(CP)
Thursday, May 1, 2008

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 today by Statistics Canada.
Between 1980 and 2005, median earnings among Canada’s top earners rose more than 16 percent while those in the bottom fifth saw their wages dip by 20 percent.

“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, 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.”
New Democrat MPs said they are “alarmed and worried” about the data.
“Most Canadians are stuck in neutral on income while the richest five percent 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,” he noted.
Median earnings among those in the middle remained status quo—registering a mere 0.1 percent increase over the course of 25 years.
Recent increases to basic personal tax exemption amounts are likely to benefit the middle class, 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 percent in the last quarter-century. Meanwhile, the number of full-time workers earning upwards of $150,000 rose one percent, accounting for some 2.2 percent of workers.
The majority of those earning hefty salaries were highly-educated, with some 57 percent of $100,000-plus earners and 65 percent 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, for instance, there were 601,510 full-time workers raking in $100K-plus salaries—a 26 percent 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 percent in 2005.