A new report from the Rural Development Network (RDN) on housing and service needs in rural and remote Alberta communities reveals that the main reason for people experiencing housing insecurity is low wages.
For the report, RDN surveyed 3,211 people from 21 participating rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in the province. The top three reasons for housing insecurity reported by respondents were low wages, inability to afford rent or mortgage payments, and increasing rent costs.
“One of the trends that emerged out of this 2023 housing and service needs estimation was that 69 per cent of housing insecure folks were employed at the time of taking the survey. As noted in this year's report, this is as a result of low wages,” said Syndey Stenekes, director of homelessness initiatives with RDN.
“It's really interesting, because it really does address the misconception people have that it’s folks who are unemployed that are experiencing housing insecurity. And we're finding that that is not the case. And that is a result of really low wages and not being able to keep up with the cost of living.”
Housing insecurity is an umbrella term used to encompass the entire spectrum of homelessness which includes unsheltered, emergency sheltered, provisionally accommodated, and at risk of homelessness.
On Oct. 1, six provinces raised their minimum wage, but Alberta was not among them. The province's $15 per hour base pay rate has not been adjusted since 2018.
“Maintaining the current minimum wage gives employers and employees predictability and stability during a time of economic growth and labour shortages. Alberta’s government has no immediate plans to change the current minimum wage,” said Andrea Smith, press secretary to the Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade.
“The minimum wage can be a floor that holds everyone up. Or it can be an anchor that drags everyone down. Unfortunately, it seems that the (United Conservative Party) has chosen the latter,” said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
“And that would be sad and frustrating at the best of times. But it's completely heartless and unacceptable during the inflationary times that we're currently living through.”
For McGowan, the findings of the report are further proof that “the inflation crisis is real.”
“It's hitting Albertans everywhere, including in rural Alberta. And from our perspective, the best way to help citizens deal with the crisis is to help make sure that their wages keep up with inflation. Anything less than that is inadequate,” he said.
“In that context, we're very disappointed to hear that the provincial government has no intention of increasing the minimum wage, even though it hasn't been increased for five years.”
During that time, the cost of living in Alberta has gone up by 18 per cent, McGowan said, “which is the largest jump in inflation in more than 40 years.”
“Not only has the government said that they're not going to increase the minimum wage this year, they’ve been clear they have no plans to do so in the future, either. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a deliberate wage suppression strategy at the worst possible time for Albertans.”
Along with talk of the minimum wage, Stenekes said there is interesting work going on in Alberta regarding a living wage, “and it really looks different across communities, depending on where communities are located and situated.”
“Wages certainly need to be higher in order for us to try and move more folks out of positions of housing insecurity,” she said.
According to RDN’s 2023 report, the number of housing-insecure survey respondents who were employed was 69 per cent, more than double the amount in the two previous needs estimations.
“High costs of living in rural and remote communities, low minimum wage rates, COVID-19, and the housing crisis are all likely contributing factors to why rates of housing insecurity are significant despite the majority of respondents being employed,” the report noted.
“Over the past year or two, the number of comments we've heard (from AFL members) about housing cost and housing insecurity has skyrocketed. It's gone from an issue that working people rarely talked about to becoming one of the top topics for discussion,” McGowan said.
“No other province has seen slower wage growth in Alberta over the past five years. So, you put those two things together — the rising cost of living and the slow growth in wages -- and that's a recipe for a crisis.”
While the government has no plans to increase the minimum wage, it is investing in affordable housing for Albertans, Smith said.
“Through our Stronger Foundations Strategy, we are investing $9 billion with our partners by 2031 to build 25,000 affordable housing units, increasing the supply by 40 per cent. Our government also recently announced an additional $16 million to bring outdated affordable housing units back into use across the province. This is on top of the $94 million over three years in Budget 2023 for capital maintenance and renewal funding.”
McGowan said there are three other things the government could do immediately to help those struggling with rising costs.
The first would be to raise the minimum wage to $17.70, what he said it would be if it had kept up with inflation, “and then it should be indexed for inflation on an annual basis, so we never fall behind again.”
The government should also reverse changes to Alberta’s labour code that make it more difficult for workers to join unions and bargain collectively, and easier for employers to avoid paying overtime, he said.
Changes brought in by the UCP in 2019 allow employers to pay workers who bank their overtime hours at straight time, rather than at time-and-a-half.
“For people who work a lot of overtime, which happens especially on a seasonal basis in rural Alberta, that's a big chunk of income for people every year that that they've been losing as a result of this change. It may seem like a small change, but I think it would be a very significant one.”
