According to the latest data from Statistics Canada for 2016, more than one in three young adults in Canada aged between 20-34 are living with at least one parent. At 34.7%, this number of young adults has been rising steadily since 2001.

Why is it that more and more young adults are choosing to live with their parents instead of moving out on their own? Halifax-based family Brenda Kops and Daniel Whittaker have two daughters, Maddy and Claire. Maddy is currently living at home with her parents during her undergrad at Dalhousie, while Claire comes home in the summers while attending vet school at UPEI.

Mother Brenda Kops says Maddy’s decision to stay at home was due to a few different factors, saying “Her university is just one block away so it’s easy for transportation, it’s also easier financially for her to stay at home, and she would rather use that money to go travel and have different experiences.”

Brenda Kops on the various financial issues of moving out during university.

Kops herself left home at 15 years old, and notices that a lot more young adults are choosing to stay at home compared to when she was younger. “I think more people are coming home, either staying home or coming home after university, than they did in my day,” says Kops. “It make sense to have multigenerational families in one home.”

Living at home can provide both financial and emotional support for aging children, as well as help prepare those who are attempting to save up to purchase a home in the future. According to The Canadian Real Estate Association, as of July 2017, the average price for a home in Halifax was $299,847 and for all of Canada $478,696.

Maureen Millier, a mother of two children who have moved out into their own apartments in Halifax, says she wouldn’t be surprised to see them come to live with her again in a few years to save up as well. She says, “Kids are becoming more independent quickly, but then they move back. So they may find their independence in their early 20s, but it’s not uncommon to see them move back at 27 or 28 so they can save up to get a house.”

The smaller age group of 20-24 saw the largest percentage increase of those living at home with a parent, reaching 62.6% in 2016. Once young adults reach their 30s, this number drops dramatically to 13.5% of individuals 30-34 still living at home. However, this is still a 2% increase from 2001.

This map is from the Statistics Canada 2016 Census, which measures the growth of young adults aged 20-34 living with at least one parent in the Halifax-area census tracts from 2011-2016. The darker colours represent areas with the highest increase. The lighter areas, the lowest increase.

Analyst: Haley MacLean Source: Statistics Canada

One of the areas in Halifax that saw the greatest increase of young adults living at home since 2011 was Bedford. Hamzeh Hadad, a 24-year-old recent undergrad graduate who resides in Bedford with his parents, says the sole reason he chose to stay home was to save money. Hadad says, “It financially made sense to stay at home, which allowed me to do other things like travel for internships on my summers off.”

This multigenerational living arrangement is not just beneficial for the children. Numerous parents enjoy having their kids at home both during and after university for a number of reasons. Millier’s son Grant comes to live at home whenever he is not traveling, and she says she loves it when he does. “I thoroughly enjoy it because I have exposure to his friends and it keeps the livelihood in the house…It becomes more of a respectful relationship than a child and parent relationship,” says Millier.

So if you reside in Canada and have a child 20 years and older still living with you, know that you are not alone as this multigenerational living arrangement is becoming more and more common across the entire country.

More and more Canadian couples are opting to put off having children or not having them altogether, according to the latest 2016 Census data from Statistics Canada.

There are now 9.8 million families in Canada, and the proportion of couples living with children has been decreasing steadily for the last few years. Since 2011, the number of couples without children rose by 7.2%, while those with rose by only 2.3%.

This could be due to a number of factors, one of which is the decision to not have children in the first place. This is exactly what couple Sandy Kennedy and Gordon Danielson decided to do, who currently live in one of the Halifax areas where the percentage of couples without children has risen the most drastically in the last five years.

Kennedy and Danielson have been together for 31 years, and both believe that focusing on their careers was the driving force in their decision to not have children. “For two people with two incomes and no children, life’s pretty comfortable as long as you have friends and family that have kids,” says Danielson. “When we were both working, Sandy was working until midnight and I was away a lot. Can you imagine trying to raise children?”

Sandy Kennedy speaking on why she thinks more employment opportunities for women is affecting the number of childless homes.

