A new report indicates there is a growing gap between rich and poor in Canadian society.
The first-ever national Vital Signs report provides a snapshot of the quality of life in Canada. In an effort to raise awareness for community organizations at federal and provincial levels, the Community Foundations of Canada also issued 11 individual Vital Signs reports from cities around the country Tuesday.
"We indeed are a very prosperous country," Monica Patten CEO of Community Foundations of Canada told CTV's Canada AM. "But there is what I would call the dark side and I think that many Canadians don't actually know that."
According to the Vital Signs report, newcomers are twice as likely to live in poverty and aboriginals and youth experience higher than average unemployment.
Additionally, the report said that the average home in Canada costs four times more than the average family income.
"This is a widespread issue that all Canadians need to be really concerned about and we need to turn our attention to addressing the growing gap between rich and the poor in the country," said Patten.
Additionally the report said that many newcomers to the country are experiencing particular difficulty in integrating into the country's workforce.
Patten said the reasons why the issue has not yet been addressed is because that data and information has been in the process of being collected and processed.
While Patten said there are a number of programs set up across the country to address the integration of newcomers into the economy she said there is no cohesive policy at either a federal or provincial level to address the issue.
According to Todd Letts of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, an approach that addresses immigration employment will yield benefits for the national economy.
Letts said that the The Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network was an example of a program that helped to leverage the skills of immigrants.
"When we look at the future, our labour force growth in Canada is going to be dependent upon internationally trained people," said Letts said.
Letts said that internationally trained staff possesses expertise and insight into foreign countries that can assist the economy.
Other findings in the report include:
- Median family income has increased 6.4 per cent since 2000.
- Post-secondary education enrolment is up 50 per cent since 1990
- Canada's unemployment rate in 2006 of 6.3 per cent was the lowest in a generation
- Property crime is down 41.8 per cent since 1991
The Vital Signs report was composed from data collected from Statistics Canada, Environment Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation among other sources.
