Pay of top 1% twice as high in Alberta
The wealthiest people in Alberta now surpass the rich elite across the country in a startling tale of rich and poor in this prosperous, oil-soaked province.
The average income of the top one per cent here is almost twice the national average, says a new report released Thursday that also shows the gap between rich and poor is growing in Alberta.
The figures should send a clear signal to the Redford government, which is currently devising a new social policy framework for vulnerable Albertans, that a major shift is needed to avoid growing inequality, says Lori Sigurdson, of the Alberta College of Social Workers.
“We have both the wealthiest and the poorest citizens of the nation, the most extremes of wealth and poverty, and that is not good for social cohesion and quality of life of all citizens,” Sigurdson said.
“It’s time to look beyond poverty-reduction strategies” — and look at flat tax, government revenues and increasing spending on programs that alleviate social problems — spending that never recovered from Klein era cuts, she said.
The report sparked a testy exchange in the legislature, where New Democrat Rachel Notley accused the government of “heartless social policy that is also bad economic policy.” She called for a higher minimum wage.
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock rejected the suggestion, adding that raising the minimum wage is “just a placebo” and his new social policy framework will do much more.
The report by the Alberta College of Social Workers and the Parkland Institute, based on StatsCan figures, says Alberta’s generally prosperous economy has benefited middle- and lower-income families as their incomes rose and jobs were plentiful — but that the rich have benefited far more while lowerincome groups now scramble to make ends meet.
In Alberta, average income for the top one per cent was $672,000 in 2009, compared with an average of $353,100 for top earners nationally.
Moreover, the richest one per cent in Alberta have increased their take of the total income in the province since 1982 — to 14 per cent of total income from 8.9 per cent 30 years ago. (Nationally, the top one per cent takes about 10.9 per cent of all income.)
The poorest in Alberta — including single-parent families on welfare, those working parttime at minimum wage, First Nations people, some unemployed disabled people — are living on the lowest rates of social assistance in the country and are further below the poverty line than in other provinces, Parkland researcher Diana Gibson said.
Meanwhile, low-income earners are also working longer hours, scrambling with two jobs to stay afloat, and food bank use by the working poor is increasing, said Gibson, noting that the province’s minimum wage is among the lowest in the country, with a lower rate for those serving liquor.
“What’s clear is that a job is no longer a guarantee to get out of poverty,” said Gibson, adding the Alberta figures show that wealth does not trickle down.
Alberta already has high rates of family violence, addiction and suicide — all signs of families under pressure that also affects their health, Sigurdson said. “We need a strategy to alleviate this disparity and get back to the equitable and just society Albertans are accustomed to,” she said.