Montreal seeks dialogue

LATEST CENSUS shows the rate of people living alone in the city is well above the national average

Mayor says it is vital the city begins talks with the PQ’s Montreal ministerial team as soon as possible.

Montreal is becoming a city of singles, be they young and hip or old and grey (and perhaps still hip).

Figures released by Statistics Canada this week detailing the makeup of Canadian households indicate 40.7 per cent of people in Montreal who live in a private dwelling are living on their own. That number is much higher than the Canadian average of 27 per cent, and far above comparable cities like Toronto (32 per cent), Calgary (26 per cent) Ottawa (28 per cent) or Halifax (29 per cent). Only Vancouver, where 38 per cent of residents live in one-person households, comes close.

The percentage of people living alone in Montreal is almost equal to those who are in couple-family households, at 41.1 per cent.

The reasons are myriad: an aging population that lives longer and leads to more widows and widowers; the high number of students in a university town; young families moving to cheaper homes in the suburbs; low immigration numbers.

Whatever the causes, if the trend toward single living continues, demographers warn repercussions could range from an overstressed social services network struggling to cope with the “grey tsunami,” to a metropolis in dire need of funds as young families flee its core.

Montreal’s shift toward single status has been decades in the making, notes McGill University architecture professor and housing expert Avi Friedman. Birthrates have been decreasing steadily in Quebec compared with other provinces, leading to smaller households more apt to become solo households.

Montreal also has four major universities with a total of more than 100,000 students, many who live alone. And the aging population is living longer.

“We live in a time where life expectancy has increased dramatically (up to 79 years old for men and 83 years for women in Quebec, according to Statistics Canada), which means there will be a large number of single, elderly people … who want to ‘age in place’ — they do not want to go to a home for assisted living. They want to stay in the comfort of their homes and neighbourhoods for as long as they can,” Friedman said.

“This, in my opinion, is the beginning of an avalanche that is becoming the grey tsunami — because their numbers will continue to increase as the baby boomers move from old to old old — past the age of 65 and into their 70s.”

With many children moving abroad, it will fall to social services to care for the elderly. Most municipalities in Canada, Friedman noted, are ill-prepared to deal with the coming wave.

Montreal used to take an active role in encouraging social housing, ensuring affordable homes for all, Friedman said. But as it relinquished that role, market forces took over and “builders build what sells — not affordable homes for families with young kids, but small condos for single people or couples without kids.”

With family-sized homes on the island too expensive for young families, and somewhat affordable neighbourhoods like Plateau Mont Royal or Notre-Damede-Grâce that have smaller residences already packed to the gills, young families have little choice but the outlying areas. Friedman says developers are building condos out there, too, at costs that are 30 per cent cheaper than Montreal prices, enticing even more families.

Montreal is a classic example of what urban planning experts describe as “edge cities,” Friedman said. As more jobs become available in the suburbs, “we are seeing generations who grow up in places like Dollard-des-Ormeaux, go into the city just for university, and spend the rest of their lives out there.”

The immigrant influx, already low in Montreal compared with other Canadian cities, is also heading offisland for more affordable housing.

“I think at one point, the face of Montreal will not be too different from Toronto — people who live in the city are either single or young couples, and that’s it. … We will not have an empty city, but we will have a city where you might see in some places more singles and more retirees.”