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Losing Ground

Introduction by Frances Lankin

Frances Lankin
President & CEO,
United Way Toronto

"Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth of Family Poverty in Canada’s Largest City" tells the startling story of the diminishing capacity of Toronto families, lone-parent families in particular, to meet the high cost of living in Toronto. Losing Ground sets out starkly that on every measure, Toronto families fared worse than the nation as a whole. The report clearly demonstrates that Toronto families are not only falling behind the rest of the nation, they are also falling behind the rest of the province and even the rest of the Toronto area—worse in terms of median incomes, percentage of low-income families, and in the number of low-income families. Even more disturbing is that these families face raising their children in the most expensive city in Canada.

In telling this story, it is our hope that we will achieve two goals. First, we hope that this evidence-based report will be a catalyst for action and second, that we can work together—with the community sector and all three orders of government— to overcome the systemic issues of poverty in Canada’s largest city.

Although we are heartened by the modest gains that have resulted from recent public policy initiatives that point to fewer people living at the very bottom of the income ladder, we are nonetheless very concerned about the warning signs from other indicators. Growing levels of precarious employment, substantial increases in applications for evictions related to non-payment of rents, rising levels of indebtedness and insolvency—these signs are all deeply troubling. Tenuous financial circumstances of low-income families are pushing more and more families into a cycle of poverty as they turn to a rapidly expanding fringe-lending sector. The growth in widely available, quick-fix, and excessively expensive, financial products are "solutions" that those living in poverty can ill afford.

The numbers throughout the report illustrate the seriousness of the growth in poverty quite plainly. For instance, by 2005, nearly 1 in 5 of Toronto’s two-parent families were low-income, compared to approximately 1 in 10 at the national, provincial and rest of Toronto CMA levels. For lone-parent families, incredibly, more than 50 per cent were low-income in 2005.

There are many more unsettling trends identified in the report. Losing Ground charts the dramatic gap that is opening up between median incomes of Toronto families relative to other geographical areas, the increasing percentage of low-income families in Toronto (28.8% in 2005 up from 16.3% in 1990) and relative to Canada (19.5% and 16.3% respectively) and the meager incomes on which two-parent and lone-parent families struggle to live. Complicating matters for the vulnerable members of our community is that Torontonians had the lowest levels of access to Employment Insurance in Canada; a key component of the social safety net has been failing the precariously employed people in this city.

The story told by "Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth of Family Poverty in Canada’s Largest City" impels us all to action. It is incumbent on all of us, the voluntary sector, as well as all three orders of government, to take our share of responsibility for the complex solutions ahead of us. An important first step will be action arising out of the Government of Ontario’s commitment to develop a poverty reduction strategy that sets clear goals and indicators of success. A successful strategy will be one that addresses the uniqueness of different cities and regions in the province. Accordingly, community leaders, those with the deep knowledge of the nature of challenges of poverty locally, should be brought in to identify the critical elements of a successful poverty reduction strategy. It will be equally important that the poverty reduction strategy develop specific actions to address the significant challenges of the City of Toronto.

Together we should look to the successes of the Province of Quebec and to Ireland for inspiration, and to learn from their practical experience in realizing significant progress in battling the growth of poverty.

Furthermore, it is timely for the Province of Ontario to seize the opportunity to protect consumers from excessive lending rates by regulating the fringe-lending sector.

To ensure that we are better positioned to act sooner in future, we must work together to build a solid foundation of data on which to deepen our capacity to undertake research on how the City of Toronto and its residents are faring.

Lastly, United Way Toronto is committed to the development of consumer information and problem-solving programs targeted to low-income borrowers in high need communities across the city in order to empower them to make more informed decisions about their credit options.

In sharing this report we welcome and encourage an open and collaborative approach to swiftly addressing one of the key determinants of a great city—the financial health and welfare of its families. In doing so, we can collectively ensure a vibrant future for Toronto, for the Province of Ontario, and for the nation as a whole.

Frances Lankin
President and Chief Executive Officer,
United Way Toronto