Category: ESPC Press Releases

“Whether planning programs or developing policies, timely accurate information is critical to informed decision-making,” said Susan Morrissey, the ESPC’s Executive Director.  “The objective of Tracking the Trends is to be a one-stop resource for identifying and analyzing a broad range of social and economic trends in Edmonton,” she added.

•    A steep rise in poverty in our community. The number of children living in poverty in the metro Edmonton area jumped from 16,000 in 2006 to 41,000 in 2009 (p. 57);

•    Many people in Edmonton lost their jobs especially among recent immigrants, youth and Aboriginal people (p. 16).  This led by the end of 2009 to a tripling of the number of Edmontonians drawing employment insurance benefits (p. 65);

•    After a few years of increases beyond inflation, family incomes dropped in 2009 (p. 38);

•    There was also a significant increase in social assistance caseloads (p. 64) and in food bank use (p. 30). These are also indicators of economic distress.

“Our community is not immune from the growing gap in incomes and wealth,” Kolkman noted. “Income inequality between Alberta families has increased steadily in the past 20 years, and took a further jump in 2009 during the recent recession (p. 52).  In other words, Alberta’s economy is lifting the yachts more rapidly than the canoes and the row boats.”

Kolkman said the report also finds many positive trends:

•    In 2009, government income transfers reduced by 44% the number of children that otherwise fall below the poverty line(p. 62);

•     So far in 2011, Edmonton job growth has been strong (p. 13);

•    Although it will soon be the lowest in the country, the Alberta government recently lifted its freeze on the minimum wage (p. 41);

•    There is steady improvement in educational attainment as measured by high school completion. However, over one in five young adults fail to complete high school within five years showing more progress is needed (p. 10);

•    Despite the attention focused on the record number of homicides in 2011, Edmonton’s overall rates for both violent crime and property crime continue to decline (page 106).

Tracking the Trends 2011 also includes a special feature on Edmonton’s increasing diversity (p. 70).  “Growing numbers on immigrants and non-permanent residents is making Edmonton a more ethnically, racially and linguistically diverse city.   This increasing diversity creates integration challenges but also many opportunities for Edmonton in this rapidly globalizing and shrinking world,” Kolkman emphasized.

•    As immigrants get more settled, they tend to relocate from lower income to middle and higher income neighbourhoods; 

•    The maps show that South Asians tend to prefer living in Southeast Edmonton, and those of Arabic origins in North End neighbourhoods.  Overall, the data shows visible minority populations live in neighbourhoods throughout the City;

•    Second generation immigrants are even more likely than their parents to live in neighbourhoods throughout  the City; and

•     Neither immigrants or those from visible minority backgrounds are disproportionately concentrated in lower income neighbourhoods.

Tracking the Trends 2011 combines 25 key indicators into a Social Health Index (p. 111). “Edmonton’s economic roller coaster is reflected in the index which peaked in 2008, declined sharply in 2009, began recovering in 2010, with further recovery projected for 2011. The bottom line is a 17.7% improvement in Edmonton’s social health since 1995,” Kolkman concluded.  

For more information contact: John Kolkman This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Research Coordinator
(780) 423-2031 x 350

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website: www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca

Media Release
June 15, 2011

The Edmonton Social Planning Council (ESPC) released data compiled by Statistics Canada confirming that the recent recession caused a dramatic increase in poverty in Alberta in 2009.  Edmonton was particularly hard hit by this poverty spike. “According to Statistics Canada, the number of Albertans living below the Market Basket Measure of Low Income increased from 210,000 in 2008 to 353,000 in 2009, a 68% increase,” said John Kolkman, the ESPC’s Research Coordinator.  “The number of Alberta children living in low income increased from 60,000 to 105,000 between 2008 and 2009, a 75% increase.”

Kolkman noted that the numbers for metro Edmonton are even worse.  “One in eight people (12%) in Edmonton (144,000) lived in poverty in 2009.  Almost one in five (19.2%) children lived in poverty.  This translates into 51,000 children in our community.

“While the recent recession caused poverty to rise in most of the country, nowhere were the increases as dramatic as in our province or region,” Kolkman emphasized.  “After a decade of slow declines in poverty rates, this sudden spike underlines the need for urgent action.”

