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The current market tailspin was preceded by a
so-called ‘boom’ in which workers’ wages actually stagnated or declined,
and social benefits shrank. Studies and statistics about that
period are now appearing. They make it look more like a ‘bust’ than
a ‘boom’ time. And they cast frightening shadows across the future,
so far as the vast majority is concerned. Here is what we are
learning about the early years of the new millennium.
* The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) issued a report, “Growing Unequal?”, that says
Canada’s growing inequality and entrenched poverty rates are now higher
than any other OECD country, except Germany. The OECD noted that
Canada spends less than most countries on cash transfers such as
unemployment and family benefits.
* Canadians are in debt as seldom before. In
1984, at the peak of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s,
Canadian households held 70 cents of debt for every dollar of
income. Today, households owe $1.27 for every dollar they bring
home. A new Environics poll shows four in 10 Canadians say they are
one or two pay cheques away from being poor.
* The Children’s Aid Society of Toronto sees child poverty rising at an
alarming rate across Toronto’s suburbs. In areas such as
Mississauga, Markham, Richmond Hill and Oakville, child poverty rates
have soared since 1990, coming close to levels formerly known only in
downtown Toronto, says the report, based on data from 2006.
* While Toronto’s child poverty rate (before taxes) is
the highest at 32 per cent, up from 24 per cent in 1990, the suburbs have
seen more dramatic increases.
* Toronto Public Health’s “The Unequal City”, found a
clear link between poverty and poor health. It reported that the
top 20 per cent of male earners live 4.5 years longer than the bottom 20
per cent; females live 2.0 years longer.
* The results are consistent with findings in other
jurisdictions. In fact, a landmark report by the Saskatoon Health
Region in late November found a huge health gap between the poor and the
rich in that Saskatchewan city.
* More recently, a team of economists, bankers and
food bank directors released a study about the cost of poverty which
shows that poverty hurts both the health of those caught in its grip and
hits the wallets of almost everyone in society. The study found
that Canadians could save $7.6 billion per year in health-care
expenditures by elevating the health status of the bottom 20 per cent to
that of the next-to-bottom 20 per cent on the income ladder.
The inescapable conclusion of both reports is that to
improve overall health and reduce health costs, start by reducing
poverty. Unfortunately, that’s something that doesn’t happen in a
recession or a depression.
* Incidentally, the poorest areas also tend to be the
most polluted. PollutionWatch, after a two-year research project, found
that many of Toronto’s poorest residents live near industries that spew
the highest levels of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air.
The study discovered high pollutants in 17 neighbourhoods, from South
Riverdale, to West Hill in the east, to York University Heights in the
north and Alderwood in the southwest. Air pollution contributes to
almost 9,500 premature deaths each year in Ontario.
* Speaking of food banks, across Canada over 700,000
people use them in an average month, says a federal charity called Food
Banks Canada. It found that 14.5 per cent of the users are
considered “working poor”, up from 12 per cent in 2002.
There has been a 13 per cent jump since last Fall in
the number of Ontario residents seeking food aid, according to a report
on December 2 by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. The
increase in usage is particularly high in depressed auto, mining and
forest industry centres, like Sudbury (up 34.4%), Thunder Bay (28.5%),
St. Catharines (23.9%), Oshawa (15.3%) and Windsor (10%).
If the trend continues, next year about 350,000
Ontarians will be lining up at food banks each month to get the basics
they can’t afford to buy. And as things get worse, it affects
donors too. Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food
Bank, said food and financial donations are down 15 per cent this year.
And this is only a glimpse of what’s to come.
Canadian employers slashed nearly 71,000 jobs in
November, the worst single month drop in 26 years. 600,000 more
jobs are expected to disappear. According to BMO Capital Markets
economist Doug Porter, unemployment will rise to 7.5 per cent by the end
of 2009. Is Porter even counting those who’ve totally given up
looking for work, and the chronically under-employed? Ten years of
‘economic boom’ delivered a 59 per cent increase in temporary and
contract jobs. Almost four in ten jobs are now impermanent and
part-time forms of work.
For all of this we have capitalism to thank – in ‘good
times’, and current times. As for the future, don’t we deserve
something a heck of a lot better than this?
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