Category: ESPC Press Releases

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January 11, 2021

EDMONTON – 80 Years of Community Building, a new retrospective publication produced by the Edmonton Social Planning Council (ESPC) to mark our 80^th anniversary, underscores the enormous contributions the non-profit organization has made towards the history of social development in Edmonton.

The publication gives a comprehensive overview of ESPC’s storied history set against the backdrop of the events that shaped Edmonton as a city, spanning the early origins of the organization (which includes an initial effort to form the agency that got stymied by the onslaught of the Great Depression in 1929), its founding in 1940 as the Second World War began, the economic boom linked with the discovery of oil in Leduc, times of profound social change in the 1960s and 1970s, all the way to the present day. Through it all, ESPC made invaluable contributions to the fabric of Edmonton’s social services sector, helping to fill gaps in services where identified and playing an important role in the formation of several community organizations that continue to positively impact Edmonton and many of its most marginalized populations right up to the present day.

“Whether it’s Boyle Street Community Services, Christmas Bureau of Edmonton, WIN House, or the Edmonton Community Legal Centre, to name only a few, the Edmonton Social Planning Council has worked tirelessly over the last 80 years helping to build and guide these valued Edmonton institutions,” says Susan Morrissey, Executive Director of ESPC. “With the contributions of our founders, we have made indispensable contributions towards building a community in which all people are full and valued participants.”

From guiding the coordination of social services to outspoken advocacy to rigorous research in social policy, ESPC has played an integral role in many social issues that have affected our city, which include affordable housing, livable incomes, women’s shelters, child poverty, integration of newcomers, seniors’ services, Indigenous peoples, and many more.

80 Years of Community Building is an invaluable opportunity to take stock of where we are, where we have been, and where we hope to go as an organization as we look towards the next 80 years.

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80 Years of Community Building is available on our website: https://edmontonsocialplanning.ca/2021/01/05/80-years-of-community-building-the-history-of-the-edmonton-social-planning-council/

Check out our companion timeline here: https://edmontonsocialplanning.ca/history/

For media inquiries and to arrange interviews, please contact:

Brett Lambert, Community Engagement Coordinator
E-mail: brettl@edmontonsocialplanning.ca 

 

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Edmonton’s residents are better educated than before despite persistent racial and gender inequalities. Additionally, poverty continues to negatively impact too many families as their cost of living goes up and economic challenges persist.

That’s according to the 15th edition of Tracking the Trends, the flagship publication of the Edmonton Social Planning Council since 1989, which seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of Edmonton’s social well-being.

“More students are finishing high school, and more students are moving on to post-secondary education in universities, colleges, and technical institutes,” says Sydney Sheloff, Research Officer at the Edmonton Social Planning Council. “While this is an encouraging development, we need to be mindful of the challenges we face, particularly with the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Tracking the Trends helps policymakers, researchers, and the general public understand long- and medium-term trends to help us to contextualize our current situation. Challenges such as poverty, housing and homelessness, and maintaining strong public health and education will persist long after the virus has been eradicated.

Among the notable findings include the following:

Educational Outcomes Are Improving
High school completion rates continue to improve. In addition, they are also pursuing higher education more than ever.

• The three-year high school completion rate for the Edmonton Public School Board improved by 18.1% from 57.0% in the 2000/01 school year to 75.1% in the 2017/18 school year.
• For the Edmonton Catholic School District, it improved by 28.2% from 59.7% in the 2000/01 school year to 87.9% in the 2017/18 school year.
• In the 2017/18 school year, 63.7% of students from Edmonton Public School Board enrolled in post-secondary education within six years of entering grade 10. This is up 13.5% from a rate of 50.2% in 2000/01.
• In the 2017/18 school year, 71% of students from Edmonton Catholic Schools enrolled in post secondary education within six years of entering grade ten. This is up 18.3% from a rate of 52.7% in 2000/01.

Economic Picture Still Quite Rough

Economic Realities have been tough for many Edmontonians over the past few years.

• Unemployment has slightly improved in 2019 to a rate of 7.3% compared to 8.1% in 2017.
• In 2019, the number of people accessing EI has decreased to 17,435 (it was at a record high of 27,388 people in 2016). However, those who cannot find work after EI benefits expire will often access Alberta Works. As such, 2019 saw a record high 30,860 households receiving Alberta Works.
• It’s not all bad… In 2019, 791,800 people in metro Edmonton were employed, and the economic participation rate was 72.0%.

