While housing costs are widely known to cost more in Canada’s two largest cities, he said other goods and services cost more in Alberta — like electricity and insurance, for example.
Huh, I guess burning natural gas isn’t the panacea certain people are selling it as. Not sure what the deal is with insurance, though.
The article also notes that incomes are higher, although that’s bouyed up by a minority of really high earners, so it doesn’t mean too much.
The UCP government removed a cap on private insurance premium increases during their last term, saying that the Alberta NDP’s cap on insurance premiums would harm the province’s competition for pricing for insurance.
Since the time the UCP removed that premium cap that the Alberta NDP had put in place, most people have seen their car insurance premiums jump to 150% - 200% of what it had previously been, and home insurance premiums have been rising more sharply as well.
Sure am glad the UCP protected those corporate profits instead of their constituents.
My car insurance dropped by like 200% when I moved from AB to BC.
Motorcycle insurance was basically the opposite, however.
Our electricity isn’t expensive because of how it’s generated, it’s expensive for the same reason our insurance is expensive: our government opposes regulations and is pro-big-business
Not sure what the deal is with insurance, though.
Probably private. We found massive cost increases - what? We were lied to! - about the switch to private insurance.
And, with no one actually responsible for insuring you - if you can pick anything, no one’s on the hook - you can get dropped from an insurer, black-listed amongst friendly companies, and unable to actually get insurance. Consider this useless anecdote:
-
2004, raccoons rip up roof tiles and cause a small roof leak. Fixed easily via insurance claim (for safety because you never know).
-
2020, inflow connection to toilet pops off and begins spraying water on floors and walls of bathroom. When homeowners return home, floors in upstairs and foor/walls of kitchen water-damaged. Fixed under claim, phew.
-
insurance company drops customer for ‘persistent pattern of water-damage claims’ and other insurers won’t insure due to history.
-
bring on the loan-shark costs!
My dear friend has been through the ringer, but it seemed so well-executed, this scarlet-letter process, that it can’t be rare.
The regional-gov insurance programme may seem costly now, but an organization we can still manage indirectly through voting measures and who must insure without prejudice like this is in-fucking-valuable.
-
We have poorly regulated private insurance, and ambulance chasing lawyers are everywhere driving up costs.
Is that really all it is? I did notice CBC linked that after I posted this. I was wondering if the tornadoes and really cold temperatures make home insurers nervous or something. Then again, we have less pest issues.
Hail insurance sucks here. It’s almost guaranteed to hail at least once a summer.
That’s sure true. Do they not get as much hail out east?
Damn, electricity rates are nearly double what I pay in BC.
This thread is honestly making me wonder if I should move. Vancouver is sure beautiful, I’ve just always assumed I couldn’t afford it.
Usually when people say a place is expensive they mean housing/rent. That certainly applies to Vancouver and to nearly everywhere else that anyone wants to live.
Yeah. And by that measure I’ve always said Alberta is underrated. In some way’s it’s better, in some ways it’s worse, but it’s not anachronistic like people seem to imagine, and property is just way cheaper. If Vancouver actually works out to the same price once you factor other things in, though, it seems awesome when I’m out there.
I moved to Alberta in late 2020 because I was told the COL was lower… it wasn’t. Some things were slightly cheaper than BC, but once I included all the things like car insurance, electricity costs, and… even housing… and then factoring in winters, snow, that brown muck that covers EVERY surface of Calgary from November to March… I bailed and moved back to BC.
Speaking personally, moving to Calgary would mean buying a car and giving up our 15-years-behind-the-curve rent, so it would be a huge boost in costs. I can’t imagine they have great transit or bike infrastructure, and the provincial politics seem hell bent on making Alberta into a backwater extraction economy.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It now costs more to afford basic necessities in Calgary than in any other major city in the country — including Vancouver and Toronto — according to Statistics Canada’s updated market basket measure.
Families are considered to be living below the poverty line if their disposable income is less than their city’s market basket measure.
New data, from 2022, shows that Calgary’s annual market basket measure is $55,771 — up from $51,861 the previous year.
According to the latest census data, Albertans’ median employment income per individual in 2020 was $41,600 — still below Calgary’s market basket measure (for a household), but higher than Ontario and B.C.
“Because of that, we know that a lot of people at those lower income levels are really far away from even being near that market basket measure line, and I think we have to take that into consideration,” said Reid.
In conversations with those living around and below the poverty line, Reid says people are feeling anxious, panicked and resigned that the situation will continue worsening.
The original article contains 517 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
