One of those people is Roland Cameron from Hamilton, Ont. Cameron and his wife arrived in Barbados on July 10 and plan to live there permanently. The couple had considered living in other countries before settling on Barbados, where Cameron’s father’s side of the family lives. In search of a lower cost of living, the couple hopes to make the value of their dollar go further, Cameron said.
“The fundamentals of why we’re paying so much for stuff doesn’t make sense,” the 48-year-old business owner told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on June 12. “We would always come up with more income, but new costs would pop up.
High housing costs played a key role in Cameron and his wife’s decision to leave Canada, he said. For his four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Ontario, Cameron’s monthly mortgage payment was about $5,500, he said.
But in Barbados, Cameron is renting a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Saint Philip for slightly more than $3,000 per month. The house spans about 2,300 square feet and includes a pool.
Roland Cameron is renting a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Saint Philip, Barbados after he and his wife decided to move to the Caribbean country. (HANDOUT)
According to Numbeo, an online database where users can share information related to the cost of living in various countries, grocery items such as milk, bread and eggs are more expensive in Barbados than in Canada. Despite this, the couple hopes to save money in other ways. For utilities such as electricity, water and gas, for example, Cameron expects to pay about $250 per month in Barbados, compared to a monthly payment of $593 while living in Hamilton.
Like many Canadians who reached out, Cameron said he hopes the move will have a positive impact on his overall quality of life, allowing him to generate more disposable income to spend on recreational activities and eventually growing his family. Cameron said he and his wife had held off on having children while living in Canada, but plan to revisit the idea now that they’re living in Barbados.
“We see that we have better opportunities for us somewhere else [compared to] what Canada seems to be able to provide for us moving forward,” he said.
Roland Cameron and his wife arrived in Barbados on July 10. (HANDOUT)
‘DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SURVIVING AND LIVING’
Steve Thurrott, who is originally from Ottawa, also decided to leave Canada in March 2020 because of the high cost of living. More than three years after leaving, Thurrott is now visiting Alberta before he and his wife permanently settle in Cambodia.
“I was in Banff and a little restaurant by the lake wanted $17 for a hotdog,” Thurrott told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on July 4. “I just don’t understand how people survive here.”
The 45-year-old veteran receives military and disability pensions, following his medical release from the Canadian Armed Forces in 2020. But this money was barely enough to afford his monthly expenses while living in Canada, he said. After visiting Mexico, the Philippines and Alberta, Thurrott and his wife plan to move to Cambodia, where the cost of living is “far more affordable” compared to Canada, he said.
Starting in August, Thurrott and his wife will live in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a pool while paying $300 per month in rent, he said. Meanwhile, in Canada, the average price to rent a one-bedroom unit is $1,837, based on the latest report from Rentals.ca.
While living in Cambodia, Steve Thurrott and his wife will stay in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a pool while paying $300 per month in rent. (HANDOUT)
According to Numbeo, the average price of food and transportation in Cambodia is generally cheaper than it is in Canada. Grocery items such as a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, for example, cost less in the Asian country. Additionally, the price of a meal at an inexpensive restaurant in Cambodia can be as low as $3 per person, said Thurrott, who visited the country earlier this year.
In terms of transportation in Cambodia, a short trip via tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled motor vehicle, can cost as little as $1 while a taxi ride over longer distances can cost as much as $50, although prices can be negotiated, Thurrott said. Purchasing a new or used car, however, tends to be more expensive in Cambodia than in Canada, he said.
Steve Thurrott and his wife in Mexico. The couple plans to move to Cambodia in August. (HANDOUT)
Aside from mandatory expenses, the cost of products and services that aren’t essential, such as a trip to the movie theatre or going on a scenic tour, are also less expensive in Cambodia compared to Canada, Thurrott said. Being able to do more of these recreational activities has greatly improved his quality of life, he said.
“When all of these other extra costs are so much cheaper, the quality of life that that brings is huge,” he said. “There’s a difference between surviving and living.”
FATHER OF TWO NO LONGER SEES CANADA AS THE ‘END GOAL’
Shane Baetz, who grew up near London, Ont., began working in the Philippines in 2011. About a decade later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to Canada with his wife and two children. He had been laid off at the time and his family was considering permanently relocating to Canada, he said.
But as his family looked for a new home, they saw average prices were rapidly rising. By February 2022, the national average price of a home peaked at $816,720, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. Looking at rising home prices in London, Ont. and the Greater Toronto Area, Baetz said he didn’t know if it made financial sense for his family to stay in Canada.
