Introduction
Background
Methods
VANCOUVER
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Depriv- ation ranking
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Municipality - location description
|
% of Population living below LICO
after tax
|
% of Children < age 6 living below LICO
after tax
|
Unemploy-ment rate (15 yrs and over)
|
% below high school education (15 yrs and over)
|
% Lone-parent families
|
% Recent immigrants (Jan/2001 to May/2006)
|
% of Renters paying >30% of income on rent & utilities
|
15 | Vancouver - Lower Marpole (urban) | 30.7 | 27.4 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 20.2 | 40.2 | 38.0 |
4 | Surrey - Guildford Town Centre (peri-urban) | 38.0 | 55.5 | 7.6 | 25.6 | 31.2 | 47.1 | 32.4 |
TORONTO
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Depriv- ation ranking
|
Municipality - location description
|
% of Population living below LICO after tax
|
% of Children < age 6 living below LICO after tax
|
Unemploy-ment rate (15 yrs and over)
|
% below high school education (15 yrs and over)
|
% Lone-parent families
|
% Recent immigrants (Jan/2001 to May/2006)
|
% of Renters paying >30% of income on rent & utilities
|
13 | South Parkdale (urban) | 39.1 | 56.1 | 9.6 | 20.3 | 32.4 | 20.0 | 48.6 |
6 | Black Creek (peri-urban) | 44.7 | 61.4 | 14.8 | 40.0 | 45.9 | 11.0 | 27.4 |
MONTREAL
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Depriv- ation ranking
|
Municipality - location description
|
% of Population living below LICO
after tax
|
% of Children < age 6 living below LICO
after tax
|
Unemploy-ment rate (15 yrs and over)
|
% below high school education (15 yrs and over)
|
% Lone-parent families
|
% Recent immigrants (Jan/2001 to May/2006)
|
% of Renters paying >30% of income on rent & utilities
|
6 | Côtes-des-Neiges (CDN) | 48.3 | 71.9 | 19.8 | 24.4 | 22.5 | 24.8 | 45.8 |
10 | Parc-Ex | 45.3 | 71.0 | 18.7 | 40.0 | 21.5 | 22.3 | 37.3 |
VANCOUVER (n = 50)
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Municipality - location description
|
Sex (#)
|
% of families with children living below LICO (before tax)
1
|
% full time work
2
|
% part-time work
2
|
% un-employed
2
|
% immigrants
3
|
% with high school education or less
4
|
Vancouver - Lower Marpole (urban) | 22 F, 3 M | 12 | 50 | 30 | 4 | 73 | 4 |
Surrey - Guildford Town Centre (peri-urban) | 23 F, 2 M | 32 | 43 | 15 | 9 | 59 | 37 |
TORONTO (n = 50)
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Municipality - location description
|
Sex (#)
|
% of families with children living below LICO (before tax)
1
|
% full time work
2
|
% part-time work
2
|
% un-employed
2
|
% immigrants
3
|
% with high school education or less
4
|
South Parkdale (urban) | 23 F, 2 M | 68 | 17 | 15 | 37 | 88 | 56 |
Black Creek (peri-urban) | 22 F, 3 M | 50 | 42 | 14 | 22 | 76 | 64 |
MONTREAL (n = 47)
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Municipality - location description
|
Sex (#)
|
% of families with children living below LICO (before tax)
1
|
% full time work
2
|
% part-time work
2
|
% un-employed
2
|
% immigrants
3
|
% with high school education or less
4
|
Côtes-des-Neiges (CDN) | 17 F, 5 M | 77 | 11 | 22 | 39 | 91 | 23 |
Parc-Ex | 25 F | 92 | 20 | 0 | 49 | 100 | 28 |
Results
Pathway # 1: The labour market
Companies are moving to where they can get cheap labour. (Montreal)
It’s getting worse … especially in manufacturing. We are not getting anywhere because our jobs are being taken away. (Vancouver)
China sells everything. Everybody buys there because it’s cheaper, but then what happens? (Toronto)
Having a job is the most important thing. If you don’t have a job, you stay at home and think about all that is going wrong and difficult with your life.
Montreal
My husband was a knitting mechanic. He lost his job eight years ago as the factories moved to Mexico … where labour is cheap. Knitting has moved out of Montreal.
3,000 people lost their jobs when my factory closed. The company says that they had to move because they paid too much tax to the government.
People work mainly in factories making T-shirts and pants, but people are suffering …They have a job for a short time, get laid off, get another job but never accumulate enough hours to have unemployment benefits.
