'It's very stressful': With expenses high and wages low, many P.E.I. newcomers are struggling to get by
Some are working multiple low-wage jobs 7 days a week just to pay their bills
For Rupinder Kaur, the reality of life on Prince Edward Island is very different from what she imagined when she moved here last spring.
Kaur is from India. Like so many foreign workers on P.E.I., who moved here with post-graduate work permits after finishing their studies elsewhere in Canada, Kaur fully expected she'd have to settle for a low-wage job.
What she didn't expect was to have to work two jobs, seven days and 60 hours a week, just to cover her groceries and rent — $700 for one room in a four-bedroom house on the outskirts of Charlottetown.
"Initially, I just tried working at [McDonalds], and then I realized it's too expensive, and I can't handle everything with one job," said Kaur, who also works at Dollarama on weekends.
"I just try to manage everything within my monthly earnings. Like, not try to go outside for fun. Just every time, think about work, hard work, work, work, work."
Kaur says her financial stress is shared by most of her coworkers — the great majority of them also on P.E.I. from other countries, working the low-wage positions many businesses say they can't otherwise fill.
For her and others, the goal is the same: work enough hours to qualify for one of the dwindling number of permanent residency nominations from the P.E.I. government.
"But on minimum wage, it's very difficult," she said. "It's really difficult for everyone. Like they are physically, totally tired… But it's just a hope to continue to survive."
Cost of living a struggle for many: CBC-Pollara survey
A recent CBC-Pollara survey on newcomers' experience in Canada highlights the financial difficulty faced by many of them.
In all, 82 per cent agreed the cost of living in Canada is making it difficult to settle in this country, and 49 per cent said the affordability of rent or a mortgage is difficult.
Joe Byrne sees it first-hand in his work with the Cooper Institute, an organization that supports migrant workers on P.E.I.
"There are a lot of newcomers that are working in low-wage jobs," said Byrne. "And even though P.E.I. may have one of the highest minimum wages in the region, wages are not high enough to make sure people can maintain a quality standard of life…
"People are living in a two-bedroom apartment with six adults, or a four-bedroom house with eight or nine adults."
'The most shocking thing when I came here'
Some international students on P.E.I. say they're feeling the financial pinch too.
"That was the most shocking thing when I came here. I knew it would be expensive, but not this expensive," said Saugat Shrestha, who moved to the Island two years ago from Nepal to study at the University of Prince Edward Island.
International students pay higher tuition than Canadian citizens do — up to twice as much in some cases.
Shrestha said that just to cover his tuition and monthly expenses, he has to work 15 hours a week in addition to being a full-time student.
You have to cut out a lot of things you like to do. You have to sacrifice something to survive here.— Saugat Shrestha
Many of his friends work 24 hours, the maximum number of hours international students are permitted to work while studying in Canada.
"You have to cut out a lot of things you like to do. You have to sacrifice something to survive here," said Shrestha, who works part-time at UPEI's international student office.
"Everyone is suffering. A lot of people used to have their own private room. Now they're sharing a room with a friend. A lot of people are using the food bank more."
UPEI student Sajid Oyon, who moved to the Island from Bangladesh, thinks the federal government, colleges and universities could do a better job on educating prospective international students on the financial realities they'll face, "just to make them know the reality before coming here, so they don't suffer.
"I know it's really hard without parent support to be here…It's quite impossible, I would say right now in this situation, managing studies and rent with tuition fees too."
Rupinder Kaur says given the daily financial stress, the long work hours, and the worry over whether she'll ever earn permanent residency, her mental health has suffered.
It'll all be worth it if she can earn permanent residency (PR) and work toward a life and career in Canada, she said. She's not ready to think about what she'll do if that doesn't happen.
"That's very difficult to answer. Like, it's very stressful to manage everything along with work. Every time I stress about getting PR and handling expenses. It's very difficult," she said.
Kaur plans to leave her job at McDonalds soon to start a new position at a childcare centre, hoping that will give her a better shot at a permanent residency nomination. She plans to keep working weekends at Dollarama too, so that she has enough money to get by.
Byrne with the Cooper Institute doesn't think it should have to be that way.
He thinks P.E.I.'s minimum wage should be higher, and foreign workers better protected, so that employers and landlords can't take advantage of them when they're in desperate need of work hours and affordable housing.
"Getting a pathway to permanent residency while you're working and poor is tough," he said.
"If we want our economy to work, we have to make it more sustainable for people. And we know from all the figures that are out there, if we don't sustain immigration in the province, we won't have a workforce. And we can't sustain a workforce that we continually ask to live in poverty."
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