For the second year in a row Toronto is the most expensive city in Canada, according to the results of Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey.
Of the 227 global cities across five continents ranked, Toronto sits 90th globally, having dropped one spot from last year’s ranking. Vancouver remains the second most expensive city and slid eight places to 116th in the ranking. Montreal fell 10 spots to 135th, Ottawa moved down five spots to 137th and Calgary, the last Canadian city on the list dropped four spots to 145th, said the report.
Nicole Stewart
“Through the Cost of Living Survey, we see that despite domestic inflationary pressures that are affecting overall quality of living, Canada continues to be an attractive destination for remote workers,” said Nicole Stewart, Principal, Career at Mercer Canada. “Extensive remote work flexibility is causing many employees to re-shift their priorities and think differently about where they want to work and live, and this will continue to force organizations to develop effective compensation strategies for their globally distributed workforces.”
Canada is experiencing a slight period of economic stagnation, with the GDP contracting 0.1 per cent in Q4 of 2022, and its total growth reduced to 3.5 per cent over the entire year (from 5% in 2021). Additionally, the country experienced a slight decrease in the inflation rate in 2023, with inflation lowering to 5.2 per cent in February 2023 (it was 5.7 per cent a year before and had peaked at 8.1 per cent in June 2022), said the Mercer report.
Yvonne Traber
“The recent COVID-19 pandemic and political tensions around the globe accelerated widespread use of remote working, which, in turn, has prompted multinational employers to reassess how they manage their workforces. Competition in the global talent market is fierce, and with the cost of living crisis affecting both employees and organizations, employers need to be flexible. The structure of their compensation strategies for internationally mobile and remote workers must be not only clear but also backed by reliable data,” said Yvonne Traber, Partner and Global Head of the Mobility business at Mercer.
Overall, the survey ranked Hong Kong as the most expensive city for international employees for another year in a row, with Singapore in second and three Swiss cities – Zurich, Geneva, and Basel – taking the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s most costly cities for international employees are New York, United States (6), Bern, Switzerland (7), Tel Aviv, Israel (8), Copenhagen, Denmark, (9) and Nassau, Bahamas (10).
The world’s least expensive cities for international employees, according to Mercer’s survey, are Havana, Cuba (225), Karachi, Pakistan (226) and Islamabad, Pakistan (227).
Mario Toneguzzi
(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)
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