Report paints bleak picture of Canadians’ financial health ahead of holiday shopping season

By Dean Recksiedler, Hana Mae Nassar

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Here’s something to consider before you start all that holiday and bargain shopping: A new survey compares the financial health of households across the Canada, and the news isn’t great for people in Vancouver.

It turns out Vancouverites are “living large,” with high income and high wealth — but also high debt, according to the report released by Prosper Canada and the Canadian Council on Social Development.

Other places that joined Vancouver in that category include Toronto, Calgary, Kelowna, and Guelph.

The report looked into the 35 largest urban centres in Canada, and found that Calgary and Edmonton are the healthiest, both at the top of the index “by a wide margin.”

B.C.’s Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission are among the worst when it comes to the ratio of total-debt-to-income, at more than 150 per cent.

Saskatoon, Calgary, Guelph, Victoria, Kelowna, Barrie, Oshawa, and Toronto are also lumped into this category.

“Urban Spotlight shows that our financial health is heavily influenced by where we live,” Elizabeth Mulholland, CEO of Prosper Canada, said. “Assets and debt, not just incomes, matter when it comes to our overall financial health.”

More than four-in-10 Canadians are apparently living paycheque-to-paycheque, while about one-in-five say they can’t handle a $2,000 emergency.

Read the full report:

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.citynews1130.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/sites/9/2019/11/28/PRO-025_NFHI-Cities-Spotlight-Report_accessible_rh11.pdf”]

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