A province of 'haves and have nots'

Ontario's overall quality of life is improving, but only two areas that took part in a new survey - Quinte and Peterborough - scored above the provincial average. Nine other areas, including Toronto, lagged well behind, says the survey by the Ontario Social Development Council, released yesterday.

In the midst of plenty for some, more poverty, inequality, hunger and homelessness mean a growing number of people are not sharing in the general economic upturn, the survey found. Ontario is becoming a province of "have and have-not communities and have and haven-not neighbourhoods within communities," said Ontario council head Malcolm Shookner. "International research tells us countries with large disparities between the rich and poor will not prosper in the long term."

For the third time since last fall, the council combined 12 indicators of social, health, environmental and economic well-being to produce a quality -of-life index, then for the first time, had 11 local social planning councils also complete the survey for their own areas. The Ontario index stood at 96.9 - still below the pre-recession base of 100 in 1990 - but well up from 87 last fall. However, the survey found that "growing numbers of Ontarians do not have enough in-come to provide food, shelter and clothing for themselves or their families. "The growth of hunger and homelessness in Ontario is reaching crisis proportions." The survey included indicators such as hours of poor air quality, low birth-weight babies and the public housing waiting list. It found that Toronto is being left behind, trailing most other areas of the province as a decent place to live.

The Toronto index stood at a dismal 66.8, more than 30 points below the Ontario index and well behind Quinte, Peterborough, North Bay, Lennox/Addington, Halton, Guelph and Brant. Only three areas that participated - Thunder Bay, Kingston and Frontenac - fell below Toronto. "We are not doing well in relation to other communities," said Peter Clutterbuck, co-director of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto. The city was hit hard by the recession of the early '90s, has been perhaps the slowest area of the country to recover and the real question is "where is this going to bottom out before the next recession hits," he said. While the economy has improved recently, it has not recovered to the 1990 levels, and more working people are in low-wage jobs with no benefits, he said. And while the numbers on social assistance benefits are declining, they are "deceiving," because fewer people are now eligible to receive them. "In the course of dealing with the economic deficit, we have created a social deficit," said Bruce Schwartzentruber of Community ProAction, which helped prepare the report.

Among the dismal Toronto indicators:

• Public Housing waiting list have jumped by more than one and a half time since 1990, "a scandalous increase," and now make up more than half the waiting list of the whole province.
• The number on social assistance, the second "scandalous" indicator, jumped from 89,050 in 1990 to 220, 879 in 1994, a 174 per cent increase before dropping 20 per cent in the next four years, which is not a positive sign if it "means people are abandoned."
• The number of elderly waiting for long-term care has risen by 40 per cent in the past two years - a trend also province-wide - as "the pressures of an aging population are felt by a health care system in transition."

What "really saves Toronto" are the environmental indicators, which are improving, said Clutterbuck.