Statistics Canada Reports II

[WarrenC12]

SSP meme winner 2024!

[Jaws]

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Source: me, just now.

Funny, but you missed the point.

[Architype]

Both sparsity and density figure big in the Canadian psyche, land, land everywhere, but not enough to develop.

Metro Vancouver is the fourth-most dense region in North America

Douglas Todd: In light of the prevailing mythology that Canada is "empty," it’s counter-intuitive to realize Canada’s cities are unusually crowded. And still unaffordable. . . .

Given that Canada is geographically the second-largest country in the world, it’s understandable that many feel it is largely empty.

The belief makes it possible for social-media commentators, such as Slazac, to attract 2.9 million viewers by posting a crude map and commenting: “Canadians are so dumb. They complain about the housing crisis, but they have all this empty land to build cities.”

...

Despite its sweeping openness, only 4.3 per cent of the land in Canada can grow agricultural products, compared to 17 per cent of the U.S, 33 per cent of Germany, and 52 per cent of India.

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columni...ourth-most-dense-region-in-north-america

[Nouvellecosse]

While the ranking order of the list seems ok, the actual figures are not at all accurate. Just to look at the metro area of Toronto for example, it does not have a population of 8 million people living within 30km of the city centre. And it most certainly doesn't have a density of 6k per km2 covering a radius of 30km from the city centre. Even just the Toronto city proper only has a density of about 4500/km2 let alone an area covering 8 million people. To gey that many people you'd need to cover not even the whole metro area but the entire inner golden horseshoe. But the 30km radius from the city centre doesn't even cover all of the GTA. If you make the new City Hall the starting point, 30km only reaches as far as Brampton City Centre and barely reaches Pickering GO.

Canada also doesn't have "unusually dense cities". North America north of Mexico has unusually low density cities in the global setting and that , even based on the list itself, is in no way unusual or an outlier for NA. The list clearly shows that our densest metros are much less dense than the densest on the continent (which actually is an unusually metro) while being on par with several major metros in the US. If those density numbers were actually correct it would mean Toronto is only 3% denser than SF which does not make for anything unusual which implies a significant outlier.

The article itself is more reasonable than I expected, but it makes the very significant mistake of conflating the density within a city/metro with the number of cities/metros in a country (and the amount of total land available for new cities). But there isn't any real connection between the two. Paris is much denser than London, yet the UK has half the land area and around twice the population density of France. And the US as a country is much less dense than China or Japan yet NYC is just as dense or denser than any of their largest cities (excepting Hong Kong which was largely planned and developed under British rule). And Buenos Aires is denser than any Dutch city despite Argentina being a fraction of the Netherlands' density. And so on.

It also implies that increasing housing supply is a failure since it hasn't lowered prices, but that's overly simplistic to the point of being useless. It's like if your lake is getting full so you open the dam a bit to let out some water. But only enough to counteract the volume of water flowing into it from a major river. Then saying, "Gee, I was told that if I opened the dam that water levels would drop! Turns out that opening the dam was pointless." But that's not quite how that works...

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Architype

Both sparsity and density figure big in the Canadian psyche, land, land everywhere, but not enough to develop.







https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columni...ourth-most-dense-region-in-north-america

Those numbers are wrong anyway so why bother ?

[zahav]

