City’s cost of living low: Data

Ottawans are currently enjoying lower-than-average inflation levels in the lowest-rated province in Canada, but Statistics Canada said yesterday to expect that to change.
A release yesterday by Statistics Canada shows the rate in Ottawa at 0.5 per cent — even lower than the 0.8 per cent rate for Ontario, which already has the lowest rate in Canada.
But people should take the numbers in stride, said Philip Cross, chief of current economic analysis with Statistics Canada.
“You have to be careful interpreting it,” he said, “because the prices in Ontario were relatively high last year.
“Once this unusual blip passes over, Ontario and Ottawa won’t look so good in comparison.”
The cost of housing in Ottawa has gone up 1.9 per cent, Cross noted. Rising costs affect mostly homeowners, who paid an average of 2.8 per cent more in March 2008 than they did in March 2007. Renters are paying an average of 1.3 per cent more.
Nationally, the inflation rate was 1.4 per cent in March, making it the fourth month in a row that inflation slowed, the report said yesterday.
While the country’s inflation rate is slower overall, the report cites rising mortgage interest costs and gasoline prices as the main reasons for inflation in Canada.
tracey.tong@metronews.ca