by Tom Braid, QMI Agency
October 20, 2011

TRACKING THE TREND 2011 › The Edmonton Social Planning Council released a report on Thursday suggesting the economic recession has taken a toll on Edmonton’s social health and has lead to a steep increase in the number of children living in poverty. Children were largely impacted by the recession despite a perception that Edmonton was sheltered, according to the 128-page Tracking the Trends 2011 report.

“The numbers even surprised us a little bit,” said Edmonton Social Planning Council research co-ordinator John Kolkman. The report released on Thursday shows that 41,000 children were living in poverty in 2009, a steep increase from three years earlier when 16,000 children were living in poverty in the metro Edmonton area.

“Edmonton was strongly impacted by the economic recession,” Kolkman said. “That shows up in the stats in a variety of ways.”

Despite a perception that Edmonton, Alberta and Canada have weathered the recession well, the report shows the income gap is widening, Kolkman said.

“Going into the recession, Alberta had record numbers of people working, we had a lot of working poverty, but many of those people were in quite vulnerable kinds of jobs,” he said. “When the recession hit, a lot of those people just lost their employment.” Edmonton Social Planning council Executive Director Susan Morrissey agreed that there is a disconnect between the idea of being a wealthy province and the number of people struggling even while working two jobs.

The first people to lose their jobs were aboriginals, immigrants and youth because they work in insecure jobs such as warehouse, constructions and trades, cleaning and food services sectors, Kolkman said.

The measure of poverty is based on the Low Income Cutoff (LICO). Despite the recent increase, long-term trends are looking good with 3,000 fewer children living in poverty compared to 1999.

Long-term impacts of having people in poverty include increased costs to health care and the child welfare system.

Kolkman pointed to the fact that governments did not cut as they had in the mid-1990s, which probably lessened the blow. According to the report, government transfers reduced potential child poverty by 44%.

In 2009, the number of people living in poverty and the poverty rate jumped.

There were positive changes despite the recession.

Employment growth has been strong in 2011, Kolkman said.

High school completion rates are increasing, which is great, Morrissey said.

A coalition of agencies around the province is currently working on a study of monetary value of prevention, expected to be published in January.