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Slide 61
Compared to urban families, rural families pay relatively less taxes and receive relatively more transfers. Rural families pay less taxes because they have lower incomes. Rural families receive more transfers because rural unemployment rates are higher and within rural areas, a higher share of the population is children that trigger a child tax credit and a higher share are older persons receiving pensions.
This graph shows the pattern for the average person. Thus, the average person receives more transfers than she or he pays in taxes.
(For a detailed analysis, see Brian Murphy, "The distribution of federal-provincial taxes and transfers in rural Canada," Chapter 17 in Ray D. Bollman, RURAL AND SMALL TOWN CANADA (Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. 1992), pp. 337 - 357.)
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Slide 62
Compared to urban families, rural families pay relatively less taxes and receive relatively more transfers. Rural families pay less taxes because they have lower incomes. Rural families receive more transfers because rural unemployment rates are higher and within rural areas, a higher share of the population is children that trigger a child tax credit and a higher share are older persons receiving pensions.
This graph shows the pattern for the average dollar of income. Thus, comparing taxes paid by individuals and transfers received by individuals, more dollars of taxes are paid by individuals than are the dollars received as transfers by individuals.
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Slide 63
We now briefly consider the level of educational attainment across the regions of Canada.
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Slide 64
For individuals in the "core age" workforce (25 to 54 years of age), a higher share of individuals have graduated from high school in regions associated with cities.
Lower levels of educational attainment appear for the residents in northern Saskatchewan, in south-eastern Quebec and in northern New Brunswick.
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Slide 65
This map shows the level of educational attainment for youth, 20 to 24 years age, according to their place of residence on census day (May 14, 1996). Thus, some rural youth may be in urban places and enrolled in post-secondary education. However, this shows the educational complement of the youth that resident in these census divisions.
Note the relatively higher level of youth with high school graduation (over three-quarters) throughout southern Ontario and the somewhat lower level (between two-thirds and three-quarters) in southern Quebec.
Parts of northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba report less than two-thirds of their resident youth, 20 to 24 years of age, with a high school diploma.
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Slide 66
The federal government, as part of its 1991 "Prosperity Initiative", proposed an objective of having 90 percent of all individuals having Grade 12 (or equivalent) by age 25 (see Canada. (1991) Learning Well ... Living Well (Ottawa: Government of Canada, Consultation Paper, Prosperity Initiative, Cat. No. C2-180/1991E), p. x.).
This graph indicates that very few communities (regardless of whether they are in predominantly urban regions or in intermediate regions or in predominantly rural regions) have achieved the objective of having 90 percent of all individuals having Grade 12 (or equivalent) by age 25.
We see a higher share of communities in predominantly rural regions are classified among the communities with a low share of individuals, 20 to 24 years of age with Grade 12.
(We acknowledge that perhaps the high schools in these communities are successfully graduating a high share of students; these data are looking at the educational attainment of the resident population, aged 20 to 24, and thus perhaps a number of high school graduates have moved to urban regions to attend post-secondary education or to pursue job opportunities. However, these data do indicate the share of the resident labour pool, aged 20 to 24, with Grade 12 (or equivalent).)
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Slide 67
Finally, one graph on the share of rural households with Internet access.
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Slide 68
Will the information highway "save" rural Canada? (The introduction of post offices allowed the T. Eaton catalogue to put many rural retailers out of business BUT a good postal service created many different opportunities to allow entrepreneurs to function in rural areas. The introduction of a paved road into a community often allowed shoppers to leave the community to shop in the city BUT a paved road created many different opportunities to allow entrepreneurs to function in rural areas. Similarly, the information highway will continue to cause some jobs to be reduced in rural areas (e.g. bank tellers) BUT the information highway will create many different opportunities to allow entrepreneurs to function in rural areas.)
Statistics CanadaÆs Household Internet Use Survey (HIUS) showed, in 1997, that rural and small town households were less likely to use the Internet during a typical month and less likely to use e-mail from home. (Due to the short time available for preparing the presentation for Industry Canada, we were unable to tabulate similar data for 1998 and 1999 from the HIUS). However, results from a survey by EKOS Research Associates show that the urban-rural GAP in the share of households who are accessing the Internet is INCREASING.)
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Slide 69
Thank-you for your attention.
I would be pleased to try to answer any questions.
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