Access to grocery stores, schools, healthcare still wildly uneven across Canada: StatsCan data

Equitable access to essential services like schools, grocery stores, and healthcare is vital for a thriving community, but not all communities are created equal. 

Access to these basic services varies widely from province to province, with geography, infrastructure, and population all playing a role, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

Statistic Canada’s Spatial Access Measurement report, first released in 2023, has been updated with more precise metrics to provide a clearer picture of Canada’s accessibility gap.

“These types of measurements can help identify areas that are perhaps relatively underserved, maybe in public transportation or cycling infrastructure, or perhaps certain types of amenities,” said Nick Newstead, senior research analyst with Statistics Canada.

Eight categories within Canada’s provinces and territories were analyzed, including access to schools, healthcare and grocery stores.

Ontario and B.C. reported stronger spatial metrics than other provinces. 

The measurements show where different resources are in a neighbourhood, helping to better understand how easily people in Canada can access infrastructure like grocery stores or healthcare.

“The research shows that the city you choose to live in and the neighborhood you choose to live in within each city has a huge impact on your happiness,” said Houssam Elokda, managing principal at Happy Cities.

The organization is an urban planning, research and design studio, focusing on creating healthier communities by working with governments and developers in Canada. 

His company recently surveyed more than 2,000 people in Metro Vancouver living in neighbourhoods with different density types, including apartment buildings, houses, and townhouses. 

The results showed that “density did not actually predict wellbeing,” he said.

“What did predict wellbeing is what amenities people could access within their neighborhood.

“Did they have good amenities in their buildings? Could they walk to a park? Could they walk to a grocery store? Did they have good access to transit?”

Grocery gaps

Access to grocery stores varied significantly across the data.

About 45 per cent of Canada’s population has access to one grocery store within 15 minutes of walking, while about 14 per cent have access to three grocery stores within 15 minutes.

“That’s an indication of how many options people in those areas might have,” said Newstead.

When affordable grocery options aren’t available, that’s often when people turn to food banks, explained Meagan Herbis of Harvest Manitoba. 

“I have to travel into a town to get food from the local No Frills for example, so if I didn’t have a car I would likely be subject to having to go to the local Co-op, which is more expensive,” said Herbis, the Director of Network Advocacy and Education at Harvest, Manitoba.

“But not everyone has that financial option.”

Harvest Manitoba has seen a sharp increase in their rural food bank usage, according to Herbis.

“When things become less affordable, food bank use goes up. Often having to do with transportation and options,” she said. “There tends to be more frequency of food bank use in rural communities than you would see in the city. There’s often multiple sources of food in cities. Grocery options have become increasingly limited, as major chains like Loblaws and Sobeys continue to consolidate the market, leaving many communities with fewer price-point options, according to a 2023 report from the Competition Bureau of Canada.

“Having more options does allow people to have more choices and perhaps the ability to shop for price,” said Michael Widener, a professor of geography and planning and Canada Research Chair in Transportation and Health at the University of Toronto.

Overall, Quebec, Ontario and B.C. have a higher percentage of their population with access to grocery stores. In contrast, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and maritime provinces have none or limited access within a 15-minute walk. 

People living in less dense, often higher-income urban areas are generally willing to travel farther, trading proximity for larger homes, Widener said. 

“They sort of opt into the lower levels of access to grocery stores to have bigger homes, bigger lots,” said Widener.

“You do see a sort of income gradient where in not all cases, but in many cases, there are higher incomes that are in less dense regions in cities.”

Rural and remote communities are often disproportionately affected by the lack of grocery store options. 

Access to care

The ability to access health care services is a protected right under the Canada Health Act.

However, distance can often limit access to health care services, especially for vulnerable communities. 

About 75 per cent of Canadians can access a healthcare facility within 90 minutes using public transit, according to the Statistics Canada data.

The province with the most access within 90 minutes is B.C., at about 90 per cent, while the lowest is Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Manitoba is also relatively high, being comparable to British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, those three being typically the most accessible provinces for most amenities and most modes of transportation,” said Newstead. 

“That’s interesting because you might not expect it to be sort of hanging around those provinces.”

The federal government recently introduced $10-a-day daycare, but cost isn’t the only barrier to accessing childcare.

The spatial data shows that the proximity to childcare facilities remains uneven across the country, creating significant access challenges for many families.

About 73 per cent of Canadians have access to a child care facility within a 30-minute walk. 

There’s a big difference across the country, with B.C having the highest access at 78 per cent, while Nunavut has the least, at 13 per cent.

Connections build communities

According to Elokda, it’s not just physical infrastructure that matters; social infrastructure is equally important, yet often overlooked by policymakers.

“Cities are so good at measuring, ‘Do I have enough pipe capacity to handle 200-unit buildings here?’ But they don’t ask the question, ‘Do I have enough community centres, libraries, parks and schools?’” he said.

People living in walkable neighbourhoods with many nearby destinations are more likely to form meaningful relationships, an essential factor in building strong communities, he said.

“After your core needs are met, safety, shelter, food, nutrition. After all of that is met, the number one thing that matters for people is the quality and consistency of their social relationships.”

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