OTTAWA — Now more than ever, Canada's rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer and the middle class stagnates, according to the latest census data released Thursday by Statistics Canada.
Between 1980 and 2005, median earnings among Canada's top earners rose more than 16 per cent while those in the bottom fifth saw their wages dip by 20 per cent.
“Most people, most of the time, are interested in who is getting poorer, not necessarily who is getting richer. At least from a policy perspective,” said Michael Haan, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta.
“One of the things that stands out over the last 20 years ... is young lone-parents, immigrants, visible minority groups, they're going to continue to be hard hit.”
Still, Mr. Haan suggested credit has made it possible for struggling Canadians to have many of the same luxuries as those who are better off financially.
“If you're poor or relatively poor, it's possible to have many of the things the middle class has,” he said. “It's just that you have to pay for them for a longer period of time.”
Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the census report should set alarm bells ringing.
The biggest economic boom since the 1960s has basically only boosted the rich, she said, leaving the middle class stagnant and the poor worse off.
“In the 1960s, when the economy grew this rapidly, almost everybody got a bigger piece,” she said. “In this generation of economic growth, the gains are accruing primarily to those on the top.”
This should have been a time when the income gap narrowed, not broadened.
“It's a wake-up call for Canadians and their governments,” she said. “You can't keep ignoring this, especially with financial storm clouds from the south moving into Canada.
“This is not a sustainable trajectory.”
New Democrat MPs said they are “alarmed and worried” about the data.
“Most Canadians are stuck in neutral on income, while the richest five per cent in Canada are dramatically accumulating more wealth,” said Tony Martin, the party's social development critic.
“The poorest of us are even worse off than we suspected.”
He said the economic and social policies of recent years have failed.
“Successive Conservative and Liberal governments have blindly assumed that a rising tide lifts all boats,” he said. “But obviously not all boats have risen and too many paddlers, in fact, have no boats.”
Bill Siksay, the NDP housing critic, said Canada needs a national program to provide affordable housing.
“Far too many Canadians are homeless or spending far too much of their income on housing.”
Median earnings among those in the middle remained status quo, registering a mere 0.1 per cent increase over the course of 25 years.
Recent increases to basic personal tax exemption amounts are likely to benefit the middle class, Mr. Haan suggested, noting they may see higher earnings in the future.
As for the country's top earners, the number hitting $100,000-plus nearly doubled to 6.5 per cent in the last quarter century. Meanwhile, the number of full-time workers earning upwards of $150,000 rose one per cent, accounting for some 2.2 per cent of workers.
The majority of those earning hefty salaries were highly educated with some 57 per cent of $100,000-plus earners and 65 per cent of $150,000-plus earners holding university degrees.
The 2006 census also shows a marked increase in the number of top earners in the previous five years alone.
In 2005 there were 601,510 full-time workers raking in $100K-plus salaries — a 26 per cent jump over 2000.
The jump was even more pronounced among the 206,160 full-time workers who earned $150,000-plus salaries. Their numbers were up nearly 30 per cent in 2005.
The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Alberta had the largest and fastest growing proportion of six-figure salaried workers, followed by Ontario and Newfoundland.
Men between the ages of 45 and 64 accounted for roughly two-thirds of the increase in both high-earner groups.
Those earning at least $150,000 tended to work in management, finance, oil extraction, health and law.
According to the 2006 census, nearly 3.5 million Canadians, or 11.4 per cent of the total population, are living in low-income households. Nearly 15 per cent of them, some 879,955, are children under the age of 17.
The low-income rate was higher for children in female lone-parent families, regardless of their mother's employment status, and for recent immigrants.