“Most other provinces are working with their communities on positive solutions involving real targets and timelines to reduce poverty.  While the city and province deserve to be commended for their work on eliminating homelessness, this new data shows a broader effort to tackle poverty is needed as well.”

Kolkman called on all Alberta political parties and leadership candidates to make poverty reduction a top priority.  “A good place to start would be investing in a refundable Alberta Child Benefit to supplement existing federal child tax benefits.  Other provinces like Ontario and Manitoba are finding child tax benefits to be a very effective way to reduce child and family poverty,” he concluded.
 

The Edmonton Social Planning Council and Public Interest Alberta released a new report that shows 53,000 Alberta children lived below Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off (after-tax) in 2008, and that number is probably higher today due to the effects of the recession on our economy.

“It is just plain wrong that in one of the wealthiest parts of the world we have so many children that are struggling in poverty,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Other provinces with fewer resources are working together with their communities to come up with many different solutions, timelines and real achievable targets to address this situation. Certainly it is ‘Time for Action’ here in Alberta as well.”

“The report clearly shows that we need to do much more than wait for the economy to rebound,” says John Kolkman, Research Coordinator for the Edmonton Social Planning Council. “The majority of children living in poverty (53.8%) lived in families where the combined work activity equalled full-time for the full year.”

“The good news is that a number of government programs do make a real difference. Government transfer programs lifted 36% of children above the low-income cut off in 2008 (up from 25% in 1989),” says Kolkman. “The bad news is that many important programs are being cut or scaled back and we see increasing social assistance case loads, up 45% from two years earlier (October 2010 statistic). Alberta food bank use in 2010 is at a 12 year high.”

“We are very pleased to see a growing number of people who want to see Alberta adopt a strategy to reduce, prevent and eliminate poverty in Alberta,” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon. “Many municipal, business and community leaders strongly support the unanimous recommendation of the Standing Committee on the Economy to establish a designed-in-Alberta poverty reduction strategy.

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For more information contact:
John Kolkman, Research Coordinator, Edmonton Social Planning Council
(780) 423-2031 x350

website: www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca

or

Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director, Public Interest Alberta
(780) 423-2031 x 350

For a free copy of the report, click on the image below.

Reliable estimates place the number of homeless people in Canada as high as 300,000. In response to this crisis, the Red Tents Campaign is getting set for a day of action all through Canada on October 19th to call on the federal government to develop a federal housing strategy.

On October 19th, 2010 the Red Tent Campaign and housing advocates from across the country staged a day of action in support of a federal housing strategy. Along with the main event in Ottawa, local actions will be took place in Victoria, Surrey, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, London and Halifax.  In Edmonton, Public Interest Alberta, supported by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, took part in the national campaign in front of Canada Place by setting up Red Tents to symbolize the need for more affordable housing. 

John Kolkman, Opinion Editorial
Edmonton Journal, March 16, 2010

Alberta has experienced a modest drop in child and family poverty in recent years due to a strong economy and some reinvestment in social programs. Yet the 2006 federal census, taken at the height of the economic boom, found that 77,595 Alberta children (over one in 10) continued to live in poverty.

Moreover, even these modest gains will be put at risk if the Alberta government makes the wrong choices in its upcoming budget.

The government of Alberta should consider investing in a refundable child-tax benefit for low and modest income Alberta families. Alberta would thereby join several other provinces that have their own child-tax benefits to supplement federal child tax benefits.

Child-tax benefits (including the supplement for low-income families) already contribute significantly more to alleviating poverty than provincial social assistance payments. Introducing a parallel Alberta benefit — is the single-most important social policy innovation that would put a significant dent in the number of children living in poor families.

Refundable child-tax benefits have numerous advantages.

Unlike social assistance, there are no complicated rules stigmatizing low-income families.

Eligibility is determined by the Canadian Revenue Agency based on filing a tax return with benefits directly deposited into the family’s bank account.

Child-tax benefits are available to all families regardless of the source of income — working poor as well as those on income support. Lowincome families receive the maximum benefit, and benefit levels are gradually reduced as family income rises.

By piggybacking on existing federal child-tax benefits, an Alberta benefit could be introduced at no additional administrative cost.

