BC Lags Behind Other Provinces in Life Satisfaction

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Scornfire

Could give a #### about having a place to Rent, there's more than enough of those, I'd like to be approved for the Mortgage that'd be less than 60% of my current real rent cost (not including utilities) without having to provide a ####ing 40% down payment. Meanwhile there's thousands of asshats out there getting approved for their 10th mortgage (off the collateral from other properties they've yet to fully pay off) for a pure rental property that they proceed to gouge people like me for the priveledge of more than completely subsidizing said mortgage. 10/10 system.

It's all part of the same issue IMO. the investors are so heavily involved in the game, because the shortage causes so much opportunity for them. As long as rents keep going up, the climate becomes more favorable for investors. That drives up the prices, the government responds by increasing interest rates/stress tests, etc.....

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I’ve talked with several people about salaries in Calgary in recent years (including someone who works in HR), and the most commonly cited figure for cost-of-living increase is 3 per cent. These are private-sector numbers. I don’t know if that’s just a Calgary thing, with salaries still depressed due to the energy-industry downturn (though not all the examples were in the energy industry).

I’d be curious to see the average annual private-sector increases in B.C. in recent years. Workers in all sectors may be losing out to rising cost of living. I’d be surprised if there’s a substantial gap between the private and public sector.

You would have to factor in how much more private sector employees make compared to their public sector counterparts. I can't speak for all industries, but I know when I went between the public and private sector in the natural resources industry, my salary changed by 10-20% for doing similar work.

[bc-chris]

this story popped up on one of the local news webpages today.... thought of this thread...

https://www.kelownanow.com/watercool...ary/#fs_115264

Bye-bye Kelowna, I've moved to Calgary
Kaitlynn McLellan and her two kids would still be in Kelowna, if only they could afford a house here.
"Definitely, I would have stayed," said McLellan, who moved to Calgary in April.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

You would have to factor in how much more private sector employees make compared to their public sector counterparts. I can't speak for all industries, but I know when I went between the public and private sector in the natural resources industry, my salary changed by 10-20% for doing similar work.

That's pretty standard though. Public sector employees generally get better working hours, better benefits, more job stability/security, and better pensions. It's definitely a trade off, and private salaries will and should be 10-20% more than their equivalent public counterparts.

Public salaries will never match private salaries, but they get all the other perks.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by blankall

That's pretty standard though. Public sector employees generally get better working hours, better benefits, more job stability/security, and better pensions. It's definitely a trade off, and private salaries will and should be 10-20% more than their equivalent public counterparts.

Public salaries will never match private salaries, but they get all the other perks.

Yep, the gold mines of Crown Corp Pensions (defined benefit)

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by blankall

That's pretty standard though. Public sector employees generally get better working hours, better benefits, more job stability/security, and better pensions. It's definitely a trade off, and private salaries will and should be 10-20% more than their equivalent public counterparts.

Public salaries will never match private salaries, but they get all the other perks.

I mean they have to. The public sector is like anything else in that you get what you pay for. I'm not talking about wasteful spending on middle-management, etc.; just speaking in terms of compensation. They need to be competitive or they'll suffer talent-loss just like any other large organization.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I mean they have to. The public sector is like anything else in that you get what you pay for. I'm not talking about wasteful spending on middle-management, etc.; just speaking in terms of compensation. They need to be competitive or they'll suffer talent-loss just like any other large organization.

No. They dont.

You dont get all of those perks and the same salary.

People have to determine whats important to them and those employment benefits have value, ergo as you get more perks and benefits the salary declines commensurately.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Locke

No. They dont.

You dont get all of those perks and the same salary.

People have to determine whats important to them and those employment benefits have value, ergo as you get more perks and benefits the salary declines commensurately.

I agree with that. I went to the public sector for better security and didn't mind a lower salary in exchange. I also never felt good about working for companies that took advantage of clients, which was always my experience in the private sector.

