Thank you very much.
As a bit of background, as you mentioned. I live in northeastern B.C. and have grown up here. I'm a partner in a national accounting firm. As such, I work with a number of our property development clients.
I'm speaking today specifically on the subject of neighbourhoods and how neighbourhood development relates to poverty reduction and to people's lives. In the north and in smaller centres, certainly where there are burgeoning economies for the most part, in towns like mine, there are unique challenges in the design of neighbourhoods and of towns. What we see is different from larger centres. We have high employment, but in a town like mine the high employment is typically in resource industries where the wages are quite good. This results in a high cost of living, high house prices, and towns and environments based around people who can afford to have a decent-sized house, have some space around it, and a car to get from point A to point B.
Although that is a subset of the population in towns like mine, a lot of pressure is put on those who are not directly employed in the resource industry. Certainly life can be quite hard in towns like this. I'd like to make it clear that I'm speaking for a lot of towns across Canada that are not major urban centres. Life can be difficult for those on more modest incomes.
It's a struggle from an economic standpoint, which is the focus I want to have today since it's in my wheelhouse. Economically, it's difficult for local businesses to develop and for people to want to come to towns like this from other parts of Canada, or for new immigrants to come here and face starting out in a community perhaps at lower earnings, or people who are struggling or on some kind of assistance, looking for opportunities. Typically, we see that these people struggle, or in many cases don't come to towns like mine because they feel the cost of living is high and the lifestyle they would have would be one of poverty and struggle. It hampers the economic growth of towns like Fort St. John, and indeed, many towns like this across Canada.
We have some particular struggles here, and I want to address them.
It's important to realize that in smaller places, and indeed anywhere, it's not just an economic question; it's a question of people and their lives. Certainly, we don't want to see some kind of knee-jerk solution that puts or forces people into an environment that is.... My parents immigrated to Canada from the U.K., and when they came here, many of the lower income neighbourhoods in the U.K. were tenements. Certainly they were inhumane and in many cases created more problems than they solved.
In towns like this especially—I think I speak for many across Canada—we're looking for solutions to poverty that allow people hope and upward mobility. They attract people to places like this where there's a lot of work for people to build their lives and careers.
If I jump to the challenges that are faced—and I think this is something that's common—I'll speak from the perspective that some of my clients face as they have tried to create affordable neighbourhoods, neighbourhoods that would work for people on lower incomes, that would be healthy and certainly livable. To reduce poverty it's important that neighbourhoods and environments are affordable and that they're livable as well.
Really, the challenges that are faced in a town like mine are probably more municipal than anything else. I do appreciate the federal government's concern about this, but I think there's an uphill battle linking what happens federally with what happens at the municipal level. We struggle with high land costs and limited kinds of developable land, to coin a phrase. We struggle with high wage costs for those who are tradespeople, and we also struggle, I think, with zoning that requires a huge amount of green space and parking space. Although those things are good, they all add to the cost of the neighbourhoods being developed in a place like Fort St. John.
These costs have led us basically to a point where many people struggle, and there are people who, even if they're employed and have, we'll say, entry-level or lower-level employment, cannot afford to live in many of our towns because of the costs, the burdens, the complexities, and the red tape created by zoning.
I think in summary I'd say that this is something that really needs to change at a zoning level, at the municipal level. I have some ideas about this, but I think that building neighbourhoods that are a bit higher density that allow people access to good public transit are certainly factors in the north. Also, maybe more co-op housing that doesn't pass along a return to investors but actually allows the tenants to pay as they go, so to speak, may be one solution.
I have a bit more in my notes here, but I can see that the light's on, so I'll wrap that up. However, with some questions, maybe we can drill into those aspects a little more.
Thank you.