This excellent piece of journalism by Mike Howell in The Courier, which can be read here, is paid for by the sale of advertising, including this on the inside front page of its print edition …
… a highlight of which is: “Elites from all over the world are gathered here, but only a handful of them can take a place on this hottest street.”
I’m not trying to incite class warfare, and I really am pleased that we have “one of the most famous streets in the world.” Honest!
I was thinking of this ldichotomy ast night as I went down West Fourth, there’s a big increase in the amount of people sleeping rough in front of the stores. Yet just around the corner on Burrard in the Ferrari dealership a big, brightly lit Lunar New Year event with beautifully dressed guests and dancing dragon.
Vancouver is not an industrial or a manufacturing town. It’s a resort. Locals working in any resort do not make much money, except those getting tips.
Even minimum wage workers in Alberta make more money because the businesses they work (and all other provinces) for don’t have to pay sales tax (PST) or accountants to calculate and file it.
One of the largest ports in N.A. is not considered industrial? All those office towers downtown and elsewhere are filled with minimum wage jobs?
Restaurants are having trouble finding employees because there are so many other better paying jobs around, particularly in the newer “industrial” economies of tech, arts, motion picture production and innovation.
There is some truth that wages here are often too low, but it’s not because we’re a resort in the normal sense. In part I think it’s because you can still have a pretty good lifestyle here doing free and nearly free stuff and too many people have sacrificed the gung-ho, get-ahead drive of places with less to offer but a career.
With all due respect – yes I agree the port is a large and important employer and there are many well paid jobs in those office towers. Even the big banks, insurance and brokerage firms are branch offices for the head offices in Toronto or Montreal. VanCity might be big in BC with $20 billion in assets. Compare Scotia Bank with $915 billion, or Toronto Dominion with $1.2 Trillion. All the pharmaceutical head offices and the big food processors are elsewhere and that means all the top paying R&D and marketing, etc., is elsewhere too. Even the local BC Rail is now owned and headquartered in Montreal. The largest airline in BC is probably Harbour Air. A nice little airline but certainly not anything like an international airline like WestJet or Air Canada. Even Air Transat has over 30 big jets. There is zero auto or truck manufacturing or head office in Vancouver and no substantial energy companies, except BC Hydro. Fortis BC is a Newfoundland company.
The BC film industry came in last year at $2.99 billion. Impressive. Ontario had $2.97 billion.
Tech is doing OK. A few weeks ago Deloitte reported, “This year, all top 3 companies fast growing tech companies come as no surprise hail from Ontario … almost 60% from Ontario. British Columbia took second spot with 13 companies / almost 30%,”.
All these and the massive army of lawyers and accountants, suppliers and etc. to keep them all running.
You are correct that people sacrifice to live in Vancouver, or they move to Vancouver to retire in the resort.
Pointless contrast, at best it’s envy, at worst, it’s childhood “look, somebody has more stuff than me!” It incites less than it reveals.
To reach zero diversity income/wealth, all global wealth would be divided equally & everyone on the planet were given about $55k. Within a matter of minutes, that would start to change, and within a couple years, we’d be back to where we are now.
Well said Dierdre.
If, suddenly, there were a hundred, or two hundred thousand new units made available for the homeless, word would get out to the rest of Canada and those units would be filled in a heartbeat. Add another hundred thousand – same deal.
Like the rest of those in parts east of the Rockies, I used to watch the weather report daily – noted every degree and the windchill factor. When do we look at windchill here. Used to get depressed in the fall just knowing the misery of winter was coming. ‘Mon pays c’est l’hiver’ – not. Cannot handle the brutal winters. We forget about that here.
To imagine solving the homeless problem here is naive and Polyannish.
Anyone in the rest of Canada that isn’t tied emotionally to where they grew up, and has the wherewithal, will make a beeline here, or to Vancouver Island, or the Sunshine Coast. Canadian winters are such a hardship.
I’ve lived in Montreal a few times – love the city. Could not live there permanently. Spent time in Ottawa in the winter. Deathly.
Absolutely, Arnie. Calgary got 40cm yesterday and Montrealers are slip sliding around. We have daffodils and they are almost all envious.
Jan 24 – Gazette
https://postmediamontrealgazette2.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/24jan2018boris.jpeg
If the price of property here were to go down there will be easterners that will decide to make the jump. All directly proportional to the housing cost decline.
Less cost of buying a house, more easterners moving in; ergo, prices go up – again.
Life with tiny homes and big trucks or motor homes with big engines is an appealing lifestyle to some and a cost effective housing strategy for many. Tiny sized homes on wheels (van, truck & camper, fifth wheel travel trailer, motorhome) can be found in use at both private and community owned parks throughout the small towns and unincorporated villages of rural B.C. where their owners are welcome neighbours and a source of revenue for local business. Tiny sized homes on wheels and in use in the big city are found in backyards, back lanes, industrial yards, and increasingly in parking spots on city streets. In Canada we do not have the classic shanty town, instead we have the old RV and so for the price of a driver’s licence and insurance one can have luxurious accommodations’ that are far better than a piece of cardboard on a cold wet sidewalk. This is home ownership at much cheaper rates than rental, pets are your choice, friends your choice, a locking door your choice, control over ones’ life a personal choice. Vancouver is not two cities but one big city with enough room in it for everyone to find a place.
Vancouver should create a parking area for the people living in an RV. Why not? They are everywhere and not demanding social housing.
The parking should be serviced with shower facilities and cleaning/sewerage drainage. The facility should also be serviced with electricity lines, so that during cold weather the RVs don’t have to run their engines, or use dangerous oil heaters.