If the politicians are listening....this is my wish for my country.
Canada, specifically Ontario, which is my province in Canada, has had BIG raises to it´s minimum wages over the past several years.
The current minimum wage in Ontario for an adult is
$16.55 per hour.
Based on a 40 hour work week that would bring in $662 gross income per week before taxes and other deductions are taken off. Based on a 4 week month, that would total $2648 per month gross income.
If the politicians and social service networks want to make Ontario a livable region for all income levels in the coming years, then they need to address the viability of tiny homes. Tiny homes are the only possibility to relieve the severe financial stress that many low income folks are experiencing just from trying to keep a roof over their heads.
Ontario has a large portion of students and single people who simply want to have an affordable housing option that is safe and does not require them to get into debt. Tiny homes are a way out of the current housing mess in Ontario.
I have spoken to a lady who is spending 2 thirds of her income just paying for her mortgage and that does not include her car payment and other household expenses. This kind of nightmare is not unusual in today´s Ontario. Although there have been significant raises in wages for certain segments of the population, much of these raises still do not equal the rise in the costs of living for the average Ontario resident.
The biggest hurdles for tiny home developers is the zoning and construction laws. Municipalities must be willing to host tiny home villages, that have significantly different property taxes embedded into their ¨formula¨. I believe that we would not have the same ¨BRAIN DRAIN¨ in Canada if we successfully built up viable tiny home villages. Folks still love our schools and employment opportunities. It is the cost of living that is chasing folks out of our country while we have spent thousands of dollars educating them, only to lose them to countries with lower costs of living.
We can not reasonably expect folks to stay in our beautiful country if the math does not add up.
Yes, we have a high standard of living compared to third world countries, but the average income is finding it hard to maintain that standard and still save for retirement and emergency cash reserves.
Middle income Canadians are forgetting about vacations because their incomes are consumed by the plethora of costs just for basic needs.
We need to foster a ¨tiny home positive¨ atmosphere into Ontario´s building codes. Property taxes and building codes MUST become FRIENDLY to the Tiny Home Movement. The ideal tiny home owner´s dream would be to be able to successfully own a tiny home on a full time minimum wage job. Do we have the political will to get this done? Are we going to make life more reasonable for the entry level working men and women in our country? New Canadians are not asking for mansions on entry level wages. They are asking for the ends to meet. They are asking for life without the assumption of debt.
I believe that tiny homes are the answer to this riddle. Do you agree?
