This is a relaunch of a Global News series called ‘On the Brink,’ which profiles people who are struggling with the rising cost of living. In this story, an Ontario family talks about how rising prices are altering their traditions.
Sharon McArthur loves to cook, but she misses being able to make a roast dinner for her family.
The 74-year-old Brooke-Alvinston, Ont., woman said she and her 73-year-old husband, Wayne Gattinger, used to host dinner once or twice a week.
But with the current cost of groceries, that family tradition has become a thing of the past.
“It’s too cost-prohibitive now, and our family understands that,” McArthur said, adding their extended family is in the same boat.
“They don’t invite us over there like they used to because it’s hard enough for them.”
A comfortable retirement and being close to family was always the goal for the couple.
In 2021, they began to lay the foundation for that lifestyle when they moved to Brooke-Alvinston — a township roughly an hour outside of London, Ont.
After working their entire adult lives, they wanted to settle down and be closer to their children and six grandchildren. McArthur retired at 67 after encountering some medical issues, and Gattinger stopped working at 72 when his employer closed.
Over the last four years, they say essentials like groceries and gas have been killing their retirement budget, and the two are running out of ways to save money.
“We both had saved for our retirement … but … who can account for prices doubling, tripling and quadrupling?” McArthur said.
“We thought we were being responsible and preparing for the future, but who can prepare for this?”
The couple lives off roughly $2,800 a month, and $600 of that covers a monthly mortgage payment. Toss in their bills, and McArthur said she feels like there is nothing left at the end of the month.
“We have cut every expense we possibly can,” she said, adding that they limited their home’s heating in the winter and got rid of their second vehicle.
While McArthur said there are many things they can go without, one of the hardest things is not having enough money to buy their grandchildren Christmas and birthday presents.
“The scariest part is a year from now, our mortgage will come up for renewal. We’re currently only paying two per cent, and if rates (go) up (another) two per cent, that’s going to increase our mortgage payment by at least $300 a month,” she said.
“We could end up homeless, and it’s a real fear.”
A recent poll from CIBC shows that about 66 per cent of Canadians are changing their retirement plans given current economic challenges.
More than 70 per cent of those polled said they anticipate having to work during their retirement, either through a phased or semi-retired approach, with some working well past the retirement age of 65.
One of McArthur and Gattinger’s most uncontrollable expenses are groceries.
“We never get out of the grocery store under over $100, and our pensions are so low,” McArthur said.
McArthur prides herself on cooking all their meals from scratch, but even then, she said it’s becoming hard to afford nutritious food.
To help stretch meals, they’re relying on hamburger meat, rice and oatmeal. They’re also leaning on their local food bank to get by.
“Never in my life did I envision myself having to access a food bank. … I always gave to the food bank, and now I’m a recipient,” McArthur said.
“We only go [to the food bank] when we feel that we need it because it’s not fair. I know how to make meals stretch, but in the summer, we go weekly to get fresh produce.”
The couple is not alone. While not the majority of users, Food Banks Canada reports that the number of people 65 and older accessing food banks in Canada has increased significantly compared to before the pandemic.
Food bank visits have almost doubled in the last five years, with the percentage of seniors increasing from 6.8 per cent of all clients in 2019 to 7.7 per cent.
The organization says that clients who are seniors, especially single seniors, struggle with fixed incomes that can’t keep up with rapidly rising food, housing and utility costs.
‘Something’s got to give’
As inflation persists, Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University, said seniors on fixed incomes struggle because their income does not grow at the same rate as those who are employed.
He argues that with more people retiring and life expectancy increasing, the government needs to push back the retirement age to collect from the Canada Pension Plan.
“Something’s got to give at some point,” Lander said.
“If you’re going to keep the retirement age at 65 and you’re going to make the same payments to the retirees or adjust them for cost-of-living adjustments, then you have no choice but to increase the taxes on existing workers … and at what point then do you tax them so hard that they say, ‘You know what, I don’t want to work either.’”
McArthur and Gattinger are calling for an increase in the amount they receive from the Canadian Pension Plan.
“The cost of living has gone up, and everybody gets a raise, but seniors don’t get a raise,” Gattinger said. “They don’t give us anything.”
However, they are trying to stay optimistic.
“We’re thankful for what we have today, and we’ll take each day as it comes,” McArthur said.
— With files from Sean Previl and Kyle Benning
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