Kennedy also believes greater opportunities for women in the workforce is affecting the growing number of women who wish to hold off on starting a family, saying “I think there’s more emphasis on women having careers first before having children. And then I think maybe they reach a threshold where it becomes too late to have children…It’s all about responsibility, at least that’s what it was for me. I didn’t want the responsibility, it was all I could do to handle my job.”

As Kennedy strokes their cat Gypsy, she adds laughing, “‘we didn’t even want a dog. We got a cat because that was easy.”

However, they have noticed that in their neighbourhood, its not necessarily families choosing not to have children that are creating so many childless homes. Kennedy says, “There are more empty nesters in our neighbourhood than those like ourselves who chose not to have children.” Empty nesters here refers to couples and parents whose children have left for university or have simply moved out of the home, leaving the parents alone.

This applies to the Millier family, residing in an area of Halifax were childless homes are on the steady increase. Children Grant and Claire are in their early twenties, and have since moved out of the house to go to university and move into their own apartments within the city.

Mother Maureen Millier says in her own childhood home of six siblings, it was customary to continue living at home until you were married in order to save money and keep the family together. She believes the reason so many children have less stress when leaving home is due to the power of social media and instant communication, saying “there seems to be a little bit less of a resistance to see your child move on to do different things… I can talk to them anytime and anywhere in the world and not worry so much about what’s happening with them.”

This rise of childless homes, from those who choose not to have kids and empty nesters as well, is certainly a trend in Nova Scotia. According to the census data, Nova Scotia has the highest percentage of couples without children than any other province or territory at 57.2%. Diverse family structures are on the rise, while the proportion of nuclear family units decreases more with every year.

A Sydney, NS based tech company is providing superior eSports gaming experiences for players, becoming the only platform to offer tournament hosting, reduced lag (slow network responses), and streaming and live-casting functionality all in one package.

Swarmio eSports, Canada’s first web-based channel with live-casting content dedicated for eSports, provides a portal for players and game companies to host tournaments online for games including Minecraft and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with technology that allows for much more responsive gameplay while online.

eSports players as well as game development companies can utilize the company’s portal to host gaming tournaments. The competitive world of eSports, or electronic sports wherein video game players compete in organized leagues, has spiked in popularity in the last decade. Back in March an eSports event hosted by Intel had more than 46 million unique online users, and 173,000 fans attending the event live in Katowice, Poland.

Originally launched in 2015, Swarmio eSports is unique in that it offers the three main components needed for eSports gamers to play and stream their content to viewers. “We’re the only vertically integrated eSports company out there,” says Swarmio’s Chief Revenue Officer John Smith. “If you look at our competition, you’ve got people out there who claim to reduce ping (a determinate of network speed), people out there who do tournament management, and people out there that do live-cast streaming, but you don’t have one that integrates all three.”

In 2016, Swarimo’s parent company Ubique Networks Inc. received nearly $1 million in funding from the Canadian Government to develop technology to improve online gaming by providing servers that equalize the gaming experience regardless of physical location or Internet capabilities. Normally someone located closer to a game server would experience better response times than someone located further away, thus creating unfair gameplay even if it’s by a fraction of a second.

A main reason eSports players travel for competitions across the globe is because the speeds of wireless Internet options can be unreliable. When playing a game that calls for pinpoint shooting accuracy, milliseconds of lag can mean a loss for the team. LAN, or local area network, is a connection that spans a smaller area and is increasingly more reliable than other wireless connections. eSports competitions will utilize LAN connections to ensure the players encounter as minimal lag as possible.

Swarmio’s Marketing and eSports Analyst Rory Andrews believes the structure of Swarmio’s servers, which use an algorithm to locate the most centralized server for all players, could mean players wouldn’t necessarily have to travel to get guaranteed lagless gameplay. “The solution that [eSports players] want is as close to a LAN experience over the Internet…because LAN is the only thing they trust in an actual competitive scene,” says Andrews. “What we’re trying to create is the closest thing to LAN as possible.”

Rory Andrews speaking on why Swarmio is able to bring several different technologies together for a better gaming experience for eSports players and game companies.

