Bronwyn Keith, a Humber College student, feels the effects of inflation. She says she’s struggling to keep up.
“I have definitely felt the effects of inflation, especially as a college student, just with costs of living being so expensive,” Keith said.
Keith told Humber News that even after saving up for college, her savings haven’t been enough to keep her afloat.
“I rely on OSAP. Because of it, because even after saving up with jobs, it’s still not enough,” Keith said.
Canada’s inflation rate is currently at 5.7 per cent, according to Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index, and college students find themselves struggling to able to afford necessities.
Keith believes many students are like her, struggling with the choice of buying necessities, or being able to afford a living space.
“I think a lot of students are struggling with rising inflation costs,” Keith said. “They’re definitely experiencing similar things I am with not being able to afford an apartment, or necessities like food, or even just things that a student might want to do.”
However, David Johnson, an expert in monetary policy and inflation at Wilfrid Laurier University, says the main issue with inflation is that it disturbs loan contracts.
“The main issue with inflation is that it messes up loan contracts,” he said.
Johnson told Humber News the inflation that people are currently dealing with is fuelled by oil and other necessities.
“The kind of inflation people are currently talking about is much more an increase in the relative price of oil, and to a lesser degree, some of the other commodities that are in short supply for lots of different reasons, some are COVID related, some are related to the Russian situation,” Johnson said.
However, Johnson said students should be glad that college students will be able to pay off their loans and outstanding bills for less in the future.
“I have a whole bunch of loans out to people. That’s called my pension plan, and I hope there isn’t going to be lots of inflation because then I’m going to get paid back in less valuable money,” he said. “So the people who lose are the people at the end of their lives who have lots of assets denominated in money.
“Students will be a big winner,” Johnson said.
He said around 30 to 40 per cent of students have significant loans outstanding during their time in school and that students will be able to pay those loans back for less, while earning a higher salary.
“They are going to get to pay back those loans with a higher monthly salary and it’s going to cost them less,” Johnson said. “So students should actually be sort of happy that there’s inflation in some ways, because some salaries will catch up and they will end up owing less in terms of hours of work.”
But Bridget Hall, a Humber student living off-campus, doesn’t love the way inflation is heading.
“Having to be able to pay for gas, food, rent, school, and other necessities is really hard to balance out when the prices of things keep rising,” Hall said.
She said the cost of commuting has suddenly spiked.
“The price of gas is so high, having to commute to school and back home costs a lot, it’s a lot easier to be able to do school virtually and be able to save on costs where I can,” Hall said.
Hall said she hopes fuel prices will be lower within a few months.
“I hope to see inflation drop within the months, but that doesn’t seem realistic,” she said. “I hope that we can find a way to make things more affordable, or even more affordable for students.”