home, but considers it her “permanent residence.”
Her husband also owns a commercial farm in British Columbia’s Interior, as well as a condo in Vancouver from which the couple derives rental income. The average condo in Vancouver costs $801,000, as of last month. The average two-bedroom rental in Vancouver is $3,800 a month, according to Rentals.ca.
I was born in Victoria and raised in Metro Vancouver. It is sad when you are priced out of the place you grew up and where your family is based. It is also sad to realize that while you grew up playing in downstairs rec rooms – where you had the space to be loud and active with your friends away from adult supervision – your kids’ only play space will be in a bedroom that they have to share with their sibling in a cramped apartment.
According to Habitat for Humanity research, half of Canadians are spending 50% or more of their household income on housing costs. Among Canadians aged 18-34, those spending 50% or more of their household income on housing costs rises to 64%.
Imagine trying to save a down payment when your rent eats up more than half of your monthly pay, and you still need to pay for groceries, gas, cell phone service, childcare, and the like.
Data from 2022 showed that the standard Canadian house was almost twice as expensive as an American one – the average price for a home was CAD$816,720 in Canada and CAD$480,168 in the U.S.
And a 2022 report from Generation Squeeze found it takes 22 years of full-time work for the typical young Ontarian to save a 20% down payment on an average priced ($900,000) home in the province. According to the organization, it only took baby boomers five years to save an equivalent down payment back in the day.
#FactsMatter – right, Elizabeth May?
