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CTV News
5 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Are you a resident of the GTA bothered by endless noise? We want to hear from you
Sixty per cent of Ontarians believe their city or town has become noisier, a new survey reveals. (Pexels/Photo by Kampus Production) A new online survey has found that nearly 60 per cent of Ontarians believe their city or town has become noisier. The online survey was conducted by British Columbia firm Research Co. from May 19-21 and was based on the responses of 1,000 Canadian adults. The survey found that 63 per cent of respondents believe their town or city has become noisier over the last year, up from 54 per cent during a similar survey conducted in 2023. 'A third of Canadians say their home is noisier now than last year, while more than two-in-five feel the same way about their street,' a press release accompanying the survey reads. According to the press release, the most common complaints from residents are about noise from vehicles like motorcycles and cars 'revving up' while residents are inside their home. Dogs barking and construction-related noises like roofing, land clearing and the noise from heavy machinery came a close second. Additionally, more than one-in-five respondents said that they loud people outside homes, car alarms, loud music in vehicles and homes, and excessive honking, the report says. The survey also found that 16 per cent of Canadians have reported using earplugs to deal with the noise while inside their homes, while 11 per cent said they use noise cancelling headphones. 'The proportion of Canadians who have not taken any action to deal with noise inside their home has fallen from 74 per cent in 2022 to 67 per cent in 2023,' Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. says in an analysis accompanying the survey. 'Canadians aged 18 to 34 are more likely to be wearing earplugs or acquiring special hardware to mitigate noise.' The survey was weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Are you someone who lives in the Greater Toronto Area where noise has become a glaring issue? Do you have to find methods to manage it by using earplugs or similar hardware? Have you ever relocated due to noise concerns? CTV News Toronto wants to hear from you. Email us at torontonews@ with your name, general location and phone number in case we want to follow up. Your comments may be used in a CTV News story.
CTV News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
‘Tip-flation': As suggested tips increase, business practices under scrutiny
By Isaac Phan Nay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee The moments after a server or barista hands over a credit card reader can be awkward. Will it offer tip options starting at 20 per cent? Will the server stare daggers at me if I don't tip? Tips used to be more private. Dropped in a cup, or calculated after the bill came. Now suggested tips are on the rise, irking some Canadians — and raising big questions about business practices that make workers more dependent on tips and keep their wages low. University of British Columbia sociologist Amy Hanser said tipping shifts the burden of servers' wages off of employers onto customers and undercuts servers' power to negotiate for fair pay. 'It's a terrible practice,' Hanser said. 'It shouldn't be contingent on service — if you do your job, you should get paid.' As restaurants and cafés reopened after pandemic closures, tipping prompts increased. In a 2022 survey by Restaurants Canada, customers reported being faced with higher tip suggestions. A Research Co. survey published last month shows Canadians are growing irked by suggested tips. 'Canadians know that people in the food services industry don't make a lot of money,' said Mario Canseco, Research Co. president. 'We know that they depend on the tips to survive and to get ahead. 'It's not like we're against the concept of tipping, but when the venue is forcing me to make a choice, it becomes complicated.' The survey found most consumers didn't like facing a suggested tip when they paid. But 68 per cent of respondents said they believed food servers need tips to get by, and 69 per cent said that if food servers had better salaries, there would be no need to tip them. In British Columbia, employers are required to pay servers at least regular minimum wage — which rose to $17.85 per hour in June — before tips. WorkBC data shows food and beverage servers make between minimum wage and $30 per hour before tips. Ian Tostenson, who heads the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said tips make up a significant part of servers' wages. He said servers often work three- or four-hour shifts and rely on tips for a significant chunk of their income. 'It's a bit of a big deal when we don't leave a tip,' he said. 'That's why there's incentive for the servers to provide good service, and generally that works quite well.' Tostenson rejects the idea that restaurants can raise wages and eliminate tips. The Vancouver restaurant Folke and café Cowdog have adopted that business model. But Tostenson said most restaurants that try a no-tip model give up on it. 'They have a hard time getting people to work there because servers like the upside on gratuities, and guests don't like it because they are paying higher prices,' he said. 'In North America, we love to tip and we love to have the control of tipping.' But UBC's Hanser said putting servers' pay into the hands of customers raises equity issues. Customers' biases could impact servers' pay — more attractive people might get higher tips. The reliance on tips means servers have to tolerate negative or abusive behaviour to make sure they're tipped, Hanser said. Management should be ensuring staff are performing adequately — not customers, she added. The reliance on tips makes restaurant goers effectively the employer and leaves workers perpetually subject to the judgment of customers, Hanser said. The business owner also shifts the responsibility to pay workers onto customers, and that keeps base wages low and undercuts their ability to negotiate for more pay. 'People who are in typically tipped jobs can be paid a lower hourly wage,' she said. 'That really does suggest that tipping can erode the ability to ask for more wages from your employer.' Workers in the restaurant sector don't traditionally have the union power to negotiate for higher hourly wages. Statistics Canada data shows that in 2024, 5.8 per cent of accommodation and food services workers had a collective agreement. That includes workers at a Boston Pizza in New Westminster, who are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518. The union declined to comment on tipping. But its contract shows unionizing did not change tipping practices at that restaurant. Before the agreement came into effect in 2021, employees at the restaurant pooled their tips. The collective agreement, which expired last year, kept that arrangement in place. The union also organized workers at a Cartems Donuts in Vancouver. Their collective agreement required the employer to come up with a tip policy, to standardize the practice for workers. Hanser said she doesn't think Canadians are ready to give up tipping. She said that to pay servers fair wages without tips, restaurants would likely have to raise prices significantly. Plus, she said, the practice is deeply entrenched in our behaviour. 'This is a really hard thing to change,' Hanser said. 'This is about a culture as much as it is about anything else.'
