For Young Canadians, Urban Is Becoming Unaffordable
A new study confirms what most young urban Canadians already know — city living has gone from expensive to impractical to impossible for many.
It’s not just the usual high-cost suspects such as Vancouver and Toronto. Each of the 27 cities surveyed was essentially out of reach for Canadians in the 15- to 29-year-old demographic. The average young urban Canadian is losing $750 every month just to survive, according to the report, rhetorically titled: Can Young People Afford to Live in Canadian Cities?
A joint project of the Youthful Cities think tank and the Royal Bank of Canada’s Future Launch youth initiative, the results were released in early May.
The most expensive city for young people was Halifax in Nova Scotia. There, young residents experience a yawning $1,290 gap in their monthly budget — an unsustainable pace of spending.
The best deal for this age group was Lethbridge in Alberta. But even there, the average young person was losing approximately $35 a month — enough to survive, but not to begin building a future. Surprisingly, many small to medium size cities, such as Regina, were out of reach for young people who had hoped to put down urban roots.
“Affordability shouldn’t only be about the basic necessities for survival,” argued Claire Patterson of Youthful Cities in a news release promoting the findings. “Affordability should also include the ability to pay for those things that contribute to the vibrancy of a person’s life when they are able to move forward and meet those key milestones we view as signs of success. In today’s Canadian cities opportunities to thrive simply aren’t equally accessible to all young people.”
“Opportunity” is the key word. The report suggests a number of often-discussed solutions, such as raising the minimum wage and reducing the costs of housing, transit and education. But with such a wide disparity between income and expenses for young Canadians, any real solution must focus on creating real opportunity — high-paying jobs based on a vibrant economy. This in turn requires government policies that promote an opportunity society that encourages businesses to take hold and prosper. Without proper economic incentives and reform of the tax and regulatory environment, good full-time jobs will continue to evaporate, and young Canadians will continue to find a comfortable urban life out of reach.
The report notes that the current situation is costly not only for the young people who must defer dreams, but also for society as a whole. “Young peoples’ inability to afford to live in urban areas can have many compounding negative effects including increased mental health concerns as they face fears of missing out on life ahead and attaining their goals and ambitions,” remarked Royal Bank of Canada VP Mark Beckles.
This is especially true after two years of lockdowns, social isolation and interruptions in educational and career plans.