ECF Edmonton Vital Signs Report
Posted by Vi Hughes on Feb 08, 2017
We heard from Elizabeth Bonkink (pictured), a Communications Advisor with the Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) and a Rotarian, on some highlights of their Vital Signs report, which they publish on a yearly basis. She explained that every year they collect basic statistics on Edmonton, and in addition they choose a topic of interest for a more in depth report.
The in-depth topic chosen for this past year was immigrants and refugees. She said that Canada accepts two classes of refugees, government sponsored and privately sponsored. She noted that we are the only country that accepts privately sponsored refugees, and said that this class of refugees actually integrate more quickly into Canadian society, as they already have a safety net to help them along. She mentioned that Canada is in a zero population growth position, and needs the boost that immigrants and refugees bring to our country in terms of numbers, youth and entrepreneurship. She said that seventy one percent of immigrants are economic immigrants, twenty one percent are family re-unification immigrants and seven percent are refugees. The remaining one percent are immigrants accepted on compassionate or humanitarian grounds. A large number of these immigrants, sixty one percent, are highly educated, more than the Canadian born number of fifty four percent. They also have a higher home ownership rate within five years of immigration, at thirty nine percent, as compared to the overall Canadian average of thirty seven percent. Edmonton, in particular, has been a popular city to settle for them, with an increase of one hundred seventy eight percent in immigrants settling here over the last few years, due to our vibrant economy. This has slowed down somewhat in the last year. This also has meant that our school systems are dealing with much larger numbers of non-english speaking children. They have seen an increase of almost one hundred percent in English language learners over the last five years.
Edmonton also becomes home for many secondary migrants, who come here after settling initially elsewhere in Canada. Edmonton receives about ten thousand new immigrants a year. The majority of recent immigrants in Edmonton come from the Philippines, India, China, Pakistan and the US. Edmonton is also home to more than three thousand temporary foreign workers. Many of these immigrants send money home to support family, with thirty one billion dollars sent overseas from Canada in 2014 alone, and many live in poverty here in Canada, so that they can send money home. Most of these immigrants find it hard to find jobs in their field of expertise at first, and need help to have their credentials assessed by Canadian standards. The ECF helps in many ways to support the integration of immigrants into our local community. They support the Multicultural Family Resource Center, the Mennonite Center for Newcomers, the Cultural Connection Institute, the Council for Advancement of African Canadians and many others. They also offer grants to help them get their credentials up to Canadian standards.
She also offered some highlights of the general Vital Signs report for Edmonton. Our population is continuing to grow, with almost one point four million people in greater Edmonton now. Edmonton has an equal number of single person households to those with two or more people. We also have more cats and dogs than children under the age of eighteen! We have seen record school enrollment growth with about eighteen percent increases in both local school systems. Housing vacancy rates are going up and costs are coming down, although forty percent of Edmonton renters still pay more than thirty percent of their income for rent and there are over four thousand families waiting for affordable accommodation. Our food security is in a delicate balance here in Alberta, as nearly all of our food is brought in from outside the province. In case of disaster, we would only have a three-day supply of food in the city. We really do need to support more of our local food producers. The living wage in Edmonton is now $16.69 for a family of four with both parents working full time. Sixty percent of people making less that the living wage are women. Four hundred volunteers a day showed up to help with donation collection and distribution for the Ft McMurray Fire evacuees, and we assisted nearly eighty thousand people.
Our charitable giving is the second highest in Canada. Eighty percent of Edmontonians donated money to a charity or non-profit organization within the last year.
Edmonton has over ninety festivals each year, and we have about six hundred and fifty groups that host various events throughout the year. Crime severity has decreased almost forty percent from what it was ten years ago. Sixty percent of Edmontonians believe it is important to be involved in their community.
In all, it as a very enlightening talk, showing both our strengths and weaknesses. This report can give all of us some issues to think about, and work on for the future.
Elizabeth Bonkink