Press Release and Fact Sheet on Child and Family Poverty in Alberta

Media Release
November 26, 2007

Child and Family Poverty Too High in Wealthy Alberta
New Statistics Show Need for Provincial Poverty
Reduction Strategy and Living Wage Policies

“It is hard to imagine that in the wealthiest province in Canada we have 64,000 children (1 out of every 12) living below the Statistics Canada’s low-income cut off (LICO After Tax), said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, the Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “What is even more shocking is that 49% of these children had at least one parent working full-time, full year.”

Public Interest Alberta is on the steering committee of Campaign 2000, a national coalition of over 120 organizations that released a report card on child and family poverty in Ottawa today. The Campaign 2000 report, It Takes a Nation to Raise a Generation calls on all levels of government to set real poverty reduction goals and proposes a number of positive solutions that would reduce child and family poverty in Canada.

“The good news is that some governments like Newfoundland are willing to set firm poverty reduction strategies and are taking action. The bad news is that far too many other governments seem to deny there is a problem or pretend they are already taking the issue of poverty seriously,” says Moore-Kilgannon.

Public Interest Alberta also released new statistics that show that 21.9% of all employed Albertans are earning less than $12/hour. The majority of these low-wage workers (52%) are older than 24 years of age and 64% are women. The new statistics also show that some cities in Alberta have a higher percentage of low-wage workers: Lethbridge (29%), Red Deer (24.7%), and Edmonton (22.9%).

“With the recent announcement of a $4 billion provincial surplus, it is time all political parties and municipal politicians identify the concrete and measurable steps they are going to do address poverty in Alberta. For example, people need to put pressure on all levels of government to establish living wage policies that will make sure that anyone working full-time under contract to the government will not be living in poverty,” said Moore-Kilgannon.

The fact sheet is available on the Public Interest Alberta website at http://www.pialberta.org/ and the Campaign 2000 report, can be found at http://www.campaign2000.ca/.

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Media Contact: Bill Moore-Kilgannon (780) 420-0471





Low Wages and Child and Family Poverty in Alberta
Fact Sheet

How many children are living below the Low Income Cut Off in Alberta?
According to the latest Statistics Canada figures, there are 64,000 children in Alberta in families with income below the LICO After Tax. (8.6% - or one in twelve of all Children in Alberta) 1

How many of these children have parents working full time, all year long?
49% of all the children living in families with income below the Statistics Canada low-income cut off have at least one family member who has worked full time full year.

How many people are making less than $12/hour?

There are 343,400 employed Albertans making less than $12/hour (April 1, 2007). This is 21.9% of all employed Albertans. 2

Are the majority of low wage workers young people?
There are 177,600 people in Alberta who are older than 24 years of age making less than $12/hour. In other words 52% of all people working in this low wage jobs are older than 24 years of age.

How do women compare to men when it comes to earning low wages?
There are 219,600 women earning less than $12/hour – this is 64% of the total number of people earning less than $12/hour.


Notes

1 – Statistics Canada measures the number of children in families living below the low-income cut off both before tax and after tax is taken into consideration.

2 – All the data that measures the number of low-wage workers in Alberta were purchased by Public Interest Alberta from Statistics Canada and is the average annual salaries for the year ending April 1, 2007.

More you can do to End Poverty

Here is a list of actions from Oxfam in the UK - some of them aren't applicable to those of us in Canada, but some still are:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/actions/index.html

Thinking about gifts for this holiday season? Don't buy stuff, Change the world!

As these ads by Oxfam in the UK and New Zealand comically point out, every year most people both give and receive a whole lot of presents that are useless or not needed, usually generic, and just add to the STUFF we all have lying around. This year, use some or all of your gift-buying to change the world a little!

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/unwrapped/rubbishpresents_video2.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XKE15yNnE

The sites below have great gift ideas that you can purchase through them that will really let you make a difference this year.
Note: These sites are from several different countries, but we live in a connected world, so if there's something one another country's site, you can probably still get it, shipping will just take longer for the card (unless you get an e-card) and you'll need to consider the exchange rate for whatever you're buying.

Oxfam Unwrapped Canada – http://www.oxfamunwrapped.ca/
Oxfam Unwrapped US - http://www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com/
Oxfam Unwrapped UK - http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/Browse.aspx?catalog=Unwrapped&category=UWGifts
-some of the fun gifts you can find on these sites include: male and female condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, a sanitary toilet for a community or school(I highly recommend this one!), safe water, chicken donkey or goat, hygiene kits, emergency kits, training or tools for women, peer education training on HIV/AIDS prevention

Good Gifts Catalogue (based in the UK) - http://www.goodgifts.org/-check out their stocking stuffers for cheaper gifts that still make a difference-wide range of useful gifts, sorted by interest for animal lovers and gardeners, music lovers, food lovers and book lovers

Ten Thousand Villages Living Gifts (Canada) - http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=living_gift
-plant trees, send children to school, or give livestock