Calgarians suffer from the financial pinch as both grocery prices and rental costs continue to soar, making it difficult to meet basic needs.
This is especially true for international students, who are paying tuition fees three times higher than domestic students. Coupled with the increasing costs of food and shelter, it is becoming more difficult to live.
So how did we get here?
Increased inflation had played an important role in increasing rates of local housing in Calgary.
The housing crisis has been adversely affected by interprovincial immigration. It is also one of the common reason for increase in rent prices.
People from all over the Canada and around the world have been attracted towards Calgary on a larger scale.
The recent years has seen the more change in soaring grocery bills. The category of staple foods is the most common among the list of increased food items.
“I have experienced dairy products and vegetables have seen more raise in prices as compared to other grocery items,” said Navdeep Mangat, an employee at DC Grocery Store.
According to Statistics Canada, price of 4-litres milk has seen an increase of almost one dollar since May 2021. The price of 4-litre of milk used to be $5.52 in May 2021 and is $6.61 in May 2024, which is among the daily essential need of individuals.
There are several factors which initiated the surge in grocery prices. Some of the most common culprits in this inflation are climate change and extreme weather conditions.
Both of these natural factors have influenced the food production in some way. Food production and crop yield are directly affected by weather conditions.
“The climate crisis is worsening the quality of life including the materials we intake,” said Mon Flores.
The quality of vegetables and fruits is also being impacted by subsequent change in weather conditions, added Flores.
This picture has been taken by Amandeep Kaur at DC Grocery store (Martindale).
Global warming has caused extreme heat situations that have resulted in inferior quality of fresh produce and created supply chains burdens.
These are some of the issues that have resulted in higher prices at the checkout counter.
“The smoke from forest fires interrupts the natural process of plants and as a result leads to poor output from the crop yield,” said Amrinder Dhaliwal, a student of Agriculture & Technology at Olds college.
Smoke prevents plants from getting direct sunlight which ultimately leads to inferior crops. Consequently, the quality and quantity of these crops affect the selling price.
It’s a retail theory, when something is in low quantity, the price of the product raises automatically.
“The price of goods and supply have direct relation with each other,” said Kiran Dhillon, student of Business Management at University of Calgary.
Meanwhile, rent prices are also skyrocketing at a very fast pace.
According to the Urban Reform Institute’s Demographic International Housing Affordability Study conducted in 2022, Calgary ranked 10th out of the 92 cities in the survey.
The study as of 2024 suggested that Canadian cities are becoming increasingly unaffordable.
Interprovincial and international immigration has led to a housing shortage which has resulted in rent increases.
It is as simple as supply and demand, when more people need space to live, prices go up. If there is less space available, housing costs will continue to rise.
