{"id":14579,"date":"2025-07-22T04:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14579\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T04:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:40:11","slug":"rent-and-housing-prices-send-thunder-bays-inflation-rate-to-7th-highest-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14579\/","title":{"rendered":"Rent and housing prices send Thunder Bay’s inflation rate to 7th highest in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thunder Bay, Ont.,\u00a0\u00a0has the seventh highest rate of inflation in Canada, according to\u00a0Statistics Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, the national data agency released its report for June. Overall, the country experienced an annual\u00a0inflation\u00a0rate of 1.9 per cent, an increase from 1.7 per cent in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ThreeThis is what inflation has looked like in Canada in the past couple years. (Graeme Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The report,\u00a0broken down\u00a0by cities and regions, indicates\u00a0Thunder Bay’s inflation rate has more than doubled, from 0.9 per cent\u00a0to 2.1 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mehdi Arzandeh, an assistant professor at Lakehead University’s\u00a0faculty of business administration, said Thunder Bay’s inflation situation stands apart from other major cities in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMehdi Arzande, an assistant professor in the faculty of business administration at Lakehead University, says the Thunder Bay economy ‘proves to be resilient’ in the face of some trade disputes. (Lakehead University)<\/p>\n

“There are some underlying factors that make\u00a0things that we consume everywhere in Canada more expensive… the price of cars went up, price of footwear [and] furniture,” Arzandeh\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

But, Arzandeh noted, what sets Thunder Bay apart from other cities in Canada is the state of its rental market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In the last month, to put it in perspective, the rent on average in Canada went up by about 0.3 per cent, [and]\u00a0in Toronto 0.9 per cent\u00a0\u2014\u00a0in Thunder Bay it went up by 3.8 per cent.”<\/p>\n

Unsteady atmosphere<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the continuing rise\u00a0in inflation is in line with current trade\u00a0disputes with the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doug\u00a0Porter, chief economist at BMO Financial Group, said inflation showed no real improvement in June, in part\u00a0because\u00a0the trade war is pushing\u00a0up some prices.\u00a0The high cost of housing is also a contributing factor that’s keeping inflation up, Porter said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Feeling the pinch from high grocery bills? A group in Thunder Bay has an interesting way to help<\/p>\n

The Boreal Museum in Thunder Bay is doing foragers walks until the end of September. The goal is to teach people how to search for wild vegetation in and around the city’s forests and elevate your cooking to new heights. CBC’s Taylor O’Brien trekked through Thunder Bay trails with founder and creative director, Jason Feller, to learn how to forage.<\/p>\n

However, Thunder Bay stands in contrast to the rest of the country in its resilience to the impacts of the current trade dispute, Arzandeh argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Part of a good thing about the Thunder Bay economy is the fact that it proves to be resilient actually in the face of some of the trade disputes,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of our location, because of the port of Thunder Bay, we see more activity in our economy due to some of these trade disputes- Mehdi Arzandeh, Lakehead University, assistant professor<\/p>\n

But\u00a0if\u00a0the increase\u00a0in the price of housing in Thunder Bay persists, Arzandeh\u00a0argued, it could have some long-term consequences on the city’s affordability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Thunder Bay has become more popular with international students and newcomer international students,” he said. “If you see newcomers because we have a growing economy, in the face of trade issues and geopolitical risk, you might not be ready to accommodate all those rental unit demands in Thunder Bay.”<\/p>\n

Growing economy<\/p>\n

Thunder Bay has the potential for economic growth in the near future, according to Arzandeh.<\/p>\n

As exports to the U.S. begin to dwindle due to ongoing trade disputes, companies may be looking toward\u00a0Thunder Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Consumer goods are going to go up unfortunately due to the tariffs,” he said. “Because of our location, because of the port of Thunder Bay, we see more activity in our economy due to some of these trade disputes.”<\/p>\n

According to Arzandeh, as Canadian companies look for markets in Europe and South America in the wake of tariffs, Thunder Bay is primed to facilitate those changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If chemicals and minerals\u00a0are to be exported to\u00a0new European markets and Latin American markets, they’re going to happen through the port of Thunder Bay.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Arzandeh warned that with a growing economy\u00a0and an increase in jobs, the city will have to create housing for newcomers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thunder Bay, Ont.,\u00a0\u00a0has the seventh highest rate of inflation in Canada, according to\u00a0Statistics Canada.\u00a0 This week, the national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-14579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}