Long Blog 3 — Income Inequality in Toronto
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our daily practices have been stripped away. Alongside our lack of consistency comes the many issues that are emerging in the city of Toronto. An issue that has been apparent in my community is the struggle of income inequality, however, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this issue seems to have gotten worse.
Income inequality has been a force that creates a divide among the residents of Toronto. Mohini Datta-Ray, the executive director of the North York Women’s Shelter, says that the pandemic didn’t create this inequality, but it has magnified it and exploded it into view (Kennedy 2020). There are countless individuals whose livelihoods are directly impacted, one of which is Mo Boudreaux, a chef based in London. Boudreaux is left without a job after being self-employed in the restaurant industry for over a decade (Amaro 2020). He explained to CNBC about the fear of the restaurant industry not being able to fully reopen, which may result in the layoff of multiple others in the industry. The impact the pandemic has had on small businesses and self-employed individuals has created a gap in wages that can be detrimental.
According to the April 2021 MNP Consumer Debt Index, 53% of Canadians say they are $200 or less from not being able to pay all their bills and debts every month, which is a 10 point jump since December 2020. Grant Bazian, president of MNP LTD, the country’s largest insolvency firm, says, “Pandemic-related financial relief measures provided some breathing room over the last year, but now we’re seeing a reversal” (MNPdebt 2021). This explores how the actions taken to aid the citizens of Canada were not enough, and heavily impacting those in need of financial aid.
The issue of income inequality is diving our city into a two-tiered society. According to the 2020 Toronto Fallout Report, higher-wage workers have an increase in their hours while lower-wage workers’ hours are declining, where the decrease in hours is the highest in Toronto than in the rest of the country (The Toronto Fallout Report 2020). Alongside the change in hours worked, racialized Canadians, younger Canadians, and those with disabilities are found to be struggling the most to support themselves financially during the pandemic. Furthermore, issues with paying bills have a direct association with anxiety disorders, poor mental health, food insecurity, and domestic violence in the home (The Toronto Fallout Report 2020). The report suggests that due to the long-term impacts the pandemic has on poverty and deprivation, non-profit organizations should put more assets in research and strategy to comprehend the ramifications of this issue, and will require funding in order to do so. This is in hopes of helping others recover both financially and emotionally in a post-pandemic world.
According to the city of Toronto’s COVID-19: Impacts and Opportunities report, the most sought-after support for small businesses was to defer electricity and natural gas costs while emergency measures are in place (City of Toronto, 2020). These changes will allow a sense of relief to the small business owners of Toronto. Furthermore, according to Statistics Canada, 32.0% of businesses with 500 or more employees reported declines in revenue of 20% or more. However, this figure almost doubles for smaller businesses where nearly 60% of those with 1 to 4 employees and nearly 56% of those with 5 to 19 employees reported declines in revenue 20% or more (Statistics Canada 2020). Alongside the loss in revenue, small businesses with less than 100 employees that have laid off at least one employee, were more likely to have laid off more than 80% of their workforce which may lead to the downfall of a business as a whole (Statistics Canada 2020).
Countless small business owners in Toronto are a part of these statistics and are in need of more support as business owners have found it difficult to stay afloat during these uncertain times.
My father, who has been running his small business, Morningside Mobile, since 2007, has also been facing many issues since the start of the pandemic. Self-employed workers who have been in their industry for countless years, like Mo Boudreaux and my father, are just as impacted as newly growing businesses. What I find disappointing is how large corporations are continuously given the space and rights to stay open, while small businesses that take the proper precautions are left to stay closed. These business owners are expected to just figure out how to push through a global pandemic on their own with little support. This is an issue that is greatly affecting the people of our city and the small businesses that live and grow among its streets don't have the support in which they so incredibly need.
