The Real Top Issues Facing Canadians - Part 3: Canadian Economy & Quality of Life

Economic Security

You’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware that the global economy recently took a nosedive of such significance it’s only reference points were the Great Depression and 9/11. I can’t even remotely pretend to be an economics expert or discuss at length the myriad reasons for this but what I do know is that many of us have been led down a garden path that has led to many living far beyond their means in an effort to (falsely) boost our quality of life.

The United States and whatever shadowy folks that have been “drunk at the wheel” and steering our large and close neighbour straight into the rocks. A large part of that was the false economy created by offering to finance housing loans to people who simply could never qualify to buy homes they could never really afford. It’s beyond me to go into the reasons for this unfettered gluttony and the “movin’ on up” mentality of the folks who bought in, but the sub-prime lending crisis has essentially bankrupted the U.S. and has dragged all of the other international banks who bought into it, thus bringing the entire global economy to its knees.

How does this affect Canadians?

We can’t claim to have the same kind of sub-prime lending crisis, but a little of that has rubbed on us in the form of no money down mortgages and First Time Home Buyer programs through Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corporation have enabled borrowers with no money down to get into the real estate market, when they probably shouldn’t have. As a renter, I can understand the impetus to become a “landowner,” paying others’ mortgages is annoying, unproductive in raising the bar of my quality of life and helping me plan for the future security for my family.

An additional issue is that the unfettered real estate market has seen the price of all manner of homes rise to a ridiculously inflated level. In Vancouver Kingsway we’ve seen this, with basic, not even attractive homes are going for $700,000 or more. And people are still buying these homes and in some cases, these people are spending more than 70% of their total income on mortgages.

Then there are those 25-year and longer mortgages, what some refer to as Freedom 95. This is something our political leaders really need to pay attention to. The 2008 Homeless count here in Metro Vancouver found that the fastest growing population of homeless were senior citizens. That is alarming and in my opinion, a disgrace for all levels of governments to allow this to happen to our Elders.

Fundamentally, as much as the CMHC & the Conservative federal government wants to spin this issue, they are not investing enough money in affordable housing for Canadians. CMHC is running a dramatic surplus, some say about $2 billion. That is unacceptable when so many people are insecurely housed, or not housed at all. I want to know when my Canada decided that only certain people deserved to have housing and quality of life? This is rhetorical, I know when this started, but this is one of the things I find most shameful about the neo-conservativism of successive Canadian governments since the 80’s. It’s also short-sighted and frankly stupid public policy to have withdrawn federal investments in housing to the provinces. I just have this picture in my mind of people sitting at the top of a big pile of money while the homeless and insecurely housed die beneath them. I don’t want to live in a Canada like that.

Nearly 30 per cent close to retirement think income won't be adequate: StatsCan
Published: Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Canadian Press: Lauren La Rose, THE CANADIAN PRESS

In the Vancouver-Kingsway riding, housing affordability and security are pressing issues. Statistics Canada reports modest family incomes for most of us, well beyond the price of the average mortgage. With a 0.1% vacancy rate in BC, we’re all one pay cheque away from a missed mortgage, or rent payment and losing our housing, it’s that easy and simple. Most people don't realize how close they are to the street because we've been filling our pockets with fools gold and grabbing a slice of a quality of life that isn't sustainable on our real incomes.

Mortgage crisis may be looming for Canada
Homebuyers advised to save down payments, accept smaller starter homes.

Ray Turchansky, Canwest News Service. National Post.
Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

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Food Security

It is a well-established fact, one that the United Nations acknowledges, that there is a global food crisis, that will continue to grow more dire due to a number of public policy decisions and actions of those in power, both in Canada and elsewhere.

Food Security is one of the major issues facing many Canadians these days. You would not know that if you were looking at the federal leaders in this election. This issue does not rate anywhere in any of their platforms, but it ranks pretty high for many of citizens with climbing costs of basic food stuff. I don’t know about you, but the ever-increasing prices of food at the grocery store have definitely had an impact on how we shop for food and necessities. We simply can't afford many of the items we used to and have to use our limited funds more wisely. This includes cutting back on meals spent in restaurants in the community, impacting small local businesses too.

