JUDITH MAXWELL
Globe and Mail Blog March 22, 2011
Judith Maxwell is the former chairman of the Economic Council of Canada and former president of Canadian Policy Research Networks
Feeding the hungry. It's a global problem. It's also a local problem and a sign of costly malfunctions in housing and labour markets.
In 2010, food banks in Ontario provided emergency food for 3.1 per cent of the population, up from an average of 2.4 per cent from 2000 to 2007, according to Running on Empty: A Decade of Hunger in Ontario published Tuesday by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. In the midst of so much plenty, there is hunger. Why?
The first malfunction is the cost of shelter. Soaring rents in small cities like Sudbury, Timmins and London and sky-high rents in big cities like Toronto and Ottawa far surpass the ability of low-income households to pay. Even though these people migrate to the low-rent districts in the city, the typical household accessing food banks in Ontario pays 65 per cent of its income in rent. By the end of the month, there is no money for food.
Food banks can ease the hunger, but families cannot meet their nutrition needs because low-rent housing is typically located far from grocery stores, transit and public services. The result is "food deserts" in many parts of Toronto, according to James Milway and colleagues. Without access to the quality and selection offered by major food stores, poor Canadians fall victim to obesity and diabetes. The long-term costs to society for health care and lost tax revenue are staggering.
If people could access affordable housing, they would be able to feed themselves three healthy meals a day. The back story on this is that federal and provincial governments decided in the early 90s to get out of the business of building affordable housing. They left the job to private developers who decided not to play because the business was not profitable. Now, governments occasionally cough up a special program to build new housing that people on low and modest incomes can afford, as they did in 2009. But supply lags far behind the demand. The Ontario waiting list was 142,000 in 2010, according to the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association.
The second malfunction is the labour market. Ontario social assistance and disability benefits impose severe penalties when clients earn income. Like most provinces, they claw back 50 per cent of earnings. When you combine that penalty with the fact that the work available is in low-paid, insecure jobs, family incomes fall far below the cost of living. The minimum wage in Ontario is now $10.25 an hour, but no one can support a family on that wage, even if they do find full-time, full-year work. Nor do these jobs provide training or opportunities for promotion to better paying and more productive employment. It's a poverty trap.
The impact of the trap shows up in the sharp increase in food bank use by single adults in their prime working years (18-44). The number accessing emergency food was 158,000 in a typical month in 2010, double the number in 2002. These people are not just broke, they are in distress. The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto reports that single adult clients are more likely than other households to have a disability or to have cycled on and off Ontario Works (social assistance) two or more times.
So there it is folks. Bad public policy is marginalizing the generation we were counting on to keep the economy humming as baby boomers head into retirement. This is devastating news for Canada at a time when the priority is to accelerate productivity growth to meet global competition. The combination of low-paid work and rents that far surpass their purchasing power leaves too many low-income Canadians hungry and malnourished and undermines the longer term prospects for the Canadian economy.
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