[See the CCSD's Urban Poverty Project 2007.]
Due to popular demand, the Canadian Council on Social Development, in partnership with Statistics Canada, is once again providing data on urban poverty to municipalities and community-based organizations as a stand-alone product. This Urban Poverty Project is part of the larger package of information and data called the Community Social Data Strategy (CSDS).
We believe that the complete Community Social Data Strategy package, which includes the Urban Poverty package, is still the best way to go, because it offers the very widest range of data and is the most comprehensive data package available. However, in our consultations around the Community Social Data Strategy, some cities have indicated that their primary concern at this point is for specific data on urban poverty in their area. In response to those concerns, the Urban Poverty package has been made available for purchase separate from the larger CSDS package.
This package of data on Urban Poverty provides your city or region with detailed information about low income in your area – right down to the level of Census Tracts, which have a population of 2,500 to 8,000 persons. For smaller cities, available data includes Census dissemination areas, which allow analysis of 400- to 700-person neighbourhood tracts.
This Urban Poverty Project can provide you with data linking low income to the following demographic characteristics:
- Income
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Labour force status
- Gender
- Family status
- Visible minority status
- Aboriginal status
- Ethnic ancestry
- Immigration
- Language
- People with disabilities
- Mobility
This information package allows cities and non-profit organizations to develop a more-thorough understanding of who in their area is living in low income, and what are the characteristics of this population, such as where and how they live, what their employment status is, and the like.
Background
In 1996, the Canadian Council on Social Development initiated an Urban Poverty Project to carry out two primary activities:
- To provide relevant, local-level poverty data to be used by the project partners;
- To search for underlying factors in poverty among Canadian communities.
Many regional and municipal levels of government participated in that first Urban Poverty initiative, and together with non-profit organizations, they formed 19 consortia across Canada. Urban areas participating in the first Urban Poverty Project included the following:
- Victoria, CMA
- Vancouver, CMA
- Calgary, CMA
- Regina, CMA
- Thunder Bay, CMA
- Windsor, CMA
- London, CMA
- Region of Waterloo
- Region of Hamilton-Wentworth
- Region of Halton
- Region of Peel
- Region of York
- City of Toronto
- Region of Durham
- Ottawa-Hull, CMA
- Saint John, CMA
- Halifax, CMA
- Region of Cape Breton
- Edmonton, CMA
- National Association of Friendship Centres.
Together, the participants were able to share the costs of obtaining important data on poverty from the 1996 Census, as well as help fund production of the report, Urban Poverty in Canada, which is still available for downloading from the CCSD’s website at http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2000/up/index.htm. Containing data for 47 cities and urban regions, this report provides a comprehensive perspective of poverty in Canada by examining low income at the local level, and comparing the situation of people in poverty in cities across the country.
Because data generated by that first Urban Poverty Project have been so widely used as benchmark indicators of low-income in urban areas, the Council hopes to replicate all the customized tables, this time using the most recent data available from the 2001 Census. As well, a report similar to Urban Poverty in Canada (2000) is also being produced. It is expected to be completed in 2006.
To obtain further details about participating in this Urban Poverty Project, and or the larger Community Social Data Strategy, please contact:
Community Social Data Strategy
Canadian Council on Social Development
190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100
Ottawa, ON K2P 2R3
Tel: (613) 236-8977, ext 244
Fax: (613) 236-2750
E-mail: socialdata@ccsd.ca
