Rising cost of living worries Canadians, defines Ontario election

'Understand your budget': adviser President of Rubach Wealth, Elke Rubach discusses how young Canadians can budget their finances as the cost of living continues to rise.

The rising cost of living is worrying Canadians and defining the Ontario election as prices go up on everything from groceries to gas.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the average price for a litre of fuel just hit a record-breaking $2.09 while prices in Montreal soared to $2.15 on Monday. Both are below Vancouver, where prices recently reached $2.34. Experts predict no immediate relief.

“Usually I put $50 a week,” a driver told CTV News. “Now I’m putting $80 a week for the same amount of gas.”

Food prices have also surged.

"Vegetables have gone up in prices, canned goods have gone up in prices, the fruit and everything else,” a shopper told CTV News. “Even the meat. Meat's ridiculous.”

The rising cost of living appears to be top of mind for voters in Ontario, where the leaders of provincial parties debated Monday for the last time before a June 2 election.

Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford has pledged to temporarily cut gas and fuel taxes while the Liberals are promising to lower all transit fares to one dollar until 2024. The NDP is proposing grants for energy efficient upgrades to homes, which could help lower utility bills.

"I'm undecided as far as which party, but whoever can take control of the cost of living,” a voter told CTV News.

Sarika Agrawal says she would spend $100 a week to feed her family of five a year ago. Today she says it costs closer to $200.

"Grocery prices and gas prices: two things they should do something about,” Agrawal told CTV News.

There has at least been some relief in the housing market. For the second month in a row, the price of homes in Canada dropped, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. The average cost of a Canadian home in April was $746,000, down from a record high of more than $816,000 in Feb. 2022 – a decrease of nine per cent. Although increasing mortgage rates are helping cool the market, houses in Canada are still more expensive than they were a year ago.

The hot housing market in Vancouver is no exception. In the city’s east side, a dilapidated and completely uninhabitable two-bedroom home was recently listed for $1.5 million.

“There's not a whole lot out there for $1.5 million, strangely enough,” Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson told CTV News.

Statistics Canada is set to release its latest inflation numbers on Wednesday. While many hope inflation has peaked, data released in April showed inflation had reached a 30-year-high of 6.7 per cent.