A search for a measure of the quality of life on Prince Edward Island : an inter-provincial ‘cost of living’ inquiry

Abstract

Can one come up with the ‘hard science’ to show that part of the enviable ‘quality of life’ in certain provinces in Canada has to do with the differential ‘purchasing power’ of their residents? Although the mean level of earnings/income per annum is lower/higher in certain provinces than others, (and such mean earnings may be lower in the rural areas than in the urban ones), yet expenditures and overall costs of consumption may be lower/higher. Various persons think they are; and various others think they aren’t, and neither party appears (so far) to have come up with systematic statistics to back their position or refute the alternative: usage of data is sketchy, anecdotal and fragmented, at best. Thus, by way of example, lot or property purchases and rents, gas bills, professional services, and University tuition costs on Prince Edward Island are presumably amongst the lowest, if not the lowest, in the country. But so are average wages. Moreover, the cost of food, white goods, as well as the levels of provincial taxation, is presumably higher. The fuel/gas bill has also been getting increasingly higher these past couple of years. This very focused study will come up with a measure of the cost of living, or ‘household financial health’, and use this to compare the state of affairs in the various provinces of Canada.