Most Vancouver parents think living costs will force kids to leave city: poll

New poll: Families face financial pressures Family Day is meant to be a day for relaxing with loved ones, but a new poll suggests Metro Vancouver families are feeling a lot of financial pressure.

As families across Metro Vancouver enjoy the Family Day long weekend, a new poll suggests many are concerned financial pressures will eventually force their loved ones to move away.

The Research Co. poll conducted for CTV News found 53 per cent of Vancouver parents think it's "very likely" or "moderately likely" their children will have to leave the city due to the high cost of living.

"It's a high number," said Research Co. president Mario Canseco. "That's half of parents saying, 'I'm going to have to visit my kid one or two towns over.'"

And those concerns aren't limited to Vancouver. Across the Metro Vancouver region, 42 per cent of parents think their kids will have to move away from their current city, according to the poll.

That could stem from the fact that many parents are already feeling the squeeze themselves, Canseco said. About 60 per cent of parents across the region said they currently find it difficult to make ends meet – and that number jumps to 79 per cent in Vancouver.

The most common financial stressors cited were child care costs and day-to-day expenses, such as groceries and clothes. Interestingly, despite paying some of the country's highest gas prices, few respondents pointed to transportation as a major factor in their financial struggles.

"It's more about groceries," Canseco said. "You have a lot of people who are relying on public transit or biking more or doing things differently to get where they have to go."

One-third of the parents polled said they experienced housing-related stress or other financial stress either "frequently" or "occasionally" over the past year – and half said they find it difficult to put money away in savings.

"That's problematic," Canseco said. "People are saying most of what I'm getting, I have to spend on day-to-day expenses and it's making it hard to save for the future."

Research Co.'s survey was conducted online from Feb. 3-5 among 631 adult parents who have children who are 18 years old or younger. Polls of that size have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.