[guavadelic]

A couple making close to $300,000 combined likely isn't the best example to highlight affordability challenges, but this recent article by CTV sheds some light on some of the factors contributing to Ontario's economic challenges.

For David Paribello, the dream of moving back to Toronto has turned into a painful and frustrating dilemma.

Paribello and his wife left the GTA for California in 2019, planning to return “down the road” to be closer to family. But when they began looking at jobs and housing last year, he said the numbers just didn’t add up.

In the U.S., he said, job prospects are plentiful for someone with his skillset.

“I was getting one or two meaningful interviews a week. In Canada, I could probably count the number of meaningful interviews on one hand,” Paribello said.

One Toronto job he interviewed for offered $80,000 to $90,000 annually.

That role, he said, was with an established multi-billion dollar company. He said most companies, in his experience, tend to offer higher salaries south of the border.

“Dollar for dollar, I need to (at least) be around the $200,000 mark,” he said. “I don’t know how we can live a comfortable lifestyle in the GTA on the salaries that they’re offering.”

Fewer opportunities, higher costs​

The couple kept their Oakville home until 2021. They now own a five-bedroom home in California, bought for just over US$1 million.
“For a five-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom place in the Burlington, Oakville area you’re looking at probably a minimum of a million and a half or more,” Paribello said.

But it’s not just housing that concerns him.

“Why live in a city or an area where the pay is low? The traffic is some of the worst in the world. The job opportunities are not as abundant as they are in other countries,” he said.

The story also references the recent CivicAction report that warned middle-class households earning up to $125,000 are being squeezed out of the GTA and that the city's price-to-income ratio is now at 11.8 times the median household income.

For housing, the costs just don't make sense and will contribute to the ongoing brain-drain to the U.S.

 

[taal]

Isn't rent getting a cheaper daily ? No need to buy ... and prices are also dropping there.

 

[Northern Light]

A couple making close to $300,000 combined likely isn't the best example to highlight affordability challenges, but this recent article by CTV sheds some light on some of factors contributing to Ontario's economic challenges.

View attachment 679479





The story also references the recent CivicAction report that warned middle-class households earning up to $125,000 are being squeezed out of the GTA and that the city's price-to-income ratio is now at 11.8 times the median household income.

For housing, the costs just don't make sense and will contribute to the ongoing brain-drain to the U.S.

While housing can, and should fall a bit more in absolute dollars, and more still adjusted for inflation; there is little question that we must address the huge problem of wage stagnation and suppression.

I have repeatedly noted that minimum wages here are well below Peer jurisdictions in CAD. From the U.K to Australia to Seattle, SF and Even Chicago (which has notably lower housing costs than Toronto)...entry level wages are generally in the $22-25 per hour range. This has an impact on higher income brackets, particularly lower-middle income.

But even in the middle to upper-middle categories, we've see relative wage suppression, the article notes this in tech which is a key area where apples to apples you'll earn 1/3 to 1/2 more in key U.S. tech centres like the Bay Area vs Toronto.

We have to acknowledge that we've done this by flooding the market with both TFWs and new grads, and made it easy for businesses to pay less. This, btw, leads in turn to less productivity.

Its only when you have to pay more for labour than your peers that you start looking in earnest at automation, better training, new procedures and other innovation.

When you can compete based on cheap labour, you do. But that's not a winning formula for Toronto or Canada.

 

[Towered]

A couple making close to $300,000 combined likely isn't the best example to highlight affordability challenges, but this recent article by CTV sheds some light on some of factors contributing to Ontario's economic challenges.

View attachment 679479





The story also references the recent CivicAction report that warned middle-class households earning up to $125,000 are being squeezed out of the GTA and that the city's price-to-income ratio is now at 11.8 times the median household income.

For housing, the costs just don't make sense and will contribute to the ongoing brain-drain to the U.S.

My heart goes out to the guy who thinks he can't live affordably on a 200K annual income...*rolls eyes*

 

[evandyk]

I don't think they're asking for anyone to feel sorry for them. They just find it unfortunate that between lower wages and higher housing prices, it makes no financial sense for them to come back to Canada, so they'll be staying in California long term. We should be trying to close that gap, not just for this family, but so that we don't see a constant exodus of skilled young people.

 

[guavadelic]

We have to acknowledge that we've done this by flooding the market with both TFWs and new grads, and made it easy for businesses to pay less. This, btw, leads in turn to less productivity.

Its only when you have to pay more for labour than your peers that you start looking in earnest at automation, better training, new procedures and other innovation.

When you can compete based on cheap labour, you do. But that's not a winning formula for Toronto or Canada.

Mark Carney expressed similar sentiments back in 2013:

(Carney) added that the program should concentrate on shortages of high-skilled workers, and not on service jobs and other lower-wage categories that critics say are now being filled by foreign imports. The solution to that, said Carney, is for employers to pay higher wages and improve productivity.

“One doesn’t want an over-reliance on temporary foreign workers for lower-skilled jobs, which prevent the wage adjustment mechanism for … making sure Canadians are paid higher wages, but also that the firms improve their productivity,” he explained.

https://financialpost.com/news/econ...must-be-temporary-aimed-at-high-skills-carney

When he made those comments back then the share of non-permanent residents in Canada was 2%. It currently is 7%, and the Carney government is aiming to bring that down to 5%.

 

[DSCToronto]

This article on UK road safety ought to interest Mr Ford (who loves roads) but ..

