From David Dooley re poverty. (Letters to the Editor).

In his "Poverty: A bias toward exaggeration" (C.I., May 2003), Joe Campbell underestimates the impact of poverty on Canadians. The magazine REALity, for March/April of this year, refers to two studies, one from the Vanier Institute and the other by Claudette Bradshaw, Federal Minister of Labour, saying that the pressing requirement to bring more money into the family to meet its needs is causing a hurried lifestyle. According to the Labour department report, 25% of Canadians work more than 50 hours a week, compared to 10% a decade ago. And "for those on minimum wage, which is lower across Canada than in most of the U.S., and other countries, two parents, each earning minimum wage, have to work full-time year-round to earn more than welfare gives them. It is telling that most of the minimum wage workers in Canada are not teenagers: 60% are adults, most of whom are women."

I was on the board of the Catholic Children's Aid Society in Toronto for some years, and it was commonplace there to speak of the feminization of poverty. Many of the households headed by women, single mothers or women abandoned by their husbands, could not make ends meet. Housing was, and remains, the main problem.

When the Harris government removed rent controls in Ontario, the implication--or hope--was that the private sector would begin to build more houses and the housing shortage would disappear. It didn't. The private sector began to build luxury apartments and houses in the half-million-dollar range. It still could be said that many of the people living in Toronto cannot afford to do so; when they have paid the rent, they have too little left over for food and clothing. And the food banks are doing a thriving business; Toronto's Daily Bread is constantly appealing for more support, and those operating such facilities are capable of discriminating between those in genuine need and "able-bodied scroungers."

Oakville, ON