“Houses were going up, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars within months,” the 48-year-old told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on July 5. “It was shocking.”
Shane Baetz with his wife and two daughters. (HANDOUT)
“I always felt like my daughters were going to have a better life in Canada but I wasn’t seeing that anymore,” he said. “It’s sad to no longer perceive Canada as an end goal.”
Rising home prices ultimately led Baetz and his family to return to the Philippines in March 2022, he said. They now rent a three-bedroom, three-bathroom condominium in Manila for about $4,000 per month, he said.
Although leaving Canada has made it difficult to spend time with his relatives, Baetz plans to continue living in the Philippines with his wife and daughters, he said. There, he is able to provide them with greater financial stability and a better quality of life, he said.
“The list of reasons to stay in the Philippines is probably longer than the list of reasons to move back to Canada,” said Baetz. “The future feels like it’s brighter.”
It’s not uncommon for Canadians to settle in countries with a low minimum wage, said Tsur Somerville, an associate professor of strategy and business economics at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. For those who have generated income while living in Canada, it is easier to make this money go further, he said.
“If I take my wealth that I’ve accumulated in Canada and then move to someplace where incomes are much lower and wages are much lower, then everything is going to be a much lower price,” Somerville told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on June 13.
Countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines have minimum wages that are lower than the base salary earned by workers in Canadian provinces and territories. In the Philippines, for example, minimum wage is about $14 per day. In Canada, employees can make at least $104 per day, with the minimum wage ranging from $13 to $16.77 per hour depending on the province or territory.
FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS AND RETIREES CONSIDER LEAVING CANADA
Several Canadians also wrote to CTVNews.ca about plans to leave Canada in the near future, including Andre Fortier, who is looking to purchase his first home.
Fortier, who is currently renting an apartment in Toronto for about $1,600 per month, said he is considering moving to Colombia, where his partner is from. It is there that he hopes to purchase a home, as he does not see himself being able to afford a property in Canada.
“I’ve been contributing in this country all of my life, I feel completely cheated,” the 59-year-old told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on June 12. “I’m nowhere near where I thought I was going to be by the time I’m 60, and it’s not from the lack of trying.”
Although average home prices may be cheaper outside of major urban hubs such as Toronto, Fortier said he has been struggling with finding full-time employment outside the city. If he were to stay in Canada during his retirement years, money from his pension would barely cover his rent, he said.
During a visit to Colombia in December, Fortier saw homes for sale between $50,000 and $100,000, he said. He and his partner are now looking at moving to Colombia in two years’ time, and plan to live there permanently.
Andre Fortier is considering moving to Colombia, where his partner is from. (HANDOUT)
“The cost of living here is exponential to what it is there,” he said. “If I stay in Canada … I’m going to be absolutely broke.”
Based in Mission, B.C., Leslie Dunn is also considering moving to another country. The semi-retired 57-year-old hopes to purchase a home in Mexico and split her time between both countries throughout the year.
Research conducted by Far Homes, a real estate website that helps foreigners purchase properties in Mexico, shows an increasing number of Canadians have been migrating there since 2020. Data from the Mexican government shows that 1,032 temporary resident cards were issued to Canadians in 2020, compared with 3,160 cards issued in 2022, according to a report from Far Homes.
Recent surveys conducted by the company show a significant factor behind this trend is the desire for a lower cost of living. Dunn said this is one of the main reasons behind her decision to settle in Mexico. Rising average home and rent prices in Canada are especially concerning to her, along with the elevated cost of food, she said.
“The cost of living is expensive [in Canada],” Dunn told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on June 22. “Housing rates pretty much everywhere are on the incline [and] I find that there’s a lot of people that are house poor.”
Leslie Dunn hopes to purchase a home in Mexico and split her time between both countries throughout the year. (HANDOUT)
Based on recent trips to Mexico, Dunn said the price to purchase an average condominium is about $125,000, while the cost of a detached house can be about $400,000. She recently offered to buy a four-bedroom townhouse for about $180,000 in the town of Puerto Morelos, she said. Property taxes for the 2,700-square-foot home would have been just under $100 per year.
Although the deal did not go through, Dunn said she and her partner continue to look for homes to either buy or rent in Mexico.
HOW INCREASED SUPPLY CONTRIBUTES TO HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Canadians, along with residents of countless other countries, continue to struggle with affordable housing amid a cost of living crisis, Somerville said.
