It's Official, Quebecers Get Paid Less Than The Rest Of Canada
Canada keeps getting richer, as a whole, but Quebec is lagging behind the pack, new research from Statistics Canada shows.
Compiling data from the 2016 census, StatsCan created an overview of household income in Canada.
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Altogether, the average Canadian income rose by 10.8% between 2005 and 2015, increasing from $63,457 to $70,336, the current national average.
Quebecers, however, make a fair bit less than the average Canadian. The median income for a Quebec resident is $59,822, the second lowest in the entire country.
Quebec’s average household income was $54,921 in 2005. So the province did experience an increase in incomes over the ten year span, but the level of growth was one of the lowest in Canada.
Only New Brunswick ranked lower than Quebec for average income, coming in at dead last with $59,347. But it’s really not a large margin, The difference between the two province’s median household income is a mere $475.
What’s the cause for Quebec’s sluggish economic growth? Statistics Canada offers a potential answer: the manufacturing industry.
While other parts of Canada experienced an economic boom thanks to the resource sector, Quebec wasn’t so lucky. The manufacturing sector saw a decline from 2005 to 2015, with fewer jobs available.
StatsCan points out that most of the manufacturing jobs cut over the decade were in Quebec and Ontario. Our neighbour to the west actually had the lowest economic growth in all of Canada, but the average income in Ontario is still higher than Quebec.
Some resource-rich areas in Quebec, however, did do better than the province as a whole. Rouyn-Noranda, Val D'or, Sept-Îles experienced income-growth higher than the Canadian average of ten percent.