Vancouver Art Gallery site of nation-wide cost of living protest

A group of people came together to protest the rising cost of living in Canada at the Vancouver Art Gallery Monday.

Part of a nationwide movement, the organizers of the Cost of Living Protest asked people in cities across the country to join them on Canada Day.

Those cities include Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Kitcherner-Waterloo, Toronto, Windsor, and Halifax.

On its website, the organization has a detailed list of demands, which include responsible immigration policy, housing for people, responsible use of tax dollars, punishment of corporate malfeasance, reform of the justice system, and electoral reform.

In the Vancouver protest, organizer Peter Krejcar told CityNews a lot of young professionals are considering leaving Vancouver because they cannot afford to live there anymore.

“The most expensive thing is housing. I know that right now my wife, who works a union job, and if we were to divorce, she would not be able to continue to live here without getting a roommate,” he said. “It didn’t used to be that way, people used to be able to work minimum wage and have an apartment somewhere in Vancouver.”

Krejcar says it’s not just a Vancouver problem.

“You see Edmonton, everywhere it used to be cheap. That’s going up,” he said. “Calgary is going up a lot. Halifax, which is surprising, that’s been insane over there.”

The organizer says there needs to be government reform to solve the cost of living problem.

“We need to get new political leaders and get all of these old guys out of politics,” Krejcar said. “Trudeau promised back in 2015… moving away from the first-past-the-post system to another system, either rank ballot or proportional representation, we would like to see that promise fulfilled.”

Krejcar also says immigration requires better monitoring because it has “been very high, especially since 2022” and impacts the cost of housing.

The organization’s website says in 2023 Canada recorded 1.2 million newcomers, per StatsCan, while only constructing 240,000 housing units.

“Rent reached a record high, affordability a record low,” the website reads. “We demand responsible immigration policy which prioritizes and maintains a decent standard of living for all Canadians.”