But salaries have stagnated well below their base level relative to cost of living for a long time now in the public sector of BC (at least where most people live). This isn't a new thing or post-pandemic thing. The financial tradeoff you speak of just isn't worth it for a lot of people anymore. I'm fine with the public sector making less, but there has to be a limit to how much less and it's probably time for a correction to some degree. The BCGEU isn't asking to be paid the same amount as the private sector, they just want to catch up relative to everything else.

[flylock shox]

I marvel every day that things keep ticking along in the lower mainland with the cost of living here. Well established professionals struggle to balance some of the nation's highest rents, property prices, gas prices, and overall cost of living here. How teachers, wait staff, cleaners, daycare workers, nurses, and other folks with modest salaries often very well below 6 figures are supposed to get by is beyond me.

At some point you'd just think things would get to a critical level where basic social machinery starts to break down. Sometimes I wonder if that's just what the DTES is: the canary in the coal mine...

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Locke

No. They dont.

You dont get all of those perks and the same salary.

People have to determine whats important to them and those employment benefits have value, ergo as you get more perks and benefits the salary declines commensurately.

Sorry, I maybe wasn't clear. The security, benefits, etc., are part of the total compensation package. That's how they stay competitive.

That said, they've also been gutting benefits for BC public sector employees for years. The pension corp is set up well but the benefits have been steadily decreasing over time.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Sorry, I maybe wasn't clear. The security, benefits, etc., are part of the total compensation package. That's how they stay competitive.

That said, they've also been gutting benefits for BC public sector employees for years. The pension corp is set up well but the benefits have been steadily decreasing over time.

This is a major issue for Western society going forward. We've got record numbers of people retiring and fewer and fewer young people are able to find stable careers, particularly in those unions from which people are retiring from.

You've got massive payouts incoming and relatively few people working to sustain those payouts.

It's basically the same issue facing housing. Where one generation is set to receive some major windfall, and the younger generations have been locked out of the market for too long.

You can make all the promises in the world to maintain to continue to pay pensions at a high rate and tie wages to the "cost of living" but where's the cash coming from? At the moment everyone's cash is getting sucked up into housing, either via elevated and outrageous mortgage and/or rent payments.

[JohnnyB]

Illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of unnatural death in British Columbia and is second only to cancers in terms of years of life lost.

At least 1,095 British Columbians are believed to have been lost to the toxic drug supply between January and June 2022, according to preliminary data released by the BC Coroners Service.

More than three quarters (78%) of the lives lost in 2022 were male and nearly the same percentage (73%) were between the ages of 30-59.

our province has now lost more than 10,000 lives to illicit drugs since April 2016

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022PSSG0056-001250

[activeStick]

It's a massive problem (not unique to BC, but exacerbated by the higher number of people here who have addiction problems) that impacts many walks of life. With such a cheap option in fentanyl that can stretch other drugs making them stronger at a much higher profit, it's not only taken straight on its own in place of heroin, but also laced into generally safer drugs like cocaine.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by activeStick

It's a massive problem (not unique to BC, but exacerbated by the higher number of people here who have addiction problems) that impacts many walks of life. With such a cheap option in fentanyl that can stretch other drugs making them stronger at a much higher profit, it's not only taken straight on its own in place of heroin, but also laced into generally safer drugs like cocaine.

Vancouver (and by proxy the Island) is the perfect storm for this problem.

Vancouver is a massive international water port and the main transportation hub for western Canada. Getting drugs transported and distributed is easy.

Vancouver was always expensive and always had a pretty massive gang element. If people are struggling to provide for themselves or family, or have other mental illnesses for other reasons (child trauma, abusive relationship, etc) it's pretty easy to turn to drugs for that depression.

The climate makes it a great place if you are going to be homeless.

As for the life satisfaction I can chime in as someone who moved from Calgary (basically raised there) to Victoria 17 years ago. When I moved, it was just my wife and I and we were in our mid-late 20s. We bought an average sized house for just under 400K. I absolutely struggled to find employment (I do IT Support) for about 8 months of moving here.

I found (and still do) people here to be more entitled, snobby, cliquey, and generally just less fun. The political spectrum here is also very exhausting. Protests every day. All the anti-vax people. Just stupid. Now that we have kids, I dont find this city great to raise a child. Infrastructure is lacking - the kids dont have much to do. Swimming lessons sellout in literally 10 seconds.

