Now
Toronto Community Foundation releases Toronto's Vital Signs 2009 Report.
October 6, 2009
By Rahul K. Bhardwaj, President & CEO, Toronto Community Foundation and
Martin Connell, Chair, Toronto Community Foundation
Toronto's got it all. When compared to other major cities around the world, we’re right up there.
According to the 2008 MasterCard index of 75 leading global centres of commerce, we’re 13th in livability and 4th in ease of doing business – in the world.
And when it comes to innovation we stack up even higher reaching second place in North America and among the top 20 cities globally.
We also have a highly desirable quality of life says Mercer in its 2009 Quality of Living Survey, with Toronto ranking 15th out of 215 global cities for the fourth year in a row.
We’re even 3rd in the world for the least amount of time it takes to earn enough for a “Big Mac”, according to a UBS report.
At home, our standing is equally strong. While we cannot claim to have shielded ourselves from the affects of the global recession, in many respects we’ve fared better than most cities in Canada. Toronto is the second wealthiest city in the country after Vancouver, with an average household net worth of $562,000.
When we look within the boundaries of our city we see that crime levels fell in 2008 for the fifth year in a row, water usage continues to drop, and we have greater access to healthy, local food as farmers’ markets proliferate.
We’re more prosperous. We’re more creative. We’re safer. We’re greener. We are the full package. Toronto is truly “world class”.
So folks, enough about that. Can we move on now?
Yes, this year’s Vital Signs Report reflects a strong city back to us. It reveals another glaringly different picture too – a picture we must act on if we want to preserve what we’ve got, because the fine balance that is Toronto is much better kept than recovered.
Toronto is rated “seriously unaffordable”, ranking 190th internationally, and 29th in Canada, with median housing prices 4.8 times median household incomes.
Toronto is approaching the same company as Italy and Japan – countries with the world’s oldest populations – when it comes to our Older Dependency Ratio – a measure of the pressure on a community as the population ages.
And we are in a country that ranks last among 14 western nations in spending on early learning, childcare, and kindergarten programs.
We also know that too many of us are much worse off than others – some having to choose whether to feed the family or pay the rent.
The average cost of basic nutritious food for a family of four in Toronto rose by 9.4% over two years. This same family on social assistance would need to spend 33% of its income on food and 72% on rent – that’s more than they have and doesn’t include other basic needs. More than 30% of children five and under are in families that are below the Low Income Cut-off and the median employment income for families in 2006 was 20% below the provincial median.
Access to affordable housing is increasingly out of reach. In the mid-1990s there were two low-income families for every one moderate-rent market unit of suitable size. By 2006, there were seven such families for every one unit.
Toronto has the highest proportion of seniors in the GTA and nearly double the rate of low income seniors in Ontario. Sadly, more seniors are living alone, cut off from family and community.
The youth unemployment rate surpassed 20% in June 2009, up 5% in just one year and 4% higher than the national rate. And there are almost twice as many youth gangs as in 2000.
Recent immigrants are three times more likely to have lost jobs due to the economic downturn than their Canadian-born colleagues. And for those who still have jobs, the earnings gap widened significantly. Twenty-five years ago, immigrant women earned 85 cents for each dollar earned by Canadian-born women. Now they earn just 56 cents, even though their levels of education have grown at a faster rate.
In sum: if you’re poor, you’ve gotten poorer. If you’re old you’re more likely to be poor. If you’re new to this country the recession has hit you hardest. And if you’re young, brace yourself for what’s ahead.
The taxpayers of tomorrow will be saddled with the monumental weight of billions of dollars of debt created by the previous generation and the heightened costs of supporting our ageing population. In Toronto, there will be more seniors than children in 25 years requiring supports and services at a level not yet available.
What’s even more startling is the sweeping shift in income levels across our neighbourhoods. In 1970, 66% of Toronto neighbourhoods were middle income. In 2005, just 29% were classified as middle income. As researchers project forward to 2025, we can expect middle income neighbourhoods to have been eroded to a mere 20%, with most having slid down the economic ladder.
But what does this all mean?
We will not be able to count on immigration to support our declining population and workforce because life here is getting just too hard for newcomers. Those immigrants who decide to take the risk and make Toronto home will simply not have the same earning power.
Young families will choose other cities where the cost of living is lower and affordable housing is available.
The polarizing gap between rich and poor will reduce social cohesion leading to increased crime and disengagement.
We will not be competitive in the knowledge economy because we did not invest in early learning.
The data suggests that all of this lies ahead. But, demographics need not be our destiny. We can choose our future.
We need to harness all our unique advantages to find new solutions to new problems we have not yet faced. We need to create a more efficient city that can withstand the inevitable shifts ahead. We must invest more in education and youth, in particular. We must demand our governments lead with policies that go beyond their own narrow electoral horizon. We must move beyond the here and now and invest in the Torontonians of tomorrow. And above all, we must not forget what makes this city “world class” are its people - all of them.
At the Toronto Community Foundation, we believe that the knowledge and creativity that rank us so high internationally can not only take us out of this recession, but can make us stronger and more resilient.
It is our hope is that this report will reach far beyond the framework of our Community Foundation. We have what it takes to build the city of tomorrow. Let’s not let it go to waste.
More Information
Learn more in this year's Toronto's Vital Signs Report ››