Too Many Edmontonians Still Earn Below a Living Wage

Just looking at how many people are employed is not enough to understand the economic realities of Edmontonians. Many people in Edmonton are employed, but are not earning enough to make their needs and live in dignity.

• From July 2017 until June 2018, 69,600 adults aged 20-44 made below a living wage (which as of 2019 is defined as $16.51 per hour for a family of four with two parents working full-time).

Inequalities Still Persist Among Women and Racialized People

Women continue to face inequality in terms of incomes and employment.

• In 2018, female tax filers reported 68.7% of their after-tax income compared to male tax-filers
• In addition, 63.7% of those earning low wages are women.
• However, women actually experience lower unemployment rates than men. In 2019, the unemployment rate for men was 8.5% and for women 5.9%. This is likely because the industries men tend to work in are more affected by economic downturns.

Indigenous student’s high school completion rates are improving, but they are still well below city averages.

• In the 2009/10 school year, the three-year high school completion rate for Indigenous students attending Edmonton Public Schools was 26.6%. This improved to a 40.9% completion rate for the 2018/19 school year, a 14.3% increase.
• In the 2009/10 school year, the three-year high school completion rate for Indigenous students attending Edmonton Catholic Schools was 28.3%. This improved to a 60.6% completion rate for the 2018/19 school year, a 32.3% increase.

Indigenous people face higher unemployment rates.

• In 2019, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people was 13.2%, 5.9 percentage points higher than the total labour force.

Cost of Living going up… and many can’t keep up

• In 2019, the consumer price index was 143.2. Costs in Edmonton are 17.8% higher than they were ten years ago.
• In 2019, the average cost of a nutritious food basket for a family of four in Edmonton was $242.83.
• In October 2019, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Edmonton CMA in was $1,257.

Rising costs of housing, food, and other essential goods can be out of reach for many families making low incomes, putting them at risk of experiencing homelessness and food insecurity.

• Between July and September 2020, an average of 1,892 people experienced homelessness.
• 1,178 of those experiencing homelessness identified as Indigenous.
• In March 2019, the Edmonton Food Bank served 21,385 different people through its hamper program.

Poverty continues to affect too many families

Overall, poverty rates have improved. However, certain groups in the population are more likely to experience poverty

• The poverty rate in Edmonton decreased from 15.9% in the year 2000 to 12.9% in the year 2018.
• In 2018, 6.9% of persons in couple families lived in poverty, compared to 36.2% of persons in lone-parent families lived in poverty.

A huge poverty gap continues to exist. The poverty gap is the difference between the poverty line and the actual incomes of those who live in poverty.

• Lone parents with two kids experience the largest poverty gap – their median income is $15,136 below the poverty line.
• For dual low-income income families, those with two kids make $10,866 below the poverty line.
• Low income single adults are the best off, but they still make $8,683 below the poverty line.

However, Child Poverty is Improving.

• In 2018, 51,540 children and youth aged 0 to 17 years lived in poverty in the Edmonton CMA, a rate of 16.2%. This is down 6.5% points from a rate of 22.7% in 2000.
• Government income transfers, such as provincial and federal child benefits, are essential in lifting children out of poverty. In 2017, without government transfers, 28.6% of Alberta children would live in poverty. With existing transfers, 16.6% of Alberta children live in poverty.

 

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Download the full report on our website.

For media inquiries and to arrange interviews, please contact:
Brett Lambert, Community Engagement Coordinator
E-mail: BrettL@edmontonsocialplanning.ca

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February 12, 2020

EDMONTON – A new report released by the Edmonton Social Planning Council shows that the toll of households placed on long waiting lists for rental assistance is high and action is urgently needed.

The High Cost of Waiting: Tenant-Focused Solutions to Enhance Housing Affordability sets out to document the impacts on quality of life for households who have to wait for prolonged periods of time and find the best solutions for reducing wait times and improving housing affordability. Excessively long waits for affordable rental accommodations has been one of the most intractable challenges facing low income Edmonton households.