Food Banks, which were supposed to be a temporary solution, have become institutionalized and are on the frontlines of socio-economic trends impacting families. Food banks have seen new faces and a changing demographic requiring their support – the working poor who no longer have access to adequate and nutritious food for themselves and their children, in spite of being employed.

Some organizations, such as our very own Collingwood Neighbourhood House realize the issue of Food Security weighs heavily on many of our citizens and have taken leadership in creating the Renfrew Collingwood Food Security Institute, which offers community kitchens, gardens and other community food initiatives. They can be contacted @ foodsecurity@cnh.bc.ca or 604-435-0323 ext: 237; for more information

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BC leads the country in child poverty rates for five years in a row!!!

On November 24th 1989, all members of the House of Commons vowed to end child poverty by 2000. What have we seen, increased poverty, marginalization and barriers for many Canadian children in reaching their full potential.

Our Vancouver-Kingsway riding has a very high rate of immigrant families, single parent families, Aboriginal families and those with lower socio-economic status. Some of these families live in complete poverty and have no choice but to raise their children without everything that they need for success. In 2007, the United Nations ranked Canada a dismal 12th out of 21 countries Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Development in Rich Countries.

Family Poverty Rates in BC for 2005 (by family type)

Campaign 2000 has released the 2007 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty, revealing that 18 years after the 1989 all-party resolution of the House of Commons, the child poverty rate is exactly the same. Despite a growing economy, a soaring dollar and low unemployment, Statistics Canada data show:

·788,000 children – 11.7% - live in poverty
·A job alone is not enough. 41% of low-income children live in families where at least one parent works full-time all year, and the family still lives in poverty.
·The risk of living in poverty is not the same for all children. Poverty hits children in racialized, First Nations and recent immigrant communities much more often.

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I want our political leaders to understand that all Canadian children deserve the best opportunities for health, education and economic security. They are here now, this is their human rights and they are the future of Canada. This doesn’t take just words, but action. Child poverty can be eradicated in a wealthy nation such as Canada. It takes political commitment and will to make this happen.

Campaign 2000 urges all federal parties to set minimum targets of a 25% reduction in child poverty rate over the next five years, and a 50% reduction over 10 years. They are also calling for a national poverty reduction strategy.

Will it be Heat & Gas, or Housing & Food?

This is a question that many citizens of the United Kingdom have been faced with increasingly as their nation went down the path of deregulation and privatization, a situation that we here in BC are rapidly coming to. They’ve actually coined a new term to describe it: fuel poverty. Many of the working poor, seniors, persons with disabilities and other regular folks are rapidly coming to find themselves faced with the choice, food & housing, or heat and electricity? And it isn’t out of line to say that the record-breaking profits of the multi-national power companies in Britain are making those off the backs of citizens, who are begging for relief from their corporate overlords.

“The combined profits of the big six energy companies last year were more than double those in 2006, rising from £2.07 billion in 2006 to £4.3 billion in 2007.”

If the cost of housing wasn’t enough. Our provincial government, under Premier Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals, has allowed our Crown agencies, BC Hydro and Terasen Gas to de-regulate and privatize power, gas and electricity. The government’s appointees on the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) have also allowed BC Hydro and Terasen Gas to raise the costs of heat, water and electricity beyond what many can afford. Now, much of our water, hydro power and electricity are being sent to the United States and many of us find it more and more difficult to afford basic necessities of heat, water and electricity.

The BC government also introduced a carbon tax, which not only is applied to gas, which is used for transportation, but this tax will also be applied to every gigajoule of gas that we have to purchase from Terasen and other companies. This will make a phenomenal hit on citizens in rural areas, who have no choice about their transportation and the heat they need for their homes and families.

Already, many citizens, including seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants and individuals and families who live at, or below the poverty level have to choose between food and heat and electricity. And winter hasn’t even come yet. From what we have already experienced, it is predicted, that we will have a very cold winter this year. While these kind of decisions are made at a provincial level, I’m looking to our federal leaders to take some leadership here and get tough on provinces that are gouging their citizens and creating more economic insecurity and detrimentally impacting citizens quality of life. It is no mistake that the middle class is shrinking and sliding into lower socio-economic classes, while the rich are getting richer and the number of hands that hold the wealth of our nation becomes smaller and smaller. That is not smart, nor just socio-economic policy for Canadians.