I need a job to sponsor my family. I need to earn at least $20,000. I need to find a job and then I can sponsor my parents; they are alone now. I am worried about them.
Toronto
You don't get a call back or it will be, "You don't have Canadian experience”… And I had to go through the rigours of this Canadian experience scenario where you have to wait it out or you do minimum wage jobs and just struggle all the time.
So I’m looking for a job … but they need [Canadian] experience … how is it possible to gain that experience when no one wants to employ you?
I wasn't expecting to see all these stumbling blocks where when you put out your application it would be, where you live. I mean you don't get a call back.
If I give my resume, I say I live at [this area], they don’t hire me. If I write I’m living somewhere else they may hire me … I’m an immigrant, and on top of it, I live in this area. Trust me, you know, I wish I had another address to write.
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Two jobs, part-time, 25 hours/week, no benefits, looking for a third part-time
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Laid off after 15 years, no severance; re-trained in food services, working 3 hours/day in a seniors’ residence
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Social worker from Sri Lanka now sorting used clothes for export, engineer husband working ‘on call’ to install windows
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Part-time cashier, no benefits
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Part-time waitressing, bartending, reliant on tips; partner drives part-time, clears snow in winter
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Childcare worker, three part-time jobs, no benefits
I work long hours but I just get the minimum wage. It's like you're always overworked and underpaid. And then you're tired on top of it. Can you imagine if I was being paid the right amount? I wouldn't have so much stress.
You start work at 7 and cannot be late. You really work hard … and really, really fast … But then if people work there for 10, 15, 20 years, when they get old, they just let you off.
Vancouver
The first job, it's a split shift Tuesday to Saturday; it's 8:00 to 12:00 in the morning, and 6:00 to 10:00 in the evening. And the second job, it's at night Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 to 7:00. So I get my sleep in between the split shifts, like in the morning, sometime I come home early, like 11:00, so from 11:00 to 6:00 I have time, and that's how I get my sleep.
…a kitchen helper in a Chinese restaurant … then I go to factory to seasonal work… put something in an envelope for mailing… and my third job, a dietary aide in a seniors’ home.
Yeah, I think I got sick, maybe I was too tired, I did three jobs.
My husband, he gets a job, he works there for a little while, he’s laid off… it’s been like that for years… it’s taking a toll on our health.
It’s a very difficult time, the economy changed… and my husband lost his job… and we are on our own. I have difficult time. Because I never think about it before - that experience. I was ‘Wow’.
Yeah, full-time, I was unionized, I had everything… seven years never laid off. Then right away terminated because the company, they lost a lot of contract with US.
Pathway # 2: The housing market
The shift is happening … it’s becoming condos and shopping malls. And the little places are getting bought out, and the homes are being scooped up and renovated … it’s becoming more difficult to find reasonable rentals. For those that don’t have [lots of money], they are ending up on the street, in hostels.
Yeah, this is a very old building, it has mites and moulds in it and that increases my child’s asthma because sometimes when she enters the house she starts coughing … so the doctor said you have to change the house, but that’s not possible at this point, you know.
The kids all have asthma, the older one has very bad asthma and we have already taken him to the emergency at the hospital. We can’t move because rents are too expensive.
Recently arrived immigrants are in a worse situation, they do not know the laws; landlords take advantage of their ignorance and vulnerability. They like to rent to immigrants.
Pathway # 3: Government social protection policies
When you lose your job [in my country] you don’t have the resources where you can go to a food bank or go to welfare and get assistance, no. So if your family doesn't take you in, you live on the street if you can't pay the rent. Here, even if you lose your job, you can go and get assistance.
My family support system has gone but in Canada I know that I can depend on the government if the worst came about.
The support here is completely different… here I do not even know my neighbours.
The majority of people [like me] who are on social assistance didn't grow up saying that they were going to be on social assistance. So it's not a thing filled with pride. And I don't think that most of [us] want to be on social assistance. We would prefer to be working or to be self-sufficient.
If you’re on welfare and saving money and they’re checking your bank account and saying ‘why are you saving money? That means you don't need this money. So we're not going to give you money this week.’ So the savings that you may have been putting towards school or towards getting a car so you could access … a job that's farther away. You can't do that.
There is never enough money. We are always short. (Montreal)
The government can do two things: increase welfare income, and help us find jobs.
My sister lost her job and now she cries every day and this is affecting her health. (Montreal)
You know, even to this minute I feel there is [opportunity] but it's just to get that big break.