As Canada Gets Richer, Inequality Grows

By DENNIS BUECKERT

Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Updated at 6:17 PM EDT

Canadian Press

Ottawa — Inequality and homelessness are rising in Canada despite a sustained economic boom and repeated federal promises to cut poverty, says an international study.

Poverty is rising among children and new immigrants, the middle class is finding it increasingly difficult to afford education and housing, and there are 250,000 Canadians living on the streets, says the study by Social Watch, a coalition of 400 non-government organizations from 50 countries.

A weak central government has consistently cut taxes for the well-off rather than investing in social services, says the study, released Wednesday in New York.

“We're worse of now than we were when we wrote the 1948 declaration of human rights,” aid Armine Yalnizyan, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who wrote the Canadian section of the report.

“There's more people waiting for food and shelter and education today,” she said in an interview. “We're swimming in resources; what's going on?”

She said the figure of 250,000 homeless was contained in a 2002 report by the Commons finance committee.

Social Watch was founded to monitor commitments made at 1995 UN social summits in Copenhagen and Beijing. The Canadian affiliate is funded by the International Development Research Centre, a federal agency.

Among findings cited in the study:

— Between 1997 and 2003 Canada's economy was the fastest-growing among G-8 countries, expanding 55 per cent in real terms. The Gross National Product has surpassed $1-trillion.

— Federal spending stands at 11 per cent of the economy, down from 16 per cent in 1993-94, well below historic averages. Recent increases in spending have not offset deep cuts made in the mid '90s.

— Only 38 per cent of unemployed workers receive government benefits, down from 75 per cent in the early 1990s.

— More than $1.7-million households live on less than $20,000 a year, and most are precariously housed. They do not own their own homes and spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.

— Cuts to post-secondary education and deregulation of fees have doubled or tripled tuition costs.

— Despite repeated promises there is no national child care program.

Ms. Yalnizyan said Ottawa has focused overwhelmingly on economic growth, dramatically limiting its role and transferring money to provinces without accountability or conditions.

“Even when it was a majority it was a weak government but now it is a minority that is a weak government confronted by deep regional friction.”

The statistics make a mockery of Canada's promises at the UN summit in Monterrey, Mexico, five years ago, she said.

“Social programs are in more jeopardy than they were 10 years ago, and perhaps in more jeopardy than they were 40 years ago, and yet we've got vastly more resources.”

Has anyone noticed more homeless people in their neighborhood? In Kits, where I live, it's very common to get asked for change when walking about. Sometimes you get the charity/spare change combo within the same block. Things have changed noticeably over the last five years here.

Is Canada even rich?
Cause I haven't noticed.

*I'm evil I know* I can't help it though...
My city and your's should have GOLD plated roads... Yeah it's pointless, but with the money Canada says we have, we could burn $100.00 bills in public just for fun.
YUP.

As long as you aren't disabled or have a mental illness there is no reason why you should be unemployed in this country. There is not a shortage of jobs in this country, just short of people willing to accept them. I think government should increase money for relocation as there is no reason why certain regions should have trouble looking for workers, ie fort mac, fort st john, etc. The only qualification for most of these jobs is that you don't have a physical dissability or any drug problems. Help the ill, the children, but why are we subsidizing people who arent willing to put in a hard days work.

^^ It'll could cost alot of government dollars though. However, the provinces who need more talent should offer incentives to people in the other provinces to move there.

This article focuses more on lower income groups rather than the unemployed.

I think government should increase money for relocation as there is no reason why certain regions should have trouble looking for workers, ie fort mac, fort st john, etc.

A cheaper and more realistic alternative may be to improve the country's transportation infrastructure, like what they're planning to do right now between Northern Alberta and Sasketchewan.

New road to link northern Sask to Alta's oilsands and provide economic boost

LLOYDMINSTER, Alta. (CP) - The governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan are spending $45 million on a new all-weather road linking the two provinces in the north.

The project is being pitched as a way to connect untapped First Nations labour markets in Saskatchewan with rapidly expanding oilsands projects in northern Alberta near Fort McMurray.

"It's a happy day," said Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert after he and his Alberta counterpart Ralph Klein announced the project Thursday.

"We worked very hard to lobby Alberta to move forward on this . . . Now I think Alberta has come to understand the mutual benefit both for Alberta and for Saskatchewan."

Alberta will chip in the lion's share of the $45 million by spending $40 million on upgrading an existing 65-kilometre road that runs just south of Fort McMurray east to the Saskatchewan boundary.

Saskatchewan already has an all-season gravel road extending from the northern community of La Loche west to the Alberta boundary. The government will spend $5 million on upgrades.

Alberta's road currently can only be used in the winter when rivers freeze over, so most of the money will be spent on building a bridge over the Christina River.

"The amount of activity now taking place in Fort McMurray with the oilsands is nothing short of phenomenal," Klein told dignitaries at the project's launch in the city of Lloydminster, which straddles the two provinces.

