[Canada] Economic growth pulls a million out of poverty

from The Hamilton Spectator

The Poverty Project
By Bill Dunphy

A decade of strong economic growth has lifted more than a million Canadians above the poverty line, Statistics Canada has reported, and more than half of these were children.

The rosy numbers arise from an analysis of 2004 income and labour force statistics that suggests Canadian families -- although not unattached singles -- have benefited from the country's strong economic performance. In the years between 1996 and 2004, the median family income for Canadian families rose by $7,000, rising from $47,100 to $54,100.

The rise in income meant the number of families living in poverty declined from 12.1 per cent of all Canadian families back in 1996 (including nearly 1.3-million children) to 7.8 per cent of all families (some 684,000) in 2004. The low income rate for seniors in 2004 was at an all-time low of 5.6 per cent in 2004, a lower rate than Canadians and Canadian families.

There are still 3.5-million Canadians living below Statistics Canada's "low income cut-off" or 11.2 per cent of our population. And single parent families -- especially those led by women -- are still, vastly, disproportionately poor: their overall poverty rate is 35.6 per cent.

While the report dealt only with national and provincial data, Sophie Lefebvre of Statistics Canada was able to provide some Hamilton data, which showed a mixed set of results, some mirroring national numbers, others going in the opposite direction.

Lefebvre cautioned the numbers were from a smaller sample and display changes that may or may not be statistically significant.

Hamilton's broad poverty numbers -- for all individuals and all families -- are almost identical to the Canadian averages at 11.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively. And while both of these categories show declines from the previous year, those declines probably don't mean much, Lefebvre said.

"There seems to have been a bit of a bump (up) in 2003," she said, especially in the all persons category. "I can almost assure you that that drop (in 2004) is not statistically significant. But the numbers do give you a level to compare with the national numbers."

And, on the whole, we seem to be matching those national numbers, with poverty rates easing somewhat.

Paul Johnson, project director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction, would treat the new data with some caution.

"I don't think it's surprising that the numbers are moving in that direction, the economic prosperity has meant that many people have been able to find meaningful employment and raise themselves above the low income cut off.

"But while the declines are good, the challenges facing many families in this commun-ity are still significant."

Johnson said the project has been using 2001 data for its communications on income and statistics, but have also been tracking other key indicators such as food bank and shelter use.

"And while those reflect extreme poverty, they are useful. They peaked a few years ago, but have plateaued. They have not dropped dramatically and that shows us there is still a tremendous amount of work to do."

One area where Hamilton appears much worse off than the country as a whole is the poverty levels experienced by seniors. Far from being at an all-time low, the poverty rate for seniors jumped in 2004 to 12.6 per cent, more than twice the national average.