We wanted to upgrade the house to a larger size to complement our growing family and it's impossible. My wife and I make a decent income and no way we could afford a now average house price that would be a slight upgrade. We're fortunate enough to survive, but we're definitely not getting ahead here.

Our home is currently listed for sale (and has been for a few months) and once that bad boy sells we are coming back to Calgary to raise our kids.

[Fuzz]

Ya, my brother and his wife enjoyed it. Then they had one kid, and it was OK. Then they had a second kid, and it became apparent Vancouver couldn't offer much for them, so they left.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by cKy

As for the life satisfaction I can chime in as someone who moved from Calgary (basically raised there) to Victoria 17 years ago. When I moved, it was just my wife and I and we were in our mid-late 20s. We bought an average sized house for just under 400K. I absolutely struggled to find employment (I do IT Support) for about 8 months of moving here.

Victoria's biggest problem is that, due to its size, it has many of the problems other medium to large-sized cities have (crime, homelessness, cost of living, etc.), but due to location and demographics, it doesn't offer the same level of amenities and entertainment that other cities of similar size do.

I still prefer living here to Calgary, but if you're not really into the outdoors, it gets pretty boring pretty fast out here.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

this story popped up on one of the local news webpages today.... thought of this thread...

https://www.kelownanow.com/watercool...ary/#fs_115264

Calgary boasts quality of life, affordable housing and a booming economy.

Maybe I haven't been keeping up with the news but this can't be true.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by activeStick

It's a massive problem (not unique to BC, but exacerbated by the higher number of people here who have addiction problems) that impacts many walks of life. With such a cheap option in fentanyl that can stretch other drugs making them stronger at a much higher profit, it's not only taken straight on its own in place of heroin, but also laced into generally safer drugs like cocaine.

Many of the homeless and drug addicted on BC are also from other parts of Canada. If you're homeless you simply won't survive in many other places through winters.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by cKy

Vancouver (and by proxy the Island) is the perfect storm for this problem.

Vancouver is a massive international water port and the main transportation hub for western Canada. Getting drugs transported and distributed is easy.

Vancouver was always expensive and always had a pretty massive gang element. If people are struggling to provide for themselves or family, or have other mental illnesses for other reasons (child trauma, abusive relationship, etc) it's pretty easy to turn to drugs for that depression.

The climate makes it a great place if you are going to be homeless.

As for the life satisfaction I can chime in as someone who moved from Calgary (basically raised there) to Victoria 17 years ago. When I moved, it was just my wife and I and we were in our mid-late 20s. We bought an average sized house for just under 400K. I absolutely struggled to find employment (I do IT Support) for about 8 months of moving here.

I found (and still do) people here to be more entitled, snobby, cliquey, and generally just less fun. The political spectrum here is also very exhausting. Protests every day. All the anti-vax people. Just stupid. Now that we have kids, I dont find this city great to raise a child. Infrastructure is lacking - the kids dont have much to do. Swimming lessons sellout in literally 10 seconds.

We wanted to upgrade the house to a larger size to complement our growing family and it's impossible. My wife and I make a decent income and no way we could afford a now average house price that would be a slight upgrade. We're fortunate enough to survive, but we're definitely not getting ahead here.

Our home is currently listed for sale (and has been for a few months) and once that bad boy sells we are coming back to Calgary to raise our kids.

The great news is with the massive bump on Victoria real estate prices, you'll be able to buy a pretty great home in Calgary. Much easier than going the other way.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by blankall

The great news is with the massive bump on Victoria real estate prices, you'll be able to buy a pretty great home in Calgary. Much easier than going the other way.

We missed listing by a few weeks. Once those June interest rates kicked in it has completely stalled houses in our area. Some of the more expensive ones seem to be moving, but not our modest little house.

You are right though, we're going to get a decent home (looking towards Okotoks) for the money - it just couldve been way more debt off the table if we we're maybe 3 weeks quicker listing.

Such is life.