“Long wait times forces many people to pay market rents for housing they can’t afford, or to live in units that substandard, unsafe or overcrowded,” says John Kolkman, Research Associate for the Edmonton Social Planning Council and principal author of the report. About 100 people currently on the Capital Region Housing wait list attended focus groups and provided email responses describing their experiences of having to wait in many cases for years to obtain help paying their rents, and the toll this is taking on their mental and financial health.

“We heard that the stress of having to wait for assistance and the financial worries of having to provide for their families had enormous negative impacts on their quality of life,” says Kolkman. “In some cases people became homeless while waiting and more many are at severe risk of becoming homeless.”

The report notes the federal government is proposing a Canada Housing Benefit with matching federal and provincial dollars as a key component of a National Housing Strategy. The ESPC report contains specific recommendations on how such a benefit should be funded and designed to best shrink wait lists. Funding should be sufficient to allow all households who qualify based on their household income receive rental assistance on a timely basis, similar to what is currently the norm for existing programs like child care subsidies and income support.

Nevertheless, there is uncertainty about the Alberta government’s commitment to its share of the funding. “Instead of cost-matching, the 24% cut in rental assistance announced in the October 2019 Alberta Budget suggests that the province is planning to use the new federal dollars to replace at least some existing provincial dollars,” says Kolkman. “Without proper funding from both orders of government, the effectiveness in reducing wait times of those being forced to wait will be severely compromised.”

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Download the Report – THE HIGH COST OF WAITING Tenant-Focused Solutions to Enhance Housing Affordability

Media Contact:

Brett Lambert, Community Engagement Coordinator,

Edmonton Social Planning Council

Phone: (780) 423-2031, ext. 351 E-mail: BrettL@edmontonsocialplanning.ca 

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EDMONTON – The Alberta College of Social Workers, Edmonton Social Planning Council, and Public Interest Alberta have jointly released a report on the state of child and family poverty in Alberta called ” Invest in Families: Ending Child Poverty is Good for All .”

Click to download: Invest In Families: Ending Child Poverty Is Good For All

Click to download: Invest In Families: Ending Child Poverty, Is Good For All (One Page Summary)

In Alberta, 1 in 6 children live below the poverty line. The report focuses on the impacts of poverty on the development of children, and its wide-ranging detrimental effects, including issues affecting mental health, educational attainment, employment, and housing throughout their lives up to adulthood.

The report demonstrates that investment into Alberta’s families, including child benefits, nutrition programs, affordable housing, and subsidized, quality child care, are the key to ending the cycles of poverty that end up blocking children from living lives of dignity where they’re able to thrive.

“Child care for a family is one of the biggest household expenses, which can be as high as 67% of their monthly income,” Sandra Ngo, the Research Coordinator at the Edmonton Social Planning Council said, “This makes it extremely difficult for a family to afford nutritious food, housing, education, and other essentials. Creating a universal and affordable, quality child care program would be a game changer for children and their parents.”

The report clearly demonstrates that ending child poverty is a moral imperative for Alberta. Investing now in Alberta’s families means a better province for everyone.

“The need to address child poverty continues to be a topic for all Albertans to care about,” said Ajay Hartenfeld Pandhi, President of the Alberta College of Social Workers. “Among all the economic discussions underway, let this topic be one that stands out as a priority in our decision making.”

The report comes at a critical time when the provincial government is making sweeping cuts to social programs, and freezing the minimum wage.

“The provincial government is headed in the wrong direction with many of their cuts to social programs and by, for the first time since 2010, freezing the minimum wage,” said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta, “These cuts and freezes directly impact the most vulnerable people and families in the province. We owe it to the children of this province to take immediate action. Investments into social programs and public services including subsidized quality child care, a universal pharmacare program, and indexing of financial supports for those earning low incomes will go a long way to achieving that.”

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Media Contacts

Brett Lambert, Community Engagement Coordinator, Edmonton Social Planning Council

(780) 423-2031 ext. 351 BrettL@edmontonsocialplanning.ca

Lynn Labrecque King, Executive Direction and Registrar, Alberta College of Social Workers

(780) 421-1167 ext. 226 executivedirector@acsw.ab.ca

Laura Kruse, Communications Officer, Public Interest Alberta

587-568-2792 (cell) 780-420-0471 (office) communications@pialberta.org 

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