Rent reduced for Riders, early budget items approved by Regina Council
6h ago
Council retroactively slashed $1.33 million in rent owed by the Roughriders.
A new report shows rental unaffordability is rampant across Canada due to low minimum wages and a lack of affordable housing.
Released June 18 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the report looked at the ability for a full-time minimum wage worker to afford a two bedroom apartment without spending over 30 per cent of their earnings.
It found that three per cent of neighbourhoods across the country met the standards, and zero neighbourhoods existed in Toronto and Vancouver.
For Saskatchewan, the CCPA determined that a single income, full-time worker would need to earn $22.12 to afford rent comfortably, or work 80 hours a week at the current minimum wage of $11.06.
Saskatchewan’s minimum wage is currently the lowest in the country.
Nairn MacKay of End Poverty Regina said the low minimum wage is only one aspect of the issue.
“We really need to restore the role of public housing and funding public housing,” said MacKay. “So we’ve got to fight it on the housing affordability side and on the income side.”
The report also recommends an increase to affordable housing to address the issue.
Saima Desai, organizer with Fightfor15 Saskatchewan advocates for a minimum wage of $15 per hour and said a wage increase is the biggest thing to allow those earning minimum wage to afford housing.
“The problem with housing is not a lack of availability, it’s a lack of affordable housing,” Desai said. “It’s a lack of movement on a minimum wage to ensure people working low wage jobs are actually able to keep up with the cost of living.”
MacKay agrees that a minimum wage increase to even $15 an hour would help, especially for two-income households, but he asserts public housing is a priority, especially for those who receive social supports.
“I have a problem with the idea of the supports that we’re paying to people who need them going to build private equity,” said MacKay. “With publicly-funded housing, some of that money stays in the province and cycles through the system.”
A report also by the CCPA done in 2016 indicated that a livable minimum wage for a two-income household with two children should be around $17 per hour.
Paul Gingrich co-authored the report for the CCPA and said for individuals in poverty, it’s difficult to live comfortably on a low minimum wage; he’d like to see more done to tackle the issue.
“I’d like to see a basic income,” he said. “That would at least provide a base from which they can work.” Gingrich used to teach sociology at the University of Regina.
He said since the report came out in 2016, the federal government unveiled the child tax benefit; that has likely helped lower the recommended livable minimum wage to $15 per hour, because low-income families get extra money for their kids, Gingrich said.
Desai said there’s a lack of political will on behalf of the province to properly change the issue.
“The government is looking out for industry,” said Desai. “They’re not looking out for workers and they’re not looking out for poor people in the province.”
Based on the report, the most unaffordable neighbourhoods in Regina are the northwest and southwest/Cathedral areas.
The full report is available below: