We asked Quebecers how they live with ever-higher prices for food, housing and other products and services.
• Also read: “It’s expensive even when it’s on special”: Quebecers are still in shock from inflation
• Also read: Ever higher prices: Returning to shared accommodation because rents are too expensive
The shock: $85 for three burgers and two fries
At the head of a small consulting engineering firm, Karine Lebel earns a good income, but she is still hit by the effects of the high inflation of recent years.
“It just doesn’t make sense, no matter how much money we make,” confides Mme Lebel, 39, who is president of GéniCité, in Trois-Rivières.
She still can’t believe the $85 bill she recently received for a burger meal with her partner and nephew, including taxes and tip.
Formula milk
Mother of a newborn, Karine Lebel is also surprised by the cost of infant formula.
“We’re down to about $300 a month,” she says. The price of diapers is nothing compared to that.”
In fact, the price of formula has jumped 30% since September 2020, according to Statistics Canada.
Fortunately, Mme Lebel and her partner have flexible enough schedules to be able to wait until their child has a place in a CPE or subsidized daycare, which will allow them to make big savings.
“We’re going to try to do without daycare at $80 a day,” she said.
His snow removal bill has doubled
Many Quebecers have, in recent weeks, renewed their snow removal contracts. Martin Tremblay is one of them and he considers himself lucky to pay “only” $20 more this year.
“I went from $320 in 2019 to $610 in 2024, yet my driveway hasn’t grown!” he wonders.
Like many, he sometimes thinks about taking out his shovel.
“But I quickly become disillusioned when I think that I would have to get up in the wee hours to go shoveling in order to be sure to arrive at work on time,” he says.
Snow plows are also victims of inflation.
“We are now paying twice as much for parts for our vehicles. A tractor to clear snow was $60,000 five years ago, and it’s down to $110,000. Labor is also becoming more and more expensive because it is hard to find. And we have had an increase of almost 30% in our insurance over the past two years!” explains Stéphane, a snow plow in Lanaudière.
“I think we’re just at the beginning.”
Cristina Talarico and her son Noah, 10 months.
Photo Sylvain Larocque
Young mother of two children, Cristina Talarico finds that the increase in wages is insufficient to cover the ever-increasing costs of groceries and housing.
“We have a 5 1⁄2 and we pay $1,850 per month,” says Mme Talarico, who works in the laboratory of a pharmacy in Montreal.
The 24-year-old has not yet gotten used to the steep prices in supermarkets.
“Just fruits and vegetables can cost us $100,” she illustrates.
“It’s only increasing and it’s going to get even worse. I think we’re just at the beginning,” she laments.
More expensive here than in the United States
Nicholas Tavares
Photo Sylvain Larocque
Nicholas Tavares has spent the year working across the United States and believes prices are much higher here than there.
He laughs when The Journal asks him what he thinks about the effects of inflation.
“The prices are too high, that’s for sure,” he says spontaneously.
Specializing in industrial mechanics, Mr. Tavares regularly crosses the border to install equipment from the Quebec company Carbotech for American clients.
“During the entire year 2024, I walked around the United States, and the price differences [avec le Canada]it’s ridiculous,” he laments.
“We just went to Subway and it cost the two of us $30,” says Nicholas Tavares.
It must be said that since the start of the year, the Canadian dollar has lost nearly 5% of its value against the greenback, which means that, all things considered, the purchasing power of Canadians has declined compared to that of the Americans.
