Housing not affordable for minimum wage earner in 25 of 28 urban areas.Ottawa--The current minimum wage minimum wage, lowest wage legally permitted in an industry or in a government or other organization. The goal in establishing minimum wages has been to assure wage earners a standard of living above the lowest permitted by health and decency. The minimum has been set by labor unions through collective bargaining, by arbitration, by board action, and, finally, by legislation. rates are insufficient in 25 of 28 metropolitan areas in Canada to afford the average rent for a bachelor apartment, a report published by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association indicates. Larger housing units are unaffordable every where. Based on the norm of 30% of income for rent, the study prepared by Steve Pomeroy of Focus Consulting Inc. shows that Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa have affordable housing while Sherbrooke Sherbrooke, city (1991 pop. 76,429), S Que., Canada, at the confluence of the Magog and the St. François rivers, E of Montreal. It is the commercial and market center for the surrounding farm and mining region and is an industrial city, with textile mills and plants producing mining machinery, rubber products, and leather goods. The Univ. of Sherbrooke (1954) is in the city., Trois-Rivieres and Saguenay Saguenay (săg`ənā, săg'ənā`), river, c.125 mi (200 km) long, S Que., Canada. It issues from Lac Saint Jean, or Lake Saint John (c.375 sq mi/970 sq km), in two channels, the Grande Décharge and the Petite Décharge, separated by the Île d'Alma, and flows generally SE past St. are the only areas where an average bachelor unit can be obtained by a person earning the minimum wage. Canada's second largest city, Montreal, requires a minimum wage of $8.96 an hour to afford an average bachelor unit. The provincial minimum wage is $7.60 per hour. The city has more affordable housing than Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Oshawa Oshawa (ŏsh`əwə), city (1991 pop. 129,344), SE Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario. The production of automobiles, begun in 1907, is the leading industry, since Oshawa is the home site of General Motors of Canada., Halifax, Kitchener, Calgary, Victoria, Kingston, Edmonton, Windsor, St. Catherines, Niagara, and Gateneau. In 15 cities more than 2 full time minimum wage earners are required to find affordable housing without spending more 30th of income for the rent, or crowd more people into the lower rent smaller units. The report, Minimum Housing Wage--A New Way to Think About Rental Housing Affordability, is the first using this method of relating minimum wages to average rents in Canada. The concept of a minimum housing wage was developed by the US National Low Income Housing Coalition and is published annually in the US by the NLIHC NLIHC - National Low Income Housing Coalition as a way to draw attention to this economic issue. Rental housing is an important source of housing for lowest income earners in urban areas. Across Canada one third of all households are renters and in Quebec 90% rent their dwellings. www.chra-achm.ca
Least Min. wage, per hr Actual
affordable to afford bachelor provincial min.
urban areas apt, using 30% of wage per hr
income Oct. 2005
Toronto 13.92 7.45
Vancouver 13.92 8.00
Ottawa 12.08 7.45
Most affordable
urban areas
Sherbrooke 6.48 7.60
Trois Rivieres 6.17 7.60
Sagenay 6.02 7.60
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