Canadians feel the squeeze of rising inflation, survey finds
Higher expenses are leading to more Canadians living paycheque-to-paycheque and taking on growing credit card debt, according to a national survey.
It all adds up to life getting less manageable for many Canadians of late.
"Because of the rising interest rates, because of the increase in food costs, because of the increase in gas costs, where they were able to manage it before, they’re no longer able to," said Kailey Taylor, of David Reynolds and Associates in Sudbury.
“It’s something that they’ve been able to keep on top of. But now, there truly is less left at the end of every month.”
The study from the National Payroll Institute suggests 26 per cent more Canadians are living paycheque-to-paycheque compared to last year. In addition, 11 per cent are spending more than they make.
That's leaving less for the future: nine per cent of respondents said they don't save anything.
“I live paycheque to paycheque. I don’t have a big bank account, I don’t save that much money,” one person told CTV Northern Ontario.
“It’s by no means easy, in this day and age, this environment, there is inflation,” said another.
Taylor said the combination of rising costs and static income leads to an obvious conclusion.
“The fact that people don’t have savings or that there’s more people who are unable to save doesn’t surprise me,” she said.
It's not a problem that will be solved any time soon, particularly for people who sign mortgages while rates are rising.
“There current mortgage payment could be paid with their current level of debt servicing, it’s going to be more of a struggle," Taylor said.
"They’re going to make sure that their mortgage payment is a priority, which means that it’s going to come from the line of credit, or it’s going to come from the credit card payment.”
Taylor said people should live within their means -- and speak to a professional to make sure they're not overspending.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.