Most of the people leaving are between 25 and 35 years old. They are looking for cheaper places to live
Ontario calls itself “a place to grow,” but Nicole Forster, a 25-year-old nurse from London, Ont., doesn’t see it that way. Her pay has been frozen for years because the province’s healthcare system is always short on money.
“Problems with staffing have been crazy. Bill 124 has been an insult because it puts limits on how much nurses can get paid “she told me. “I will leave the province at the end of April or the beginning of May. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to buy a house in Ontario.”
She is moving to Edmonton, where an average one-bedroom rental costs $1,099 and an average home cost $369,286 last month. This is a far cry from her hometown of London, where an average one-bedroom rental costs $1,774 and an average home costs $621,912.
In the past year, about 50,000 people moved from Ontario to Alberta or Atlantic Canada. Analysts say that the record number of people leaving Ontario for greener pastures is due to the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and high cost of housing. Even though Ontario’s population is not shrinking, the province has never seen such a large number of people leave.
There are “record levels” of people leaving Ontario
“Record numbers of people are leaving Ontario for other provinces, mostly Alberta and Atlantic Canada,” said Mike Moffatt, an economist and the senior director of the Smart Prosperity Institute, a think tank in Ottawa that looks at the economy.
“About 80,000 people from the rest of Canada move to Ontario every year, and about the same number leave. We’ve brought in the same number of people over the past year, but we’ve lost an extra 50,000 to 130,000.”
Moffatt said that most of them are between 25 and 35 years old, but some older people are also leaving. Many of them are moving to places where homes are cheaper, like Edmonton, Alberta, and Saint John and Moncton, New Brunswick.
“I think it’s clear that a lot of it is caused by the fact that a lot of them are in their first-time homebuyer years and are moving to markets with much cheaper homes.”
The Alberta government is aware of this, which is why cheaper homes are a big part of their “Alberta Calling” campaign. The ads have been seen on public transit in cities like Toronto and Ottawa, where it is hoped that young adults waiting for their stop will hear the siren song of lower real estate prices and move out west to start a family.
Alberta capitalizes on Ontario affordability crisi
“Alberta is calling again, and this time we want people from Ontario and Atlantic Canada to answer,” Brian Jean, the province’s Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Northern Development, said at the re-launch of a campaign he said brought 33,000 people to Alberta last year.
“Our homes are the least expensive in all of Canada. People can now, for example, sell their home in Toronto or Vancouver, buy four homes here, and live in one while renting out the other three. Right now, the market looks like this.”
“There is no sales tax, the cost of living is low, and it is very cheap to live in Alberta. This is exactly what job seekers will get when they move there.”
Back in Ontario, Moffatt said that the campaign is having the effect that they wanted it to have.
There is no sales tax, and the cost of living is low, so it is very cheap.– Brian Jean is the minister of jobs, the economy, and northern development in Alberta.
“People in Ontario who have good jobs but can’t afford to buy a home are very frustrated. They are looking at the fact that you can get a place in Edmonton for less money than you can in Tillsonburg or anywhere else in southwestern Ontario. This seems like a very good deal.”
Moffatt said that the only way to solve the problem is for Ontario to fix the price of housing before it’s too late.
“We’re going to need to build a lot more homes, but we won’t be able to do that because of all the roofers, plumbers, and electricians who are moving across the country. I think this is both an economic and a social problem.”
“I don’t think it’s good for our young people to think that if they want to buy a house and raise a family, they can’t do that in Ontario and have to go somewhere else.”