Poverty rate still tops in Hamilton

from the Ancaster News

Kevin Werner

There was few silver linings within the Canadian census data released last week that still featured Hamilton’s poverty rate higher than the provincial average.

The city’s poverty rate has become a blight on its community when the last census shocked the community pegging the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) rate at about 20 per cent.

Hamilton’s poverty rate had dipped to about 18.1 per cent, according to Statistics Canada’s 2006 census results. But Hamilton’s rate, which includes a high number of seniors and Aboriginal populations, exceeds Ontario’s 14.7 per cent poverty rate. The census figures include the years 2005 to 2006.

Hamilton has almost 90,000 people living below the LICO, while almost the same amount of children, 23.6 per cent from 24 per cent, or about 21,600, live below the poverty line, said Liz Weaver, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

“There are still a lot of people who live below the low income cut-off line,” she said. “And the number of children hasn’t decreased.”

The community focus to eradicate poverty was still in its early stages two to three years ago, said Ms. Weaver. It was then that the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction began to compile important demographic information, examine the issue and establish a partnership among the city’s community leaders so that a comprehensive strategy could be found to tackle the poverty reduction issue.

Since the organization released its recommendations, the city has taken action that has improved the lives of people living in poverty, said Ms. Weaver.

For instance, the organization urged more investment in the lives of children, youth and their families to tackle the root causes of poverty and break the cycle of poverty for families.

In response, the city has returned the municipal portion of the National Child Benefit in 2006 and 2007 which has boosted people’s income, approved a pilot affordable transit pass program, the city is supporting individuals to own their homes, and funds have been earmarked for early learning and child care programs. The province has also responded to Ontario’s poverty rate by establishing a minister responsible for poverty reduction.

An Ontario-directed task force is scheduled to hold public sessions later this year, and Ms. Weaver is hoping one of the meetings will occur in Hamilton.

“We want to share our challenges and successes with everybody,” said Ms. Weaver. “But any big changes (for poverty reduction) will only happen at the provincial and federal levels.”

In addition, businesses, the city and social service organizations have created about 90 initiatives to fulfill their mandate to Make Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child.

The census figures confirmed some startling demographic trends that began a few years ago and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

The median income for a Hamilton worker dropped by 4.3 per cent to $17,380, while the median income for a high-end person in the city increased 2.7 per cent from $67,753 to 69,566. The trend of an ever-widening income gap between the haves and have nots reflects what has been occurring across the country.

For 25 years wages have stagnated, reported Statistics Canada. The median income for Canadian workers had increased to $41,401 in 2005, from $41,348 in 1980, which amounts to about $1 extra per week.

The richest Canadians increased by 16.4 per cent while incomes of the poorest fell by 20.6 per cent over the last 25 years.

“It is disturbing,” said Ms. Weaver.

To link the roundtable with further poverty reduction goals, some of its members, including Ms. Weaver, sit on the recently created Jobs Prosperity Collaborative, which is seeking to boost Hamilton’s anemic economic development landscape. She said one of the best ways to reduce poverty is for the city to attract companies to the area.

“It would turn the environment around for the whole community,” she said.

The roundtable’s own statistics reveal the city can make even more of an impact on its poverty rate by targeting the so-called working poor - those people who are full-time employees, yet their earnings are below the LICO.