Toronto Globe and Mail
Families poorer, study says
Tax filings show people worse off
in Hogtown in 1999 than 1990
By JAMES RUSK
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS REPORTER; Source: Statistics Canada
Thursday, March 14, 2002
? Print Edition, Page A25
Lean times came to Hogtown in the 1990s, according to a study by the
United Way of Greater Toronto.
"Toronto families went from being better off at the start of the decade, when
compared to all Canadians, to worse off at the decade's end," the study
concludes, based on a review of income tax filings over the period.
Despite the economic recovery in the last half of the 1990s, poverty rates in
Toronto did not improve, as they did in the rest of the country, but actually
got worse, it says.
"It's a wake-up call that we can no longer rely on boom periods to float
boats," United Way president Frances Lankin told a press conference.
"The boom was a bust for many Torontonians, especially the poor. We need
action and investment to reverse the downward decline and ensure that
Toronto continues to be a vibrant city in which to live."
She said that the United Way undertook the study because anecdotal
evidence from its member agencies was that social and economic conditions
in the city were continuing to deteriorate despite the economic recovery of
the last half of the 1990s.
"At the decade's end, the distress among Toronto's most vulnerable was
evident everywhere -- in the growing number of people living on the streets,
in rising evictions and use of emergency shelters, and in the increase of
hopelessly long waiting lists for assisted housing," it says.
The study, prepared for the United Way by the Canadian Council on Social
Development, paints a devastating picture of social and economic life in the
city as it moved into the new century.
The number of Torontonians who were considered poor was 23.3 per cent
of the population in 1999, up from 22.6 per cent in 1995. The national figure
was stable at 19.1 per cent.
For one-parent families, the poverty rate rose to 42.0 per cent in 1999 from
39.4 per cent in 1995, a 2.6 percentage-point increase at the same time as
the national rate declined by 1.3 percentage points.
For children and youth, the rate climbed to 32.3 per cent in 1999 from 30.8
per cent in 1999.
The rate was well above the national level of 25.4 per cent in 1999 and 25.3
per cent in 1995.
The study defines poverty as having a family income of less than half the
median income of a Canadian household of the same size and age
composition.
The situation was particularly severe for one-parent families.
The median income of one-parent families living below the poverty line in
1999 was just $10,100 a year, which means that their entire monthly income
was $82 less than the average rental cost of a two-bedroom apartment.
Income polarization in Toronto increased in the decade, with the number of
families earning more than $100,000 jumping 29 per cent.
Meanwhile, there was a 13 per cent drop in families with incomes between
$30,000 and $100,000 and a 19 per cent increase in the number of those
earning less than $30,000.
Family income data also confirm how tough the decade was. When adjusted
for inflation, the median incomes of families and individuals were lower in
1999 than in 1990, and while this was also true for all Canada, the situation
in Toronto was worse than in the rest of the country.
Median income is used as the basis for comparison because half the
population is above the median and half below. Average incomes are
regarded as less representative because they can be pulled up by a small
number of people with high incomes.
Toronto's poor are getting poorer
Poverty levels have stabilized across the country except in Toronto. Here is a
look at the change in the median income of Canadians by household type in
Toronto and Canada, 1990 to 1999.
Toronto Canada
Husband or Wife -13.1% -2.0%
Lone parent -17.7% -4.5%
Single person -12.5% -4.3%
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