Give Us a Break
Monday magazine (Victoria)
By: John Threlfall
10/07/2009

Here’s a news flash: According to the just-released results of the annual Quality of Life Challenge Affordability Index, Victoria is an expensive place to live and lacks adequate rental housing. Not coincidentally, it is also the seat of government for the province with the lowest minimum wage in Canada, which just happens to have one of the highest poverty rates in the country and poorest track records for children and families in crisis. …

The Affordability Index pegged the wage “required to maintain a modest quality of life” for a family here in the Capital Region at $17.02 per hour, up 3.8 percent from 2008 . . . although most of the people I know didn’t see any sort of income raise this year, and many of them are just happy to still have a job. … Oh, and that’s $17.02 per hour for each parent, with the calculation based on the assumption of “two adults working 35 hours per week each while providing a home for two children.” …

And when they say “modest” quality of life, they’re not kidding: “While it is more than a survival wage or minimum wage,” state the findings, “it is not an affluent wage, and it is lower than what is needed to obtain much of what it considered normal in our community.”

Generated annually by a wide-ranging group of community partners, the Quality of Life Challenge seems to be pulling no punches. “Despite historically low unemployment and new sources of wealth creation, poverty in British Columbia’s Capital Region, particularly among the working poor, is unacceptably high. The high costs of housing (both purchased and rental) coupled with low paying jobs is a disturbing trend that is undermining the vibrancy of our region and resulting in the expansion of the working poor and further economic and social deterioration.”….