CTV News
06-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
As trade war drags on, fewer Canadians boycotting U.S. products: poll
"Buy Local" signs are seen on grocery store shelves in Victoria, B.C., on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. For some Canadians, the days of checking 'product of' labels to send a message to Washington, D.C., have come to an end. According to a recent Research Co. poll, the number of Canadians who are avoiding the purchase of American goods has dropped by four percentage points since March. Overall, the company found 60 per cent of Canadians still favour non-U.S. goods when they're available. 'While the proportion of Canadians who are actively boycotting products made in the United States has subsided over the past two months, it still encompasses a sizeable majority across the country,' Research Co. said, in a news release. The poll also found fewer Canadians are eschewing American restaurant franchises in Canada, with only 36 per cent doing so, a decrease of five percentage points from March. Those who have cancelled a planned trip to the United States now sit at 35 per cent, down two percentage points. Across the border in Washington state, Bellingham and Seattle both feel the impacts of British Columbian boycotts. The Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce said border traffic fell more than 50 per cent year over year in April, and businesses in Whatcom County are suffering because of it. 'It's been somewhere between volatile and a pretty sizable decline,' said Guy Occhiogrosso, the chamber's president. Occhiogrosso went on to say that he hopes the tension between the two countries can ease and cross-border travel for groceries, clothing and other products will return to the way it once was, as the local economy benefits from the additional traffic. The City of Seattle is also facing the impacts. Although hard data has yet to be released, tourism officials have noted a clear decrease in B.C. licence plates. 'What we're seeing is certainly a decline right now,' said Michael Woody, the chief strategy officer for Visit Seattle. 'Very saddening for us because we love our friends in Canada.' Woody added that the number of Canadians arriving by plane dropped 20 per cent in February, but is now down 12 per cent. Similair to those in Bellingham, Seattle officials are hopeful Canucks will come back – but understand that the bruises from some of the political rhetoric over recent months could take some time to heal. 'The most important thing is that we love you, neighbours. And we're ready for you to come back when you're ready,' said Woody. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he planned to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. The drastic change has sent shockwaves across B.C. as communities like Kitimat rely on selling aluminum to American partners. UBC political scientist Torsten Jaccard told CTV News that pre-Trump, tariff rates were one to three percent, and the increases will impact both sides of the border. 'This is a significant departure from almost 100 years of economic integration, and will carry significant costs for both sides involved,' said Jaccard. Potentially reviving the sense of patriotism when it comes to purchases, which has been lost in recent months. Jaccard went on to explain that Canadian imports account for about 25 per cent of total U.S. steel use, and Canada is the largest supplier of foreign steel. 'Canadian steel exports account for maybe a third of total U.S. steel imports. So the U.S. does have other options, which does not bode well for Canadian steel producers,' said Jaccard. 'Aluminum is the opposite.' Jaccard said Canadians will probably face the brunt of U.S. tariffs but for aluminum, he expects the tariffs will be quite costly to Americans
CTV News
03-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Are Canadians Tired of Tipping Culture?
Vancouver Watch On CTV Morning Live, Research Co. President, Mario Canseco addresses tipping fatigue in Canada!
CBC
06-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Why Alberta separation is seen as a 'real possibility'
While most Albertans don't want to separate, new polling suggests a majority in the province think it could happen. CBC Calgary's Rob Brown explains the Research Co. findings. The online survey was conducted with 1,201 voters between April 27 and 29, 2025. It carries a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
