519-646-2222Living in Canada
Living in Canada is extremely challenging and not getting
easier. The cost of living continues to
increase faster than incomes and taxation is not helping. Adding the new carbon tax to the mix it is
highly likely that Canadian consumers are paying more than half of their income
in some form of taxation. Paper,
ordinary laser printer paper has increased in price from about $9.00 to $12.00 per
500 sheets an increase of 25%.
House prices, in many areas, have doubled in the last five years, the cost of
food at the grocery store has increased substantially with some products almost
doubling in price. And yet, through all
of these increases the lowly wages in Canada have decreased continually for
decades.
If you earned the average family income in 1977 you would have had $19,740.00 per year, in 2018 that number would be $79,736.00. At first blush that may not appear too bad except that families have changed and contributors to family income levels are different. In 1977 the income probably came from a single income earner or was a combination of one full time income earner and one part time earner.
By 2018 the picture had changed, and the family structure
included more income earners. Not only
that, but taxes almost doubled reducing the purchasing power of each dollar
quite considerably. The result is that
Canadians have resorted to the use of credit to cover many of the basis necessities
of life.
In fact, the use of credit has, year over year, increased at almost three times
the growth rate of income, and the cost of goods sold, as noted above, has also
increased faster than incomes. Living in
Canada is becoming a more expensive proposition with each passing year and
theer is no ready sign of either taxation or debts abating.