“Rent and mortgage payments have gone up a lot more than incomes, particularly in last two to three years,” said Somerville, referring to Canada.
Although average home prices have largely fallen from their peak in February 2022, they haven’t decreased enough to offset the higher mortgage payments brought about by the Bank of Canada’s interest rate hikes, Somerville said.
Additionally, while leaving Canada to move to a lower-income country may seem like a good way to save money, this could have unintended consequences for those foreign communities, with ripple effects that may not be “unambiguously positive,” Somerville said.
In regions that see high levels of relocation by wealthy homebuyers, for example, if the existing housing supply does not meet demand, this can drive up average home prices in these areas, Somerville said.
“Your ability to pay more for housing … can have negative local effects,” he said.
OTTAWA – The federal government is expanding a measure that bans tens of thousands of Iranian officials from entering Canada as part of an effort to hold the regime accountable for human-rights violations.
On Sunday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced that any senior official who served in the Iranian government at any time since June 23, 2003 is now inadmissible to Canada. The decision extends a previous ban, announced in November 2022, that denied entry to those in the top echelons of the Iranian regime dating back to 2019.
“We are sending a strong message that those involved in terrorism, human rights violations and atrocities are not welcome here,” LeBlanc said in a statement. “Canada will always stand up for human rights and fight for justice, at home and around the world.”
The new cutoff date for admissibility reflects the day on which Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested in Tehran. She died in hospital almost three weeks later, in July 2003, after being tortured and raped.
The move comes on the eve of the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in hospital on Sept. 16, 2022 after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Her death sparked global protests.
The announcement was met with praise from Kourosh Doustshenas, spokesperson for the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims. The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down over Tehran in January 2020 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian armed forces. All 176 people aboard the flight were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
“Justice for Zahra Kazemi and so many others is long overdue,” Doustshenas said in a statement on social media. “This amendment is a crucial message that Canada will not be a safe haven for human rights violators. It’s a step toward accountability and justice for victims of the Iranian regime’s atrocities, including those affected by Flight PS752.”
Ottawa first labelled the Iranian government as “a regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in November 2022, shortly after Amini’s death. The measure denied entry to senior officials who’d served in the government since Nov. 15, 2019. That date marked the start of nationwide protests that prompted a violent government crackdown. At the time, Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest.
The designation means that current and former officials present in Canada can also lose their temporary or permanent resident status and can be removed from the country.
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, 82 visas had been cancelled as of Aug. 26, and 15 people have been reported inadmissible by the agency. Of those 15, two have been found inadmissible and were issued deportation orders following hearings at the Immigration and Refugee Board, and one person has been removed from Canada.
The tribunal ordered the deportation earlier this year of Seyed Salman Samani, Iran’s former deputy interior minister, and Majid Iranmanesh, a former director general in the regime.
The agency did not immediately respond to questions about how many more officials might now be targeted by the expanded measure.
Critics have accused Canada of providing safe haven for top-ranking Iranian officials, including after Morteza Talaei, who served as Tehran’s police chief when Kazemi was tortured in 2003, was photographed at a Toronto-area gym in 2021.
In a statement posted on social media Sunday, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called the government’s latest move “a positive step.”
“Iran’s terror extends beyond its support for violence abroad,” the group said. “The regime’s violence includes the oppression of its own people, especially women.”
In June, the Canadian government listed the IRGC as a terrorist organization under the Criminal Code, following years of pressure from Iranian Canadians and opposition parties.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
VANCOUVER – British Columbia will be opening secure facilities to provide involuntary care under the Mental Health Act for those with severe addictions who are mentally ill and have sustained a brain injury, the premier announced Sunday just days ahead of the start of a provincial election campaign.
David Eby pledged a re-elected NDP would change the law in the next legislative session to “provide clarity and ensure that people, including youth, can and should receive care when they are unable to seek it themselves.”
Eby told a news conference in Vancouver that involuntary help would be aimed at people struggling with overlapping addictions, mental illness, and brain injury concerns who are not able to ask for help for themselves.
“For people with these three overlapping conditions, we know that the current response that we offer is not adequate,” he said.
“It is costly for people struggling with these conditions. They are not safe, and increasingly, I’m concerned that the way that they are interacting in our communities is making everybody less safe.”
The premier’s promise comes ahead of Saturday’s anticipated launch of the provincial election campaign, in which concerns about the toxic drug crisis are expected to play a significant role, and three months after he appointed Dr. Daniel Vigo as B.C.’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.
