British Columbia now has the highest share of renters spending more than half of their income on rent and utilities in Canada.
That’s according to a new study highlighting the struggle to keep up with the province’s ballooning cost of living.
The Canadian Rental Housing Index has released its latest findings, revealing a staggering increase in rental costs.
Between 2016 and 2021, the largest increases in average rents in Canada were in British Columbia, which saw a 30 per cent jump.
“We need to invest heavily in non-profit housing, heavily in co-op housing and we have to reduce the barriers to actually increasing supply and developing more homes. We haven’t seen that happening,” said Karin Kirkpatrick, the Liberal housing critic and MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano.
Sixteen per cent of renters in the province are using more than half their income to pay for rent and utilities each month, which the index considers a crisis level of spending.
“Spending over 50 per cent of your pre-tax income on rent means you’re foregoing other basic necessities,” said Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.
“So you’re probably cutting back on food. Rent is always the first thing to get paid. You’re probably starting to cut back on kids’ extracurricular activities. So it has a real impact on quality of life,” she added.
According to the most recent census data from 2021, British Columbians are paying an average of nearly $1,500 dollars a month for utilities and rent.
That’s compared to $1,200 nationwide.
More and more people can no longer afford to put a roof over their heads.
“Inflation rates and other things are affecting people. So even who we consider most vulnerable is shifting. We look at a low to moderate income bracket for eligibility, but who falls into that category has steadily been increasing,” said BC Rent Bank’s managing director Melissa Giles.
BC Rent Bank is a project of Vancity Community Foundation, funded by the provincial government.
It supports a network of 15 different rent banks across the province. The network provides assistance to moderate income earners who are renters, and who are facing a temporary crisis and can’t afford rent or essential utilities bills.
When the project started back in 2019, it received about 300 applications a month.
That number has increased exponentially.
“So this year, in the first five months, we’ve seen over 3,000 applications come in from renters across B.C.,” said Giles.
Eleven per cent of B.C. renters are also living in “overcrowded conditions,” representing an increase of about 20 per cent over five years.
The situation is worse in Surrey, where 24 per cent of renters are living in cramped quarters.
Housing advocates say the latest data shows a collective failure of rental housing investments over the last quarter century.
“The hundreds of thousands of renters struggling to get by in today’s crushing rental markets expect all levels of government and industry stakeholders to work together to solve this crisis,” said Atkey.
In April, the province released its so-called Homes for People plan, including a $4-billion investment over three years and $12 billion over a decade.
It aims to increase density, deliver supportive housing, change zoning to make basement suites legal across the province and crackdown on house flippers.
“We had two decades of no investment in housing, and the chickens are coming home to roost, and we’re paying the price for that lack of investment. That’s why we have to double down, we have to build more housing, affordable housing, and we have to do it much faster than we’ve been doing,” said Ravi Kahlon, BC’s Housing Minister.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
