Cost of Living in Canada's Prettiest Province

 

Living in Canada is a wonderful privilege, especially given our beautiful geography, culture, and culinary experience. Much like many countries, Canada can be quite diverse in both its culture and landscape. One might wonder if living in such a beautiful place can be obtained without breaking the budget. As a resident of Canada's most beautiful province - Nova Scotia, and a former resident of Ontario I have a good economic understanding of the range of financial challenges of living in Canada. The following numbers represent a Nova Scotian Lifestyle.

Salary

Let's start with income. On average, Canadians make approximately $42,000/yr. Consider that a married couple would make twice that at $84,000/yr. So can you live comfortably off of this? Absolutely. I'd propose that a married couple without kids could live on just one income of $42,000/yr granted they have limited their recurring expenses and habitual spending habits.

Expenses

As stated above, the average income is $42,000/yr per person. In Nova Scotia, that number is about $38,000/yr. That being, expenses are expected to be below this. Indeed they are. Expenses are on average only $40,000/yr with Nova Scotian expenses being about $38,000/yr. The primary problem Canadians run into is running more luxury expenses than they can afford resulting in a financial deficit. Savings is also under a lot of stress as of 2020 due to inflation, but the main focus of cost of living is comparing your income to expenses. Savings should come after those things, but before luxury expenses. That being, if you are focussed on saving, then you may need to sideline some of your bad spending habits.

Provinces

So how do these numbers differ per province? In all provinces except Alberta, you can expect the cost of living to be proportional. That being, whether you live in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, etc., the cost of living will be quite similar. Alberta is a special case because of their economic freedom from the Federal government. 

Conclusion

I'd wager that if you think living in a province is costly and would consider moving to another province to be more 'economical', you will find that you will have the same problems no matter where in Canada you are. Of course if you move to a different province for a higher paying job, then by all means evaluate your expenses and expected expenses to consider of the cost of living is less.