We’re not enjoying ourselves
It’s a simple question we hear almost every day. How are you doing?
The habitual response — “Fine” — brushes over a thousand subtleties, only a few of which have anything to do with the size of our respective bank accounts. Our lives are more than a sum of widgets, after all, or the pleasing arc of an ascending income. Yet countries have long relied on Gross Domestic Product as the measure of their people’s welfare. GDP is a useful, accessible metric, but it has limits. Just by its name alone, the Canadian Index of Well-being would seem to be a better barometer of our collective quality of life, and going by its latest assessment, we’re not doing so fine after all.
The index, compiled by researchers at the University of Waterloo, is based on 64 indicators from eight broad domains: living standards, community vitality, democratic engagement, education, healthy populations, environment, time use, and leisure and culture. Most of the indicators are based on data from Statistics Canada.
The index’s new report, titled How Are Canadians Really Doing? and released Tuesday, suggests that while the country’s economy is muddling through, on a more personal level, Canadians generally are not. It reports that quality of life in Canada deteriorated by 24 per cent between the onset of the recession in 2008 and 2010.
Once again, the hard economic stats say one thing, the softer data tell another story. From 1994 to 2010, Canada’s economy grew by nearly 30 per cent as measured by the GDP, while wellbeing inched ahead by only 5.7 per cent.
“Despite years of prosperity, our economic growth has not translated into similar significant gains in our overall quality of life,” says the report. “Even more concerning is the considerable backslide Canadians have experienced since 2008.”
The index flags some bright spots, with violent crime and property crime at their lowest levels since 1994, and people feeling safer walking in their neighbourhoods. Volunteering is robust, and Canadians generally feel a strong sense of community, the study says. But on the negative side, the index raises serious questions about the deteriorating quality of health care, education and democratic engagement across this country, as well as a long-term decline in the environment and a sudden drop in living standards.
“The deterioration experienced by so many Canadians speaks to the growing unease felt across Canada and must be taken into consideration as our governments make decisions on how to steer us forward, particularly given predictions of an extended period of weak economic growth.”
One other key drag on the index is a continuous decline in leisure activities. That sub-index is down 7.8 per cent since 1994, as Canadians cut back on visits to national parks and spend less time in arts, culture and other leisure activities. We’re working so hard to pay the bills and get the kids to school and soccer on time that the good things in life are falling off the family map.
“Canadians appear less able to protect a part of their lives that they most value and by which they are most enriched,” the report states.
Former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, the co-chair of the index’s advisory board, is right when he says GDP tells us nothing about our people, our environment, our democracy or other aspects of life that matter to Canadians.
To state the obvious, there’s more to life than money alone. The Canadian Index of Well-being sounds an alarm for a fresh consciousness and new national strategies in social policy that reflect that basic truth.