Swarmio currently has physical servers in Chicago, Seattle, and Toronto, with cloud-based servers on the way. Cloud servers will allow for pop-up servers to give focused and improved Internet to specific areas where it is needed on a case-to-case basis. Swarimo’s Managing Director Senthil Ratnasabapathy says, “What our system will do is figure out where you are, where you competitor is, and we will be having nodes in major cities. So what it will do is create a temporary session for this game, and move it to a place where both of you will have a level playing field.”

Looking forward, Swarimo eSports will allow users to play the extremely popular game League of Legends on its portal by the end of the month, with Team Fortress 2 coming shortly afterwards. Conversations are also underway to hopefully set up partnerships to host games for Overwatch and Dota 2 as well, all of which are extremely popular eSports titles.

The next hurtle for the company will be developing into Asian countries. For integrating into these areas, Ratnasabapathy says “Singapore is the gateway to Asia.” Therefore, plans are underway to have a large node placed in Singapore with the goal to keep developing into the continent as the company progresses forward.

Fishermen might want to double check what’s in their traps before tossing them overboard, as using bait contrary to fishing regulations can lead to some pretty hefty fines.

That’s just what happened to P.E.I. Fisherman Kenneth Griffin, who was charged with possession of female Rock crabs by Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officers back in October 2015. A regulatory offence, not a Criminal Code offence specified as requirement 53(a) in the Atlantic Fishery Regulations first established in 1985.

Griffin has been a licensed lobster fisherman since 2001, fishing more than 250 traps in West Point Harbour in P.E.I. DFO officers were patrolling Griffin’s fishing area when a trap was found containing two female Rock crabs impaled on a bait spike. The trap was identified as Griffin’s.

Female Rock crabs, along with Dungeness crabs, Snow crabs, and other species depending on the region, must be released if caught in order to protect the population size by allowing the females to reproduce. Size limits are also placed on male crabs, to ensure they are able to reproduce at least once before they are harvested. Female rock crabs can lay up to 2.5 million eggs at a time.

Griffin claimed the crabs he purchased for bait around that time were from Kildaire Bait & Lobster, and he assumed all the crabs within the purchased crate were male without further inspection. However, the female crabs might have also be found within Griffin’s traps themselves and then mistakenly used for baiting.

Two “helpers” of Griffin were the ones that placed them on the bait spike. When questioned about the training they received in regards to discerning males form females, Griffin stated in court, “Just your basic turn it over, if it’s female, throw it over, if it’s a male use it. If it’s not, put it in the crate or just use your judgment.” 

Neither of the two helpers testified at trial that took place in July 2016, wherein Griffin was issued a fine of $1,500.

A month later Griffin and his attorney John Maynard filed a notice of appeal, questioning the conviction. Maynard says the issue was Griffin’s state of knowledge in the use of the crabs. “I’ve had people plead guilty to using female crab but this is the first one that I’ve fought,” says Maynard. “How the fishermen that I’ve had before that have plead guilty got female crabs is out of their [own] lobster traps.”

“I don’t think this kind of enforcement is appropriate,” says Maynard. “I think it puts fishermen at risk…”

Communications Advisor for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Kirsta Petersen, was able to confirm the number of times this charge has been laid out in this area. She says, “In DFO’s Gulf Region a total of 47 charges have been laid under Section 53(a) of the Atlantic Fishery Regulations in the last 10 years.” This includes the use of both Rock crabs and Snow crabs.

Voice of Kenneth Griffin's Lawyer John Maynard on why he is contesting this case with an appeal.

Judge Tracey Clements of the Prince Edward Island Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on June 30, 2017. However Griffin and Maynard plan to bring it forward to the P.E.I. Court of Appeal as well. “This is a summary conviction appeal, so the first appeal is to a judge of the Supreme Court trail division and an appeal from [Judge Clements’] decision is to the Court of Appeal,” says Maynard.

The case could also be taken to the Supreme Court of Canada, but Maynard states since only a fraction of cases are even accepted for a hearing it is very unlikely.

This case can come as a warning to other fishermen in the Atlantic regions, that even if completely unintentional, it might still help to give your traps a second check to make sure female crabs aren’t the bait luring in your next catch.