Canadian Council on Social Development 441 MacLaren Street 4th/e Floor/Étage Ottawa, ON K2P 2H3

Conseil canadien de développement social Tel: (613) 236-8977 Fax: (613) 236-2750 E-mail: council@ccsd.ca Internet: www.ccsd.ca

Communiqué

May 11, 1998

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Is urban poverty changing in Canada?
New Census data will be revealing

Ottawa – On May 12, Statistics Canada will be releasing new data from the most recent Census on household incomes in Canada. Representatives of the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) will be available to comment on what the data reveal about the changing nature of urban poverty in Canada.

Specifically, the CCSD will be looking for

• trends in poverty rates by city between 1990 and 1995. Is the number of poor people in urban centres increasing, decreasing, or stabilizing?

• variations in poverty rates among cities. The CCSD has already ranked cities according to their poverty rates for 1990. Do the numbers for 1995 look similar? How do cities in the same province compare? What are the rates in cities with so-called strong economies?

• correlations between poverty rates and employment rates. Although employment rates do not tell the whole story, they explain much about poverty levels. To what extent do poverty rates follow the same trends as employment rates in each metropolitan area?

The CCSD is conducting a major research project on the nature of urban poverty, with a release planned for early in 1999.

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For more information or to arrange interviews, contact
Ellen Adelberg, Director of Communications, at (613) 236-5868 ext. 226.

The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is an independent, national, non-profit research organization focusing on issues of income and social security.

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