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6. What problems does Canada face today?
Canada is indeed one of the best places in the world to live. A beautiful vast land rich in natural resources, abundant clean water, sufficient land mass, allowing 273.8 square km per 1,000 people, and an incredibly safe country to live. It has excellent universal health care, and Canadians have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. If you’re thinking of moving to the area, check out car & home insurance quotes at myinsurancebroker.com. Canada took the top spot in five attributes in the official 2017 Best Countries survey, more than any other country with the following qualities: respects property rights, trustworthy, religious freedom, politically stable and well-developed public education system. After Australia, Canada is considered the most favorable place to live. It comes within one point of the top spot on a 100-point scale according to the United Nations. However, Canada is not immune from having its social problems that need addressing. Some issues are uniquely Canadian such as Canada’s treatment of its First Nations people, the effects of globalization, climate change, world economics, and the change in the relations between the current US administration. Here are some of the main issues that confront Canada.
Housing
In recent years, Canada’s housing problems have exploded as surging house prices in Vancouver and Toronto reach the extremes, pricing out local buyers. Offshore money and both domestic and foreign buyers point the blamed for a housing speculation boom. There are now taxes on non-local buyers and regulatory changes to the mortgage rules and interest rates made to cool the housing market. What can federal policymakers do about it? Unfortunately, not much—because the core problem is a lack of low-cost, single-family homes in cities, driven in part by local and provincial government policies. Despite record low, interest rates in the last few years, house prices have risen to stratospheric levels. The solution does not lie solely in reducing foreign buyers. The lack of housing supply also needs to be addressed at the municipal level. Provinces like British Columbia has restricted home building on a large amount of land it has protected for agriculture (The ALR – Agricultural Land Reserve) around Vancouver. The result is rocketing land prices and cumbersome extra regulatory hurdles for building homes, condo, and apartments that (in Vancouver for example) can add almost $250,000 to the construction of a new house. New developments need always to include affordable rental housing to curb the housing crisis.
First Nations Rights
Canada has not lived up to its treaty obligations with the First Nations, based upon negotiations in the 19th century. Numerous studies show First Nations people in Canada are at the bottom of the social, economic scale with high rates of incarceration, poverty, unemployment, suicide, addiction, health issues, and other social problems. A legacy of racism and brutal efforts to assimilate in the past, have left First Nations people with a legitimate sense of grievance towards these injustices. The legacy of the forced school system, in particular, have wreaked havoc on the First Nations communities. The government has only recently accepted responsibility for what was done by Canada in the last two hundred years. Even today, issues such as proper housing, illness, and poverty are still considerable issues in First Nations reserves and communities that need more attention. First Nations are also at the forefront of environmental protests as industry such as oil, encroach on sacred traditional First Nations land. There are much more initiatives needed to be done in this area by the Federal and Provincial governments.
Wealth inequality.
Canada now has the most prosperous middle class in the world, but the growing gap between rich and poor has never been as wide until recent years. Growing inequality has become a fact of life although not as pronounced as in the United States. Canada’s ghettos are more likely to be wealthy immigrant enclaves rather than crime-ridden social projects. Still, Canada is subject to the same issues in many industrialized countries in the West that are contributing to growing wealth inequality. Stagnating incomes, the loss of traditional industries with permanent low-skill high-paying jobs, the growth of job-killing technology, automation, outsourcing, the explosion of e-commerce, a shift to the freelance, part-time and contractual employees are contributing to a less stable society when it comes to the job, and ultimately—a growing unequal society. The insecurity of prospects is the norm now, especially for the young. While baby boomers enjoy rising house prices and come off years of permanent, well paying full-time employment with benefits and fat pensions, the Millennial generation finds itself in the “gig economy” with low-paying unstable jobs, exorbitant rents, and little hope of ever buying a home on their own.
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