It now costs more to afford basic necessities in Calgary than in any other major city in the country — including Vancouver and Toronto — according to Statistics Canada’s updated market basket measure.
The market basket measure is Canada’s official measure of household income poverty. It defines how much a family of four would have to earn to afford a basic standard of living, and that’s calculated by the cost of a basket of basic goods and services, including food, clothing, shelter and transportation.
Families are considered to be living below the poverty line if their disposable income is less than their city’s market basket measure.
New data, from 2022, shows that Calgary’s annual market basket measure is $55,771 — up from $51,861 the previous year.
That’s compared with $55,727 in Vancouver and $55,262 in Toronto. Edmonton is in fourth place at $55,225, and Ottawa-Gatineau is in fifth spot.
Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist with Alberta Central, said he isn’t surprised by the numbers.
While housing is widely known to cost more in the two larger cities, he said other goods and services cost more in Alberta — like electricity and insurance, for example.
Alberta Central chief economist Charles St-Arnaud says market basket measures, relative to a region’s median income, would be a better calculation to understand how expensive cities actually are. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
But he said the market basket measure on its own doesn’t tell the whole story.
“We still have higher income than the rest of the country,” said St-Arnaud.
So while Calgarians’ baskets cost more, it’s possible people in other provinces feel the pinch more, said St-Arnaud.
According to the latest census data, Albertans’ median employment income per individual in 2020 was $41,600 — still below Calgary’s market basket measure (for a household), but higher than Ontario and B.C. at $38,000 each.
But St-Arnaud noted the income gap is shrinking.
“[Albertans’ incomes are] not increasing as fast as in the rest of the country, so we’re seeing a convergence,” he said.
Farewell to the Alberta advantage
Meaghon Reid advocates for strategies to address the root causes of poverty in Calgary, as executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary.
She says it’s important to remember that Alberta has some of the highest income inequality in Canada — meaning the province has the biggest gap between people who make a lot, and people who make very little.
“Because of that, we know that a lot of people at those lower income levels are really far away from even being near that market basket measure line, and I think we have to take that into consideration,” said Reid.
Meaghon Reid is the executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary. (Claudia T Photography)
In conversations with those living around and below the poverty line, Reid says people are feeling anxious, panicked and resigned that the situation will continue worsening.
She says Calgarians need income-geared solutions to tackle poverty. Like revisiting income support rates and ensuring wages increase with the cost of living.
“If we don’t do that, my fear is that people fall further and further into poverty, and we know that it’s really expensive to service poverty in the long-term,” she said.
“This is something that, with the wealth we have in this province, we can tackle pretty quickly — but there needs to be some urgency behind it.”
For now, she says, these rising costs could mean farewell to the Alberta advantage.
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