Vigo said Sunday that most people with addictions in British Columbia are not mentally impaired and are able to seek help voluntarily.
“However, the system breaks down if services operate under the assumption that all the patients should be able to actively seek help, endure taxing intake processes where comorbidity is not considered, input from providers … is not valued, and impairments affecting their ability to consent become an exclusion criteria,” he said.
Vigo said that in order for a person to be treated involuntarily under the act, they currently have to have a mental disorder that leaves them unable to interact safely with others and regulate their own behaviour.
Eby said the province’s hospitals interpret the current Mental Health Act inconsistently, so Vigo will be sending out clarifications on how it can be applied in cases involving addiction before the legislation is formally changed.
Eby said the first site providing care for those with addictions, mental illness and brain injuries will open in Maple Ridge on the grounds of the Alouette Correctional Centre “in the coming months,” adding there are plans to expand throughout the province.
This is not the first time the B.C. government has proposed involuntary care for youth with addictions.
In 2022, a plan that would have forced youth to undergo treatment for up to seven days after an overdose was scrapped following public criticism.
Eby said Sunday he understands the concern that youth might be less likely to ask for help if they fear being taken to treatment against their will.
“So these are the things we’re trying to balance as a society. It’s incredibly challenging, and our goal is to work with … the experts in this area, because I think that we need to keep revisiting these decisions and make sure that they’re taking us in the right direction,” he said.
Last week, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said if elected, he would introduce legislation to allow for involuntary treatment and build secure facilities.
In a statement Sunday, Rustad said Eby was being inconsistent and “flip-flopping” after years of not acting on the issue.
B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau accused Eby in a separate statement of following “John Rustad off every reactionary cliff” and said she was concerned about an over-reliance on involuntary care.
Furstenau said the province already has thousands of people receiving some form of involuntary treatment annually.
“Where are the investments in prevention and addressing the root causes of what we’re seeing in our communities? There’s also no focus on long-term, community-based care after discharge,” she said.
A government statement said the NDP is building more than 400 mental-health beds at new and expanded hospitals in B.C. by modernizing approximately 280 outdated beds and adding more than 140 new ones “with more to come.”
It says all of these facilities will also provide both voluntary and involuntary care under the act.
The announcement comes after a series of stranger attacks in the province alleged to have been committed by those who are mentally ill.
A man was arrested earlier this month in Vancouver for separate attacks that left one man dead and another with a severed hand. Police later said the suspect had a history of mental illness.
Eby said the province will also be setting up a designated mental-health unit in a B.C. correctional centre, starting with a 10-bed facility at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre to provide rapid treatment for people with mental-health and addiction challenges who are being held in custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. It clarifies that the facilities are aimed at people with concurrent mental health and addiction concerns. An earlier version said the facilities would be for those with severe addictions or who are mentally ill.
HAIDA GWAII, BRITISH COLUMBIA – The northern British Columbia coast was rattled by two earthquakes below the ocean floor on Sunday.
Natural Resources Canada said the first quake hit at 3:20 p.m. and measured 6, while the second came about an hour later and measured 4.5.
It says no damage was reported and none would be expected.
The U.S. Geological Survey set the magnitude of the quake at 6.5, and says it was centred at about the midway point between Haida Gwaii and Port McNeill on the northern end of Vancouver Island.
The American Tsunami warning centre said no tsunami was expected to be generated.
Ben Wilson, the food and beverage manager at the Willows Golf Course in Sandspit, B.C., says he was home on his break when he felt the ground shake, long enough to know what it was, but not long enough to concern him.
“This one was definitely more noticeable than some, but not by any means, the biggest one I’ve ever felt here.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
Roland Cameron is renting a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Saint Philip, Barbados after he and his wife decided to move to the Caribbean country. (HANDOUT)
Roland Cameron and his wife arrived in Barbados on July 10. (HANDOUT)
While living in Cambodia, Steve Thurrott and his wife will stay in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a pool while paying $300 per month in rent. (HANDOUT)
Steve Thurrott and his wife in Mexico. The couple plans to move to Cambodia in August. (HANDOUT)
Shane Baetz with his wife and two daughters. (HANDOUT)
Andre Fortier is considering moving to Colombia, where his partner is from. (HANDOUT)
Leslie Dunn hopes to purchase a home in Mexico and split her time between both countries throughout the year. (HANDOUT)
