I thought there might some interest in this since we're facing the implementation of the GST. The GST in Canada began on Jan 1, 1990 and it will be interesting to see if the pattern of poverty increases follows suit here. As you can see, there are many parallels although average wages isn't one of them. Trudy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ http://www.southam.com/calgaryherald/newsnow/cpfs/national/000416/n041652.html Calgary Herald Poverty in Canada's cities jumped in the early '90s, new study says SUE BAILEY April 16, 2000 OTTAWA (CP) - Montreal is the poverty capital of Canada in a new study that says the number of poor households in the country's cities jumped by 34 per cent in the early 1990s. Urban Poverty in Canada, being released Monday by the Canadian Council on Social Development, is billed as the most detailed comparison ever of large and mid-sized cities. Drawing on 1996 census data, the most recent available, and 1995 figures on household income from Statistics Canada, it concludes Montreal's poverty rate is 41 per cent, the highest in the country. The lowest rate for cities of 500,000 or more was 10 per cent in prosperous Oakville, Ont., southwest of Toronto. Trois Rivieres, Que., with a poverty rate of almost 31 per cent, topped its list of cities in metro areas with fewer than 500,000 people. Oshawa, Ont., just east of Toronto, had the lowest rate of 16 per cent. In total, the study shows that 5.5 million Canadians - 20 per cent of the population in 1995 - lived substantially below average standards. Of these, 1.3 million were children aged 14 or younger. "Poverty is not simply a problem for people who have fallen on hard times," the study concludes. "Its scope is much wider than that, and it should be a concern to all Canadians. "Poverty has detrimental impacts on the long-term health of children. Unhealthy children will, in time, affect the health of the nation." The study defines the poor as those living below 1995 Statistics Canada low-income cutoffs - the point at which total income eaten away by shelter, food and clothing is 20 per cent higher than average. For single people living in cities of more than 500,000, the low-income line was drawn at $16,874 a year. It was $14,473 in cities of between 100,000 and 500,000. For a family of four, the cutoff was $31,753 a year in larger cities and $27,235 in smaller ones. StatsCan itself does not define its low-income measures as a "poverty line" - although many social advocates do - and conservative groups such as the Fraser Institute say the income figures are too high to reflect true poverty. Still, past public opinion polls have shown the cutoffs match what most Canadians consider a relatively poor lifestyle, the study says in defence of its use of the figures. Labour markets have improved since the early 1990s when a stubborn recession cost thousands of full-time jobs, Kevin Lee, the study's author, noted in an interview. But social supports have been cut and job creation has been uneven across Canada, he added. Many of the low-skill, well-paid factory positions that disappeared in the recession have been replaced with temporary, part-time and low-wage service sector jobs. The impact on urban poverty rates from the revived economy and other factors since the time frame of the current study won't be clear until after the next census in 2001, but Lee hopes his report will inspire action now. The report doesn't say how poverty should best be erased, but urges the private sector to work with governments and community groups toward solutions. "These results show that no community is immune from poverty," said the research associate with the council, an independent social issues think-tank based in Ottawa. The study's results are based on Statistics Canada's so-called census metropolitan areas. As a result, some centres with far smaller populations make the ranks of the big-cities list because they are in the same census area as a larger neighbour. For example, Oakville, with a population of about 130,000, is included the over-500,000 category for comparison purposes because it falls in the same area as Toronto. Lee was surprised to find poverty rates can fluctuate wildly within a metropolitan area. For example, Toronto's rate of 28 per cent compares with 10 per cent for Oakville. The study found: - Poverty in Canada's cities jumped by 34 per cent between 1990 and 1995, compared to 18 per cent outside metropolitan centres. - Refugee claimants and foreign workers, aboriginal people, recent immigrants, visible minorities and the disabled were most likely to be poor. Single-parent families and elderly women weren't far behind. - The average poverty rate for all city residents of 25 per cent jumped to 62 per cent for refugee claimants and other non-permanent residents, and almost 56 per cent for native people. - Cities in Quebec tended to show the highest poverty rates, and southern Ontario cities the lowest. - The average income of poor, working families was $14,500 - one-quarter of average earnings for other families. � The Canadian Press, 2000 -- _________________________________ Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." 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