Neighbourhood poverty in Canadian cities

The recent surge of poverty in the industrial nations seems to be accompanied by increasing concentration of the poor in urban space. As a problem distinct from poverty, the spatial concentration of poverty, reflected in the rising number of poor neighbourhoods, has some serious social consequences of its own ranging from concentrating problems such as crime, school drop-out, and teen-pregnancy in few neighbourhoods, and the development of a sub-culture distinct from mainstream culture. Despite its seriousness, however, neighbourhood poverty has not received much attention in Canada. Addressing this gap in the literature, the present article examines the magnitude of the problem in Canada and its changes between 1986 and 1996. The findings of the study clearly indicate that the urban areas in Quebec and the Prairie, Montreal and Winnipeg in particular, are most severely hit by the rise of neighbourhood poverty. Other cities in these areas, along with Toronto, Kingston, Halifax, and St. John's have begun to experience an alarming rise only between 1991 and 1996. Smaller cities in Ontario, along with Victoria in B.C., are the only ones that have witnessed a decline in their neighbourhood poverty rates. The regional variations in the magnitude of the neighbourhood poverty in Canada may indicate, among others, that the economic recessions of the mid-80s and early-90s have affected certain areas more severely than others.