How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

The death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950.

ourworldindata.org

or

 

[gabe]

A couple making close to $300,000 combined likely isn't the best example to highlight affordability challenges, but this recent article by CTV sheds some light on some of the factors contributing to Ontario's economic challenges.

View attachment 679479





The story also references the recent CivicAction report that warned middle-class households earning up to $125,000 are being squeezed out of the GTA and that the city's price-to-income ratio is now at 11.8 times the median household income.

For housing, the costs just don't make sense and will contribute to the ongoing brain-drain to the U.S.

I got friends in the US, who moved down there from Toronto for the good paying white collar jobs. When got Trump elected, i saw the facebook posts from them planning on moving back to Toronto. They still haven't moved back, and probably never will, because of the cost of housing and the crappy paying jobs.

 

[guavadelic]

This seemed obvious in the moment...

Ontario Liberals say in a report looking back at their performance in this year's provincial election that their campaign's focus on health care and a family doctor shortage did not resonate with voters, who were more focused on affordability.

"While the central platform's focus on health-care was grounded in pre-campaign focus group testing, many candidates and campaign managers found that voters were more focused on affordability and economic uncertainty," the party review said.

"There was a common sentiment that available messaging — particularly around access to doctors — did not align with the issues that resonated most with voters during the short campaign period."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-liberals-campaign-review-affordability-1.7627920

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

(Mayor) Doug Ford steps in with his opinion on speed cameras.

“Hopefully the cities will get rid of them like Mayor (Steven) Del Duca did in Vaughan, or I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly,” Doug Ford said.

Would there be legislation just like what happened in the Ford government's controversial bike lane bill which would create legal protections for the province if cyclists are hurt or killed after lanes are removed? If a pedestrian or cyclist is hurt or killed from speeders, too bad. Doug is a disciple of the automobile deities to care.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatens to get rid of automated speed cameras​

From https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-doug-ford-get-rid-automated-speed-cameras/

Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants municipalities to get rid of automated speed cameras – or else he will.

Over the last few days, 17 automated speed cameras were cut down in Toronto, part of an ongoing trend that has seen 800 incidents of vandalism against the cameras reported to the city this year.

Ford called the cameras nothing more than a cash grab for the city and suggested there are better ways to deter speeding, particularly in school zones.

“If you want to slow down traffic at school, you put the big huge signs, big flashing lights, ’Crossing Area,’” he said after an unrelated speech Tuesday morning.

“People will slow down.”

The city issued about $40 million in fines from automated speed cameras in 2024 and so far this year the total is already up over $45 million, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Toronto first asked for speed cameras back in 2016 and a year later, then-premier Kathleen Wynne made changes to the Highway Traffic Act to allow for automated speed camera use in school and community zones.

Toronto has 150 automated speed cameras, Mayor Olivia Chow said, and they are aimed at keeping communities safe.

“Cutting down speed cameras is not a joke,” she said at a news conference Tuesday.

“It’s a criminal offence. ... I expect the police to do what they can to bring the criminals to justice and work with the city very closely to prevent further thefts, vandalism, destruction of public property, because we need to keep our community, our most vulnerable road users, such as children and seniors, safe.”

Ford, however, indicated he takes a dim view of the cameras’ effectiveness.

“Hopefully the cities will get rid of them like Mayor (Steven) Del Duca did in Vaughan, or I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly,” he said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles scoffed when she heard the premier’s comments.

“What an idiotic thing to say,” she said.

The cameras are about trying to ensure road safety, aside from the issue of municipal revenue generation, Stiles said.

“I think that if you’re speeding, you should stop speeding, because kids are going to get killed and pedestrians get killed, and nobody, nobody wants to hurt anyone,” she said.

 

[PinkLucy]

Wait, wasn’t Doug just railing about cracking down on driving infractions to save lives?

 

[lenaitch]

Yes, a big sign with flashing lights is all you need. Kinda like pedestrian crossovers or crosswalks at intersections, and nobody ever gets hurt at those. He also must be forgetting the school zone speed signs - with flashing lights. Maybe they're not big enough or flashy enough for him.

 

[PL1]

Yes, a big sign with flashing lights is all you need. Kinda like pedestrian crossovers or crosswalks at intersections, and nobody ever gets hurt at those. He also must be forgetting the school zone speed signs - with flashing lights. Maybe they're not big enough or flashy enough for him.

I kid you not... At Sunnybrook the STOP signs have flashing LEDs around them. Drivers are almost uniformly ignorant

 

[gabe]

I kid you not... At Sunnybrook the STOP signs have flashing LEDs around them. Drivers are almost uniformly ignorant

STOP signs seem to be a suggestion these days. I was crossing a street recently and this Karen in her Tesla Model S, rolled through the stop sign up to my kneecaps as i was crossing! I looked over at her and she sarcastically does the "come on hurry up" wave, i flipped her the bird and she rolled down the window and screamed at me lol. I guess she was in a big hurry to sit in traffic lol

I really don't get the all hate for speed cameras? Observe speed limits, if you don't, pay the fine! As a pedestrian most of the time, its nice to be able to cross a street with speed cameras near by. You don't get those idoits going so fast they have to blow the red lights, which happens all the time!

 

[PL1]

I really don't get the all hate for speed cameras? Observe speed limits, if you don't, pay the fine!

100% this. It's an optional tax