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COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS OF CANADA RELEASES VITAL SIGNS, A NEW ANNUAL REPORT ON OUR COUNTRY’S QUALITY OF LIFE

The first annual Vital Signs national report, issued today by Community Foundations of Canada, tells the story of two disparate realities in our country and the people who call it home.

On one hand, Canada’s Vital Signs tell an encouraging story about our progress as a nation: post-secondary education and family income are up; unemployment rates and property crime are down.

But another story lies just below the surface. It isn’t a story of dramatic highs or lows. It’s a story about no change at all: Canada has barely moved the needle on poverty over the past 20 years. More than 20% of Canadians live in poverty including children, aboriginal people and recent immigrants, who are essential to the growth of Canada’s economy as our population gets older.

“We hope Vital Signs will become a tool for change at the local and national level,” said Monica Patten, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), the membership organization for the country’s 159 community foundations. “That it will help our voluntary sector, business, governments and other organizations and individuals say: ‘Yes, we have accomplished a great deal together, but not everyone is sharing in our prosperity.’”

CFC’s Vital Signs report is part of a nation-wide community foundation initiative, coordinated by CFC and based on Toronto’s Vital Signs®, an extremely successful indicator report developed by Toronto Community Foundation and first published in 2001. Today, 11 community foundations are releasing local Vital Signs report cards.

“Vital Signs gives community foundations, donors, and the community-at-large valuable insight into the community’s strengths, challenges and opportunities,” said Vincenza Travale, Chair of CFC’s Board of Directors. “Our reports are meant to be catalysts for action – guiding our foundations and galvanizing our communities.” Canada’s Vital Signs

CFC’s Vital Signs looks at the 10 Vital Signs indicators shared by every community foundation issuing a report this year. It collates data from various sources including Statistics Canada, Environment Canada, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, to provide an overview, and make connections between, key quality of life issues in our country. It is designed to share important existing research in a reader-friendly way that is accessible to all Canadians.

Vital Signs also includes commentary from national thinkers and leaders such as:

  • Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
  • John Ralston Saul Writer and Co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship
  • Richard Lessard, M.D., Director of Public Health, Montréal Regional Health and Social Services Board
  • Zabeen Hirji, Chief Human Resources Officer, RBC
  • Michael Clague, President of the Carold Institute for the Advancement of Citizenship in Social Change (Vancouver, BC)
  • Dr. Erminie J. Cohen, retired Canadian senator, (Saint John, NB)
  • Simon Jackson, Founder and Chairman of the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition, Executive Producer of The Spirit Bear, the forthcoming Hollywood CGI animated movie
  • Quinn Runkle, grade eleven student, organizer and speaker for Youth in Philanthropy: Going Green conference, Youth Liaison for Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden Society and Save Our Sunshine Coast.

Finally, it shares stories of the progress being made on many fronts by a variety of organizations, including community foundations.

The report highlights prosperity and opportunity for Canadians on several fronts:

  • Median family income has increased 6.4% since 2000, when adjusted for inflation
  • The proportion of Canadians who completed post-secondary education is up nearly 50% since 1990.
  • Canada’s unemployment rate in 2006 (6.3%) was the lowest in a generation, and the first half of 2007 was even lower, at 6.1%.
  • Property crime is down 41.8% since 1991. Although the rate varies significantly across Canada, it has come down in every Vital Signs community. Violent crime is also down, by just over 10% since 1991.
  • More than half (55%) of Canadians age 15-24 volunteer

But it also tells a disturbing tale about poverty, our environmental health, the economic struggle of newcomers, and the rising cost of home ownership:

  • Canada’s poverty rate over the 25 years from 1980 to 2005 dipped below 20% only once – in 1989.
  • Newcomers are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as other Canadians
  • Unattached individuals, Aboriginal people, recent immigrants, youth, people with disabilities, and other groups continue to experience higher than average unemployment. Aboriginal Canadians are more than twice as likely to be unemployed (16.5% vs. 5.9% in 2001).
  • Immigrants are arriving with more qualifications than ever, but are almost twice as likely to be unemployed. In cities with high numbers of recent immigrants, the difference is even more dramatic.
  • Canada is one of the biggest per capita producers of carbon dioxide in the world and our greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, while other countries’ decrease
  • In 2005, the average Canadian home cost more than four times the average family income.

Copies of the national Vital Signs report can be downloaded at www.cfc-fcc.ca. Eleven local reports also released today

Community foundations in the following cities and regions are participating in Vital Signs in 2007:

  • Victoria
  • Vancouver
  • Calgary*
  • Medicine Hat*
  • Red Deer
  • Ottawa
  • Toronto
  • Sudbury*
  • Waterloo Region* (Ontario)
  • Montreal
  • Saint John*

(*denotes a community releasing its first Vital Signs report)

The reader-friendly report cards track and grade each community’s quality of life in key areas such as the gap between rich and poor, health, housing, and the environment – transforming local facts and figures into ‘research you can read on the bus.’

“The release of the Vital Signs reports marks the beginning of a process, not the end,” says CFC President and CEO Monica Patten. “The local reports are designed to get people and organizations discussing the next steps to build a better community

About community foundations

Community foundations build and manage permanent endowments to support local priorities. They use their deep knowledge of their communities’ needs to connect donors to the causes and organizations that matter most to them, helping them make a lasting difference.

With more than $2.7-billion in assets, the community foundation movement is one of Canada’s largest grantmakers, providing more than $137-million in grants last year to thousands of charities.

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Note to editors/producers: All 11 Vital Signs reports, and media contacts for participating community foundations, can be found at www.vitalsignscanada.ca.