BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response to 'LETTER: Put blame of homelessness where it's due,' published Dec. 11.
Mr. Szukalski puts the blame for homelessness on the shoulders of our prime minister and the number of immigrants. Unfortunately, he uses unverified/unsourced numbers.
He claims we are admitting three times our building “capacity” number (400,000 homes) through immigration. Does he believe we have admitted 1,200,000 people?
We did not.
In fact, according to Statistics Canada, the number of immigrants in 2023 was 471,550. Yes, very high — the highest ever, apparently. This number accounted for 1.2 per cent of our population and we do not have nearly enough housing for everyone.
Interesting, though, in 1913, 400,900 immigrants came to Canada, accounting for a whopping 5.3 per cent of our population (Statistics Canada). I am so glad this happened. Those people are our parents and grandparents.
For clarification, 400,000 homes to be built in Canada this year is not “capacity.” It is the number the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) expects builders will build — mostly large, suburban, $1-million-plus homes. There is endless capacity if builders could build what people could afford to buy.
According to Statistics Canada, in 1965, houses cost two to three times average after-tax income. Today, with the average Ontario house costing $878,620 and an average after-tax income of $87,700, houses cost 10 times that income. Ten times.
I agree we have to slow down immigration while we figure out how to house Canadian citizens and new immigrants, but immigration has not caused our homeless issue. The price of a home versus average income combined with the ever-increasing cost of everything we need to live, and personal and corporate greed, are just some of the things responsible for our plight, here and around the world.
In closing, the Loblaw CEO earns $22 million per year (Globe and Mail), 65 times the amount of an average CEO in 1990 (Statistics Canada). He earns 250 times the 2023 average person’s income of $87,700. Reportedly, his house in Forest Hill, Toronto (National Post), is worth $16 million to $18 million, just .72 per cent of his income versus an average person buying a home today at 10 times income.
I don’t envy his job, but CEO and shareholder greed has a result: The gap between workers and bosses has grown exponentially; living becomes more expensive by the day; and this gap helps to keep ordinary people unable to survive — immigrants or not — and homeless.
Ellen Cohen
Orillia
