Ontario might call itself “a place to grow,” but Nicole Forster, a 25-year-old nurse from London, Ont., whose pay has been frozen for years in a chronically underfunded healthcare system, doesn’t see it that way.
Nicole Forster, 25, says a pay freeze imposed on nurses by the province and the soaring cost of living are two of the reasons she’s leaving Ontario for Alberta. (Submitted by Nicole Forster)
“Staffing issues have been insane. Bill 124, with its limits on nurse increases in pay, has been an insult,” she said. “I’m leaving the province at the end of April, early May. In Ontario, it feels like I’m never going to be able to own a house.”
She’s moving to Edmonton, a city where the average one-bedroom rental is $1,099 and an average home cost $369,286 last month — a far cry from the $1,774 one-bedroom rental and $621,912 for an average home in her hometown of London.
Some 50,000 people left Ontario for Alberta or Atlantic Canada in the last 12 months. Analysts blame the soaring cost of living, stagnant wages and low housing affordability as the reasons for the record number of people seeking greener pastures elsewhere —and while the province’s population is by no means shrinking, Ontario has never seen this large an exodus before.
‘Record levels’ of outmigration from Ontario
“We’re seeing record levels of outmigration from Ontario to other provinces, primarily Alberta and Atlantic Canada,” said Mike Moffatt, an economist and the senior director of the Smart Prosperity Institute, an Ottawa think tank looking at the economy.
Analysts blame the soaring cost of living, stagnant wages and low housing affordability as the reasons for the record number of people seeking greener pastures outside Ontario. (John Badcock/CBC)
“Usually, in any given year, about 80,000 people across Canada move to Ontario and another 80,000 leave. In the last 12 months, we’ve attracted the same amount of people, but we’ve actually lost an extra 50,000 or 130,000.”
Moffatt said most of them are young adults, between 25 and 35, though some seniors are leaving as well. Many of them are moving to communities with lower-priced homes, such as Edmonton, Alta., as well as Saint John and Moncton, NB.
“I think it’s clear that given that it’s a lot that’s in their first-time homebuyer years and they’re moving to markets with much lower price homes, that’s driving a lot of it.”
That fact isn’t lost on the Alberta government, which has cheaper homes as a central plank of its “Alberta Calling” marketing campaign. The ads have appeared on public transit in cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, where it’s hoped young adults waiting for their stop might heed the siren’s call of lower real estate prices and go out west where they’ll settle down and start a family.
Alberta capitalizes on Ontario affordability crisis
“Alberta is calling again, and this time we’re hoping people from across Ontario and Atlantic Canada answer,” said Brian Jean, the province’s Minister of Jobs Economy and Northern Development at the re-launch of a campaign he said attracted 33,000 people to Alberta last year.
Even though Edmonton, Alta., is more than twice the size of London, Ont., in terms of population, its vacancy rate is four times higher and rent is, on average, $700 a month cheaper. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
“We have the most affordable housing in all of Canada. People now, for instance, can sell their house in Toronto or in Vancouver and buy four houses here, live in one and rent three. That’s the kind of market we have right now.”
“No sales tax, low cost of living, very affordable — this is exactly what job seekers will get when they call Alberta home.”
Back in Ontario, Moffatt said the campaign is having the desired effect.
No sales tax, low cost of living, very affordable.– Brian Jean, Alberta’s minister of jobs economy and northern development
“There’s a lot of frustration in Ontario from people who have well-paying jobs but still can’t afford a home. They’re looking at the fact that you can get a place in Edmonton cheaper than Tillsonburg or anywhere in southwestern Ontario — that looks like a very attractive proposition.”
The only solution, Moffatt said, is for Ontario to fix its housing affordability problem before it’s too late.
“We’re going to have this situation where we need to build a lot more homes, but we’re not going to be able to do that because all the roofers and plumbers and electricians that are moving across the country, so I do think this is a problem both economically but also socially.”
“I don’t think it’s a great thing for our young people that they feel if they want to buy a home, raise kids that they’re not able to do that in Ontario, and they need to go somewhere else.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
