Kids are feeling the pinch of Canada’s cost of living crunch, poll finds – National | Globalnews.ca

Canadian families are still strapped for cash even as inflation cools and interest rates start to trend lower, new polling released Wednesday suggests.

Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News shows that it’s often kids who are feeling the pinch from the rising cost of living.

The survey, which polled more than a thousand Canadians from Aug. 23 to 26, found that more than six in 10 respondents (63 per cent) are concerned they wouldn’t be able to absorb any unexpected costs of $1,000 or more; that figure rises to 72 per cent among parents.

Some 43 per cent of Canadians are worried they might not have enough money to feed their families, which Ipsos notes has dropped 10 points from December last year. But those concerns are still prominent for 54 per cent of parents, according to the poll.

Kyle Braid, senior vice-president at Ipsos Public Affairs, told Global News on Wednesday that some Canadian parents are having to go above and beyond to put food on the table as the face the cumulative impact of years of inflation and higher borrowing costs.

“Parents are doing the same things that a lot of us are doing… but they’re also doing things unique to parents,” he said.

A third of parents indicated they’ve been telling their kids “no” more often to deal with the higher costs of living. Three in 10 parents said they’ve pared back their back-to-school spending, while 16 per cent said they’re cutting back on organized sports for their kids.

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Canadian families worried about the cost of living

Meanwhile, some 63 per cent of respondents are also worried that economic hardship will force them to push back future plans like travelling, buying a home or starting a family.

Those sentiments are particularly worrying, Braid noted.

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“With people delaying things like buying homes, delaying things like having a family, delaying trips, all of those things impact spending in a big way,” he said.

“Everything we see here is not great for the economy, or in terms of Canadians’ optimism about the next little while.”

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University students struggling with inflation

Almost half of those surveyed (48 per cent) said they’re worried they won’t be able to pay off their full credit card bill, and a quarter said they’ve been dipping into savings to make ends meet.

Others indicated that they’re continuing to cut back on dining out (55 per cent), putting off purchases like new clothes (43 per cent), paring down holiday spending (36 per cent) and buying fewer fresh vegetables, fruit and meat (27–28 per cent).

The ongoing financial stress comes despite annual inflation levels cooling to 2.5 per cent as of July and amid recent easing from the Bank of Canada.

The central bank delivered its third interest rate cut in a row on Wednesday, lowering its policy rate to 4.25 per cent amid signs of weakness in the economy.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between Aug. 23 and 26, 2024, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

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