Growing number of professionals can’t afford to stay in Vancouver

City’s high housing costs have led to a ‘brain drain’ as skilled workers leave

VANCOUVER— Iain Reeve and his wife moved from rental home to rental home in Vancouver, but their final solution for secure housing was to move to Ottawa and buy two houses — one for them and another for his parents.

He and his wife, Cassandra Sclauzero, are professionals in their mid-30s who wanted to start a family, but they couldn’t afford to buy in the city. “We wanted to own a home to have stability, and peace of mind and flexibility,” Reeve said. “The rental market didn’t have stability. We both had settled into pretty good first jobs. But as much as we loved the city and had these connections, it wasn’t worth it.”

Reeve, who grew up and went to university in Vancouver, said he knows a number of people who are thinking of moving out of the city simply because of the housing market.

“Life is challenging enough, it’s so hard when you have (housing) insecurity all the time.”

Statistics show that Vancouver, and B.C. generally, is losing skilled workers to other parts of the country.

Leonard Catlin g, spokesperson for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said one of the main reasons people between the ages of 21 and 25 come to Metro Vancouver is for university, but they move out as they get older. A December news release from Statistics Canada shows that B.C.’s population crossed the five-million mark for the first time because of international migration.

However, it lost about 1,200 people to other provinces in the third quarter of 2018 after 21 quarters of gains. Ontario, Al- berta and Nova Scotia had the largest gains in population from other provinces.

Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said Vancouver is mostly able to attract people early in their careers, whether for education or a job, but it has a problem retaining talent.

Even if they earn a relatively high wage, he said they can’t afford anything except condominiums.

“In a world like that, the labour pool has options,” he said, noting that other provinces offer much more housing for their salaries. Finance Minister Carole James said in an interview that “there’s no question that Vancouver is facing a brain drain.”

“Crisis is not too strong a word to describe the challenges we are facing — not just in Vancouver, but other urban settings around our province,” she said.

Yan said Vancouver is losing people in certain age groups. Those between 35 and 45 are usually at the apex of their careers and thinking about their first or second child. But they might find themselves still having to share housing if they stay in Vancouver, he said.

“It doesn’t become cool when you’re 37 and have a roommate.”