The jobs report came out, and pretty weak, as many expected. Unemployment rate up, anemic employment growth. Expect the economy will play an even larger role in the upcoming election, as this is the first real doldrums for the Libs since 2015, Covid doesn't count as it was a global crisis and not just a normal economic slowdown. It still isn't horrendous by any means, the main thing that is hurting us is the massive population growth and labour pool growth, the employment growth would need to be much higher to keep pace. Every CMA saw an increase in their unemployment rate y/y, except for Halifax, Saskatoon and Victoria, and these were not big decreases. But some places like Oshawa and Windsor increased the most. Same as the past while, AB is still far from stellar, despite intaking monumental interprovincial migration. More proof this new scenario of migration is way less dependent on economic conditions than ever before, it's astounding, job market and migration used to be heavily correlated, but not now. The huge growth in population has not been absorbed at all, with younger people the worst off. This reflects annecdotal evidence that me and many of my friends have seen across the country, with job seekers having a much harder time. I have also recently learned of this "ghost job posting" phenomenon, which made me sick. Companies populating online job listings with fictitous positions with no intention of filling the job, it's their way to appear they are growing and flexing to competitors (having no postings publicly makes them look weaker I guess?). But wow it is a terrible thing for job seekers, applying for jobs that may or may not even exist. Meanwhile the clickbait media like Daily Hive post articles all the time boasting about cities and companies hiring lol, who knows how many of the postings are even real. Sad reality

EDIT, link to the StatsCan release which has all figures I referenced:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240906/dq240906a-eng.htm?HPA=1

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

There is a massive difference between Montreal and Halifax in total cargo tonnage. 34M vs 4,6M

Port of Montreal TEU 1.7M
(Contrecoeur) TEU 1.15M

Port of Halifax TEU 600k

There will be an expansion of the Port of Montreal in Contrecoeur.
https://www.arup.com/projects/port-of-montreal-contrecoeur-terminal-expansion-project/
https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/...e-contrecoeur-terminal-expansion-project

• Video Link

Montreal also has a 4+ Million person Local market and most ships that dock there unload everything. Halifax usually transfers about 600-900 containers per ship visit usually to lighten their loads for the NYC Container complex's. As the World evolves companies like MSC will be visiting Halifax more often to transfer goods down the St Lawrence. 14,000 TEU equivalent ships are going to be the majority of Tonnage in the coming decades especially as propulsion transits to LNG.

[harls]

I wonder how many of those crates have stolen vehicles from Ontario in them.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

Those numbers are wrong anyway so why bother ?

At a glance, the numbers definitely look weird - I'd be curious to see the methodology. Is it weighted density perhaps?

Either way, the ordering of cities at least isn't too far off from the list of densest actual urban areas (as measured by their countries stats agencies): http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

It also implies that increasing housing supply is a failure since it hasn't lowered prices, but that's overly simplistic to the point of being useless.

I'm sorry but that makes no sense, anyway. Population growth has far outstripped new housing construction such that, statistically, there's been a decrease in supply. The point being that there's been no effort made to increase supply so how can any proclamations be made about how "it hasn't decreased cost and is therefore a failure"?

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Spocket

I'm sorry but that makes no sense, anyway. Population growth has far outstripped new housing construction such that, statistically, there's been a decrease in supply. The point being that there's been no effort made to increase supply so how can any proclamations be made about how "it hasn't decreased cost and is therefore a failure"?

We've been in a huge building boom for over 2 decades now, and there have been additional measures such as both Toronto and parts of BC enacting restrictions on foreign ownership and taxing vacant units, and more recently the federal gov started offering extra funding for municipalities that ease zoning barriers or other impediments. There have also been other local policies in some jurisdictions such as using municipal lands for housing and cutting fees for affordable developments. So there have definitely been efforts but they haven't been enough to overcome demand.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Source: me, just now.

Thats Funny!!

[MonkeyRonin]

Canada Saw The Share of Households Struggling To Make Ends Meet Jump 50%

Daniel Wong
September 10, 2024

The struggle is real, according to nearly a third of Canadian households. This morning Statistics Canada (Stat Can) released the 2022 Canadian Housing Survey, a bi-annual window into the cost of living across the country. The latest findings reveal that both renters and homeowners are increasingly struggling. Renters were most likely to report financial difficulty, but homeowners aren’t faring well either. It’s not just mortgage costs, as the fastest-growing demographic experiencing financial difficulty was mortgage-free homeowners.

