Throughout the month of October the Vital Signs Canada blog will feature guest bloggers who are experts on various aspects of community vitality. Today's contributor is Rahul Bhardwaj, President and CEO of the Toronto Community FoundationA message to fellow Torontonians: take pride, our city is right up there at the top.
According to the 2008 MasterCard index of 75 leading global centres of commerce, we’re 13th in liveability 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.
Our quality of life, says Mercer in its 2009 Quality of Living Survey, ranks 15th out of 215 global cities for the fourth year in a row.
While we’ve not been spared the affects of the global recession, compared to other Canadian cities we’re doing quite well. Toronto is the second wealthiest city in the country after Vancouver, with an average household net worth of $562,000.
The Toronto Community Foundation’s annual Toronto’s Vital Signs® Report tells us all of this. It compiles volumes of independent pieces of research, both qualitative and quantitative, captures them across issue areas and tracks outcomes and trends.
This year’s Report confirms our current standing. We’re more prosperous. We’re more creative. We’re safer. We’re greener. We’re the full package. We are – without doubt –“world class”.
But when we get beyond the blush of our international stature and we take a closer look, another Toronto emerges.
Our city 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.
We are also in a country that ranks last among 14 western nations in spending on early learning, childcare, and kindergarten programs.
We 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.
A family of four on social assistance in Toronto would need to spend 33% of its income on food and 72% on rent – yes, that’s more than they have and leaves nothing for other basic needs. More than 30% of children five and under in Toronto are in families that are below the Low Income Cut-off.
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 Ontario rate of low income seniors. 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. There are almost twice as many youth gangs as in 2000.
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, and by 2025 it is projected to be just 20%, most having slid down the economic ladder.
This is the unvarnished picture of the Toronto of today. What does it tell us about the city of tomorrow?
Young families will choose other cities where the cost of living is lower and affordable housing is available.
Toronto may not be able to count on much needed immigration to support our declining population and workforce because newcomers won’t have a fair chance to succeed.
The number of middle income neighbourhoods will have been significantly eroded, and the widening gap between rich and poor will reduce social cohesion increasing the risk of further disengagement and crime.
We will not be competitive in the knowledge economy because we did not invest in early learning.
Clearly, all this calls for a plan because the fine balance that is Toronto is much better kept than recovered.
At the Toronto Community Foundation we believe in our city. We believe that the knowledge and creativity that rank us so high internationally give us the tools to ensure a different and better future.
Now is the time to put our much praised innovation to use, to harness all our unique advantages and direct them towards finding new solutions to the challenges faced by our city. 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
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