Canadians feeling financial pinch, but not as much as Albertans specifically

Canadians from coast to coast to coast say they’re feeling their wallets tighten, and the stats show Albertans front and centre — feeling the most pinch.

One quarter of Canadians are cutting back on essentials like food, utilities, shelter, and clothes. In Alberta, that number climbs to one-third.

“These are people having to make trade-offs between shelter, and that’s usually where people put their last dollars — just to keep a roof over their head, and then making a choice between food,” said Meaghon Reid, Executive Director of Vibrant Communities Calgary.

“We’re hearing from community, and this is across the country as well, people are skipping meals just to make that dollar go further. We’re hearing about seniors skipping days of medication because of the cost of medication.”

The findings are from the latest MNP Consumer Debt Index conducted by Ipsos, and also show about half of Canadians are cutting back on non-essentials like travel, entertainment, and eating out.

“[Losing] a basic necessity, and their essentials, is really a frightening prospect in terms of how people are living and their quality of living. That means they’re not meeting the basic necessities of life on a day-to-day basis because we’re having to make trade-offs,” Reid added.

Despite this being a national issue, Albertans are at the centre of it, being more likely to face these financial woes, or at least more likely to admit facing them.

Almost seven in ten Albertans say they’re already feeling the effects of interest rate increases.

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Additionally, around one-third are buying cheaper versions of their everyday purchases and 30 per cent are driving less.

“There was a few statistics that Albertans were feeling the highest pinch on, one of them was ‘do you regret the amount of debt you’ve taken on?’, and Albertans unfortunately were the highest in the country on that one,” explained Licensed Insolvency Trustee, Donna Carson.

“We are regretting the amount of debt and also the highest on cutting back essentials as compared to the rest of the country.”