Recently, Canadians have taken to their social media feeds to post videos lamenting their inability to get ahead and even pay the bills. It’s heartbreaking stuff to watch. But we need to be aware of it because it reminds us of what really matters right now in our country.
“I don’t understand how I make $34 an hour and I can’t function,” says one woman, between tears. “I can’t pay my bills.”
Another woman lays out what so many people are now saying: “It’s just so frustrating that you do all the right things, you go to university and then you come out and get a job and you can barely afford rent.”
One man posted a video talking about a friend who makes a six-figure income in software design but still had to get assistance from his parents for a down payment on his first home. The man remarks that if a well-paid tech worker needs support, that clearly means things are even worse for those less well off.
For so many Canadians, things just aren’t adding up. Literally. Whether it’s rent, gas, or groceries, people are feeling the squeeze.
Sadly, things are likely going to get worse before they get better. As mortgage payments increase due to interest rate hikes, families will be pinched even more. A recent news story highlighted how a woman in Barrie, Ontario, has seen her home payments go from $2,850 per month to $6,200 in a short period of time. She’s now selling her house.
A new company that’s providing Ontario residents with short-term loans for rental deposits is yet another sign of the times. Nesturo believes their service will be valuable to people who can’t even afford to save for first and last months’ rent.
“In Toronto, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment hit $2,572 in June, a 14.1% annual increase, which leaves a tenant on the hook for over $5K if the landlord requests first and last month’s rent,” explains the real estate news site Storeys.
“The average annual income in Toronto was $84K in 2020,” they add. “After tax, that equated to roughly $5K per month.”
That income, $84,000, doesn’t sound that low at first glance. It’s a lot more than many Canadians are making. But if that only equals $5,000 per month, and if $5,000 is what a landlord wants for a deposit, you can see how it can be difficult to save even that much for people who are already facing rising bills.
Whenever I take my family of five out for some basic entertainment (going to the movies, heading to Centre Island), there’s little we can do that rings in at under $100. This means taking the family out to something relatively basic once a week costs over $5,000 per year, which doesn’t at all include saving for a modest annual vacation.
It sometimes feels like simply leaving the house becomes a big money decision. It leaves me wondering how other families, especially those who make much less than we do, make it work. (The answer for many: They don’t.)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has seized on these videos—putting together a montage of them and posting them to his feed. This signals that he’s attentive to peoples’ situations and feels their pain.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on the other hand, seems either oblivious or unsympathetic to the daily struggles of Canadian families. It’s a harsh assessment, but how else should one take his obsession with mandating an increase to our daily costs in the name of climate change?
It’s well established that Canada represents only 1.5 percent of global emissions. Our emissions, on a per capita basis, have been steadily declining in recent years. Yet the federal government keeps zealously increasing the carbon tax and adding other new fees and bans that only make life less affordable.
The tearful confessional videos online are entirely non-partisan. These are regular people just venting. The facts don’t lie. People are at their wits’ end.
Politicians should drop the ideology and recognize that one of their primary duties is to safeguard the prosperity of average folks. Right now, all signs point to the need to drop the obsession with all the green fees so people can better put food on the table.
Low-income Canadians have been struggling for a long time. What’s new is that the middle-class, or at least people who thought they were middle class, are now finding they can’t pay the bills either.
It’s a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon.
