Wasted Potential

Calgary Counselling Centre continues its research partnership with the Sheldon Chumir Foundation

It was on purpose that we released our Economic Survey data on Nov. 22, 2010. The next day, on behalf of four organizations, the Sheldon Chumir Foundation announced: Wasted Potential: Students and New Canadians Talk Frankly About the Impact of the Economic Downturn. The report nicely ties into our results: people in Calgary are still feeling the effects of the economic downturn.

The purpose of the project was to find out how students and recent immigrants were dealing with the difficult Calgary economy and job market. Through a series of 13 focus groups five major themes were discovered:

1. Frustration with the job market
2. Anxiety about entrenched inequality
3. Rejection of recovery talk
4. Crushing personal and household debt
5. Necessity for government action

Robbie Babins-Wagner, CEO Calgary Counselling Centre spoke at the report release press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 and was one of the panelists discussing the report's key findings.

"These have been some of the toughest years at CCC, the requests to lower client fees have been very challenging and it is definitely affecting our bottom line."

Robbie questioned whether Calgary was seeing its elimination of the middle class. "We see rich and poor, but one extreme of income or the other. We are not seeing many people in what we could call a traditional 'middle class'."

"Many news services are reporting that the economic downturn is over. Well, that's not quite what we're seeing at CCC. Some superficial numbers make Canada look well. But once you dig into it more, the foundation for economic disparity is solidifying. If you delve into the Statistic Canada reports, the numbers aren't quite adding up."

• Current employment numbers are only similar to pre-recession numbers due to part-time employment. We have not yet reached the same rate of full-time employment. Unemployment continues to be at a higher level than pre-recession rates.


• In 1989, average tuition was about $1,200 or 1.56 per cent of the Alberta average family income, and 13.2 per cent of full-time minimum wage over a year.


• By 2010, average tuition was about $6,136 or 6.8 per cent of the Alberta average family income, and 34.8 per cent of full-time minimum wage over a year.


• Student debt around 1985 for graduating students averaged less than $7,500 (83 per cent of full-time minimum wage). By 2009 it had reached nearly $20,000 for an undergraduate and over 35,000 for a graduate student (182 per cent of minimum wage).


• In the same period, awards and bursaries have dropped from 42 per cent of students receiving them, to less than 30 per cent today, while the number of students with loans rose from about 1/2 over 2/3 today.

The people who might lead the charge, to take us out of the economic downturn, are struggling. "The very people who we, as a community need to be enthusiastic about the future are not. This indicates we may be building our future on shaky ground."

Calgary Counselling Centre will continue this partnership with the Sheldon Chumir Foundation et al. The planning committee will meet again in this first quarter, to determine our next steps of documenting the change for Calgarians during this very difficult financial situation.

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