Root causes of social issues

An Overview © 2007 The City of Calgary, Community and Neighbourhood Services, Social Research Unit There are many factors that contribute to the complexity and seeming intractability of social issues in the Centre City. [...] However, this is still less than current rates of $8.25 to $8.50 per hour in the Northern Territories and, without further increases, will fall significantly behind planned increases of up to $10.25 in 2010 in Ontario (Government of Canada, 2006) and up to the Low- Income Cut-Off in Saskatchewan in 2010 (Government of Saskatchewan, 2007). [...] According to a 2004 study conducted by the Institute of Health Economics at the University of Calgary for the United Way of Calgary and Area, poor students are more than twice as likely as non- poor students to drop out of high school. [...] Page 6 of 18 The City of Calgary, Community and Neighbourhood Services, Social Research Unit Within the Centre City, the proportion of renters spending more than 30% of gross household income on shelter in 2001 was almost identical to that of Calgary as a whole. [...] For those at the lower end of the economic scale – almost one-fifth of Calgary households – housing constitutes a much larger share of their consumer basket of goods.