At first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive to advocate a new spending initiative at a time the provincial government’s finances are tight. The last time the Alberta economy hit some turbulent waters back in the early 1990s, the government responded by making deep cuts to social programs including social assistance, affordable housing and benefits to Albertans with disabilities.

The results were predictable. Homelessness soared. Poverty spiked.

So did the number of children in government care. This time around the Alberta government must make better choices.

Investments in poverty reduction generally, and an Alberta Child Benefit specifically, would help stimulate the Alberta economy. Lower-income Albertans will spend increases in social benefits on necessary goods and services, thereby creating jobs and economic activity.

Fortunately, the Alberta government is in a much stronger budgetary position today than during the early 1990s.

By the time of the deep cuts of 1993, the then Getty government had been running multibillion dollar budget deficits since the mid-1980s.

By contrast, until this year, there has been a spectacular run of consecutive multibillion-dollar budget surpluses.

Some of these surpluses were deposited in a short-term savings account called the Sustainability Fund.

According to the most recent quarterly financial update, $13.3 billion is still forecast to be available in the Sustainability Fund even after covering last year’s deficit.

This fund is purposely designed as a short-term savings account to be used to cover the kinds of sudden and short-term declines in government revenues as are currently being experienced.

The government of Ontario adopted a poverty-reduction strategy in December 2008 which calls for a 25-per-cent reduction in child poverty over five years, thereby lifting 90,000 Ontario children out of poverty.

A cornerstone of Ontario’s strategy is more than doubling its refundable child tax benefit.

By July 2010, low and modest income Ontario families will receive up to $1,310 a year per child at a total annual cost to the provincial Treasury of $1.3 billion. I

If Ontario — facing much more severe budgetary challenges — can make a firm commitment to its children, surely Alberta can.

Assuming comparable benefit levels, and adjusted for differences in population, the corresponding cost to the Alberta treasury would be a relatively modest $350 million per year.

Failing to invest today in reducing child and family poverty in this province will only lead to even higher societal costs down the road. Based on a recent study in Ontario, persistent poverty could be costing the Alberta economy $8 to $10 billion a year in lost economic potential and extra costs for services like ambulances, hospitalization, child welfare, policing and corrections.

Including strategic investments in poverty reduction like an Alberta Child Benefit would pay dividends for all Albertans in the long-term.

The Edmonton Social Planning Council (ESPC) says the 2010 provincial budget contains major cuts for Alberta’s renters and puts the provincial plan to end homelessness in ten years at serious risk of failure.  

“Last March, the provincial government committed to ending the scourge of homelessness in this province.  Yet the last two provincial budgets have delivered less than one-third of the financial resources needed to achieve this worthy objective,” said John Kolkman, the ESPC’s Research and Policy Analysis Coordinator.

Kolkman notes that the government appointed Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness estimated the cost of ending homelessness at $3.3 billion over ten years (or $330 million per year).  Yet the 2010 budget only commits to funding of $400 million during the first four years (or $100 million per year).  “How can the government expect to meet its goal of ending homelessness without investing the necessary resources to bring it about?” he asks.

The bit of good budget news is the increase of $10.1 million in outreach support services for those being housed under the Ten Year Plan.  “This helps those who are vulnerable retain their housing rather than fall back into homelessness,” said Kolkman.

The ESPC is also concerned about the deep cuts in provincial rent supplements in the last two budgets. “Rents remain high, yet assistance to help low income Albertans pay their rent has fallen from $144 million last year, to $88 million this year, and will be further reduced to $75 million next year. People who can’t afford to pay their rents risk becoming homeless. It is more cost-effective to help low income Albertans pay their rents before they become homeless than to only help them after they do,” he emphasized. 

While some emergency housing assistance is available through social assistance (Alberta Works), this program is also facing a $47 million (8%) cut.  “All in all, Budget 2010 spells trouble for Albertans who are homeless or unable to pay their rent,” Kolkman concludes.

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For more information contact:
John Kolkman
(780) 423-2031 x350 or (587) 989-4442

website: www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca

More Information

• Homeless Secretariat Report Funding Plan (see Table 4)
• Government Adoption of Ten Year Plan