When Kim Le went on maternity leave from her Toronto hospital nursing job, she always intended to come back — but this spring, the realities of housing prices in the GTA had caught up with her young family, and Le found herself calling up her manager to resign.
As they closed on a house in Barrie in March — one with three bedrooms for their family, a public school nearby and parks for their dogs — Le dialed her long-time workplace to deliver the news. “I didn’t plan to move this far, but that’s what happened,” she recalled telling them.Le’s case, of a nurse leaving the city’s workforce due to the high costs of living in the GTA, is singular. But it’s a phenomenon analysts and others have worried about on a broader scale.
As Ontario now battles with a health-care worker shortage — which hasn’t been limited to Toronto, extending out to other regions — Ontario Nurses’ Association president Cathryn Hoy says the high costs of finding housing in the city add yet another challenge when recruiting nurses to busy downtown hospitals. Many young nurses came into the Toronto area for school, she said. But if they couldn’t afford housing, Hoy said their stay was often clipped.
Hoy puts a starting hospital nurses’ salary around $66,000 per year. Using the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s definition of affordable housing — a home that costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s before-tax income — that nurse, alone, would have to spend $1,650 or less on their shelter costs each month to live within the guidelines.
Despite that, Merriman said, their workers were still struggling with the costs of housing — one factor, along with the stress and demands of working as a first-responder in a major city, that he believes has contributed to some difficulty recruiting and retaining paramedics in Toronto. Le knew part-time nurses who’d commuted from as far as Bradford and Orangeville to St. Michael’s, she said. Before her maternity leave, she said she’d already seen the staffing crunch developing, with several fellow nurses leaving amid the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Real Estate Daily Report (realestatedailyreport.net)
_VictoriaGibson No one can anymore. Wtf do they expect us all to do? Oh wait. Forgot. We are supposed to just die
_VictoriaGibson Nurses can not afford, people work for Tim Hortons/MacDonald can? Why the liberal media always cry for rich public workers with union? Did you really care the hard working people from private sector with minimum salary and without a union?
There’s always the Royal Victoria
Housing crisis is the labour crisis. News at 11.
I remember in 2017, 2018 when I was looking for an apartment with a balcony I found one for less than $1,200 fast forward to today a bachelor apartment in the same building going for between $1,595 to $1,700 now yes a bachelor!
Skyrocketing property values? Isn’t that exactly why the GTA voted Liberal in 2021🤷🏽♂️ You supported Justin’s fiscal policy of maintaining record low interests rates! Your property values grew & made you all rich!Now you want to blame Ford when people are priced out of the market?
Just yesterday during a conversation, a teacher who came to Canada, got certified/ licensed as a teacher here in ON, had to work factory jobs to pay bills. He said he had to run...could not handle the hardship. He was just promoted to Vice Principal in another country.
Skyrocketing property values? Isn’t that exactly why the GTA voted Liberal in 2021🤷🏽♂️ You supported Justin’s fiscal policy of maintaining record low interests rates! Your poperty values grew & made you all rich!Now you want to blame Ford when people are priced out of the market?
There needs to be rent control and price ceilings on all real estate. Otherwise no one can afford to live here and the economy suffers. It’s your choice, folks.
Poor baby doesn’t want to commute. Slow news day ?
And yet this very same newspaper blows smoke up Trudeau’s ass at every turn. He promised affordable housing 7 years ago, won a majority & broke his promise. He’s still promising affordable housing to this day. When will the MSM start to call Trudeau out? He’s a pathological liar
Revoke bill 124 now fordnation. Pay these heroes what they're worth.
Housing prices are still 65% overpriced?
...it's a hard discussion but maybe we need a location based pay rate.
Many workers in Toronto can not afford to live there. That is the reason the suburbs exploded & GoTrains became popular. My father commuted everyday & now I do as well. Toronto is too expensive for many people. She can suck it up & do what 1000’s do & stop crying poor me
Nurses make a lot of money especially right now . Unfortunately she couldn’t get a 3500SF home in Toronto so she had to move.
These are nurses who actually make good wages. It’s much worse for retail and service workers.
Why do people say they can’t afford Toronto? You can easily rent a bedroom or live with a roommate and pay $800 a month or less. I used to pay $600 at some point living in a nice area in a house shared with 3 other people.
Can you do even ONE report on someof the nurses who are still being fired over illegal mandates?
This is a direct result of the ridiculous immigration policies. Allowing wealthy immigrants to move here and use our infrastructure without a corresponding reciprocal contribution in income tax is absurd. This government is asleep.
Might have something to do with Liberal immigration policies … and reckless money creation … Hint: You can’t just increase the population by over 1% in a year and don’t expect it to have negative consequences, especially when they all want to live in major centres.
That's life. Oh well.
You know people have lived in Barrie and commuted to T.O for work for years, right. It's why Barrie is called the bedroom community.
You know, the free market could solve this...
It’s outrageous! Rent is insane. What is their in Toronto really? When hard working teachers and nurses and middle class who are the core here can’t afford housing or even a basement apt something has to give!
So sorry to hear about this. Best wishes. The government is clueless to less this happen.
This has to change! On October 24 vote for change! Vote Reginald Tull for your new mayor Tullronto We need our nurses… we need affordable living
Did she quit, or was she fired for not getting her COVID-19 vaccine?