"The need for an improved road linking northern Alberta and Saskatchewan is a good indication of just how much the north has changed."

Officials estimate the drive from La Loche to Fort McMurray, which now takes between 10 and 12 hours, will take about two on the new road.

"We live in Canada. We should have as many choices, as many options, available to us as the rest of Canada," said Georgina Jolibois, mayor of La Loche.

"Now we have that luxury available to us and that is a fantastic feeling."

Unemployment rates across northern Saskatchewan can be quite high, reaching levels of 80 per cent in many areas, said Dale McAuley, chairman of NewNorth, a lobby group for northern municipalities.

He said it's not unusual for employers to get hundreds of applications for a single position when it opens.

"There's not one person that I can think of that doesn't want to work," McAuley said. "This road, it's been a long time coming and, certainly, if it does come to fruition, it's going to be welcome."

Calvert acknowledged that many potential workers will need training before they are qualified for jobs in the oilsands, but he added he doesn't think that will be a problem given their eagerness to work.

"We may not have all the skills in place today, but we can put those skills in place," Calvert said. "What we have is the vast raw material of a young labour force ready to go to work."

Fort McMurray Mayor Melissa Blake said the workers are needed.

"We've certainly been experiencing a tremendous amount of growth in recent times and we know that we have a very high need for skilled labour coming into the region as well," Blake said.

"The road to La Loche is one of those access points that's just going to be phenomenal for the future of Fort McMurray."

Klein and Calvert also pointed out tourism possibilities created by the link. Northern Saskatchewan lakes have an international reputation as fishing hot spots.

"They say that the fish there only come in one size and that's big," Klein said. "So, when it's done, I might just take a ride on the new road to try my luck."

The road will take three years to complete, with construction beginning early next year.

Can now has a trillion-dollar economy, but does anyone know where to find a credible source that shows this figure? Statscan doesn't seem to be updated.

Well we now have some form of national daycare beginning so thats a good start.
I don't like in inference that the only people without jobs are the disabled and mental ill. Many try to work to the best of their abilities but most are grossly over qualified for the work they do.
The people who cannot work with disbilities are amongst the poorist in the country.
The GST and Child Tax Benefit have helped but are too little.
Minimum wages have not kept up with inflation over the years but atleast finally all of the provinces have made significant increases in it in the last year so again that helps. The only exception is BC where it already had the highest rate.
The native people are uniformily poor and that particularitly scews the numbers where there are high native population as percent of the population { all western provinces and especially Man/Sask}, and their fertility rates are nearly 2.5times the national average. This is also very true in the north and isolated native populations where nearly whole villages can be out of work. This clearly needs to be addressed.
i do agree to a point that some choose not to work and rather be on welfare/EI especially if they have to move to find employment, eg NFLD, CapeBreton.

It is also very regional. Vancouver has the highest income postal code in the country but also the lowest. The disparities here are truly obsene, more so than any other city in the country.
Also $20,000 is very difficult to live on in our larger cities esp Tor/Van and owning a home in many of our large cities is simply out of the question.
$800/mth in Tor/Van MIGHT get you a one bedroom but would get you a 3 bedromm apt somewhere else or a house in some really cheap places like Maritime and Sask/Man where houses can still be had for $20,000...........and no I'm not kidding.
Some cannot work due to drug addiction or very elderly with little income.

Finally some important funding and programs finally seem to be working their way back into the system. Programs and supports for both native and the disabled are finally getting some hardcore money. The cities are finally getting money to help run their cities and their poverty/homelessness issues. I still agree the situation is intolerable in a country as wealthy as we are.
I'm only 40 and was basically raised in the 70s. When I was young then a bank was somewhere you went to get money, not food.

Can now has a trillion-dollar economy, but does anyone know where to find a credible source that shows this figure? Statscan doesn't seem to be updated.

Yes, CIA world fact book:

purchasing power parity - $1.023 trillion (2004 est.) - and that would be in US dollars.


http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ca.html#Econ

This article does not address inequality at all. An increase in homelessness is IMPLIED with no earlier stats for comparison, but homelessness does not necessarily reflect "inequality." To evidence inequality we need stat that show that the lower income levels and higher income levels are demonstrating a growing gap. What I have understood is that while the wealthiest in Canada are becoming more wealthy, there has not been an increase in poverty- to the contrary, poverty levels have in fact decreased.

^^ Isn't increased financial burden on the middle class considered inequality though? In the last ten years, wages have barely increased, yet everything from tuition to housing is going up. Personally, I think we're going to start to see a stronger division between upper-middle class and lower-middle class, something already prevalent in America.

I agree, especially here on the westcoast where the cost of housing is unbelivable.
BC has the lowest rate of home ownership in Canada and those who have a home have realitivly small disposible income due to housing costs taking up as much as two thirds of their take home pay.
One bedroom 30 year old apts in Vancouver START at 220k.