Nearly A Third of Canadian Households Struggle To Make Ends Meet

Canadians are increasingly struggling to make ends meet. The share of households reporting difficulty handling necessary expenses was a massive 30.9% in 2022, up from 20.4% a year prior. In other words, the share grew 51.5%—while actively compensating for the breakneck population growth. A troubling trajectory, showing an equally disturbing trend for both renters and homeowners.

Canadian Renters Are Most Likely To Struggle With Finances

Canadian renters are more likely to struggle with the cost of living post-pandemic. Nearly 2 in 5 (39.4%) renters struggled to make ends meet in 2022, compared to 28.8% in 2021. The share increased 36.8%—substantial growth, but not as fast as the average. Put a pin in that, we’ll circle back in a moment.

Breaking down the data, households in affordable housing are having a tougher time. In 2022, almost half (48.3%) of those in social and affordable housing reported struggling, compared to 38.2% of those in market rentals.

Canadian Home Owners Saw Financial Stability Erode The Fastest

Canadian homeowners are struggling less but saw sharper growth than households in rentals. The share of owner-occupied households struggling came in at 26.4% in 2022, up from 16.4% in 2021—when mortgage rates were at a record low. That’s 61% growth in a year for the share, much faster than renters have seen. While the share of those struggling is smaller, it’s still a steep climb.

Rising mortgage interest costs are an obvious driver of this issue, but not the only one. The share of struggling, owner-occupied households with a mortgage reached 33.8% in 2022, showing 59% growth from a year prior. In contrast, those without a mortgage hit 16.3%, but their share grew a mind-blowing 69.8% in a year. The demographic may have the smallest share struggling, but it was the fastest-eroding group.

Canadian inflation is slowing but households are most-likely facing harsher conditions. Interest rates peaked in 2023, after the survey was collected. Many mortgage borrowers also haven’t renewed since rates climbed either, and therefore haven’t experienced the “mortgage shock.” Though it’s worth emphasizing again—even those without a mortgage are increasingly struggling from the elevated inflation rate. A recent uptick to unemployment likely won’t help either.

https://betterdwelling.com/canada-saw-the-share-of-households-struggling-to-make-ends-meet-jump-50/

[KnoxfordGuy]

Alberta is 50,000 away from 5 million people on the population clock. Ok, as you were lol

[craner]

And PEI less than 20k from 200k.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by craner

And PEI less than 20k from 200k.

The 200k threshold for PEI however is probably at least several years away however. Alberta will reach 5M in a couple of months.

[BlackDog204]

When are they coming out with the quarterly provincial population estimates?

[Aimhigh]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

We've been in a huge building boom for over 2 decades now, and there have been additional measures such as both Toronto and parts of BC enacting restrictions on foreign ownership and taxing vacant units, and more recently the federal gov started offering extra funding for municipalities that ease zoning barriers or other impediments. There have also been other local policies in some jurisdictions such as using municipal lands for housing and cutting fees for affordable developments. So there have definitely been efforts but they haven't been enough to overcome demand.

There's no building boom. Maybe some cities have experienced one but not the country as a whole. Besides that, housing starts have fallen at a time when increased construction is needed. The federal government hasn't done anything substantial at all to address this issue and has been an utter failure at even acknowledging there is a problem.

I don't understand why people defend any government in Canada on this. This is a problem that has been on the radar for well over a decade and the only action we've seen is a few crumbs thrown at it which amount to lip service. The proof is clear for all to see that this country is definitely in the midst of a housing crisis and has been for years. It's ridiculous that anybody would claim the federal or any provincial government has done anything. But, I guess that's what you get when you literally put landlords in charge of housing. I don't know how anybody under 40 can ever be expected to afford a home of any kind and no level of government is doing anything worth noting to address it. A few zoning changes and apartments for single mothers certainly doesn't solve the problem or even begin to hint at the scale of the problem. We have disconnected politicians whose greed has made them forget what we've elected them to do. They don't do their jobs: they look after corporate and personal interests. That's every one of them in any party you care to name. Useless and corrupt.

[svlt]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

When are they coming out with the quarterly provincial population estimates?

Probably within the next two weeks