Quote:
Originally Posted by urban1
Man, a lot of misinformation in this thread as well as people with funny ideas.
Calgary can be a nice place to live but no one is going to move to Calgary to work at Burger King. Maybe immigrants from a 3rd world country but someone from Saskatchewan isnt going to move to Calgary to work at BK no matter what level rents are at.
The vacancy rate is near 0% in Calgary. Whats rent control going to do? Its not going to increase the number of available units. Rent control has been shown to do the opposite and in fact lower the number of available rental units.
High housing costs (both rental prices and home purchase prices) have the impact of forcings residents to spend more of their incomes on housing. This reduces the money you have available for other things including savings and discretionary spending and this can have an impact on your quality of life.
Things have gotten out of whack in this city. Too much growth too quick and things have gotten out of perspective. Theres always going to be people at the low end of the wage spectrum and these people need somewhere live. Every city has issues with affordable housing and Calgary like all these other cities needs to work to address it.
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The big thing isnt the shortage in workers in Dairy Queen that is causing the trouble. The shortage in labourers and tradesmen is the problem. Canada has more than enough of these to supply Calgary's needs, and many of them live in much crappier places than Calgary, but are given false incentives to stay there. Yes I realize picking up your family and moving is a big thing, but the amount of young people in Canada willing to move for a decent job is surprisingly high.
I agree inflation is a problem, but the salaries have increased more than enough to compensate. Try going to Vancouver or Toronto and see how far a dollar gets you.