Media Clipping —Thursday, July 19, 2001, The Daily News, Halifax — MONEY

Canada’s poorest families live in Nova Scotia – report

By Brendan Elliott

The gap between Nova Scotia's richest and poorest households is greater now than ever, a local research group has found.

"Next to Alberta, we have the widest gap between rich and poor in the country," said Ronald Colman, co-author of the report released yesterday entitled Income Distribution in Nova Scotia.

"And in Alberta, the reason there is such a difference is because the rich are just so rich. Here, it's a case of our poor being so poor."

In fact, Nova Scotia's poorest households - the bottom 20 per cent of wage earners - are the poorest in the land.

The data for the report was provided by Statistics Canada, based on 1998 figures, the most recent compiled.

Colman belongs to the non-profit organization, GPI Atlantic, a group attempting to create an index of well-being for Nova Scotia.

The group broke household incomes into five categories to get a more accurate picture of who benefits from a growing economy.

The average disposable income (after tax) for the bottom 20 per cent of Nova Scotian households in 1998 was $8,205, compared with $70,000 for the richest 20 per cent.

The study found the only group of Nova Scotians to truly benefit from a growing economy over the last decade is the top 20 per cent.

"Economic growth is obviously working for some people, but there are more people having a harder time making ends meet than ever before," Colman said.

Colman said the hidden costs of such diversity between classes can be destructive. He used the recent health-care blow-up with the Hamm government as an example.

"This large gap creates a lack of social cohesion. You get the kind of bitterness you had in the recent (health-care) dispute," Colman said. "You get this increasing polarization. More alienation, more resentment."

The great divide between the province's rich and poor hasn't always existed. In 1980, Nova Scotia had the third-smallest gap in the country between rich and poor. The province's lowest disposable income was $9,495, compared with $67,630 for the highest.

Copyright © 2001, The Daily News