This is from some older data, but still a fascinating view of the National Capital Region.
Before we all go off on the Big C8j let us remember that I am a Civil Servant, so I feel I can publish that kind of inflammatory title (even with more cuts going on in the Civil Service (although 540 are at the CRA, so that is financial news as well)).
So why am I dragging this topic out again? Don’t blame me, it is our friends at Stats Canada again, pointing out in their Family Income and Income of Individuals report that:
In 2010, Ottawa–Gatineau had the highest median total family income (before tax) of all the census metropolitan areas (CMAs), at $90,790, according to data derived from personal income tax returns.
Yes, not all folks who live in Ottawa/Gatineau are Civil Servants; however, with the demise of Nortel as a percentage, there are effectively many more Civil Servants living in the region.
Now let us all remember what Median means (in an arithmetic sense):
“… the middle number in a given sequence of numbers, taken as the average of the two middle numbers when the sequence has an even number of numbers: 4 is the median of 1, 3, 4, 8, 9….”
So it could well be that the average income of cities might show a much larger difference, in that there may be many cities where the Upper-income group makes significantly more and thus would move the mean (not median ) up much higher.
What is even more interesting is that the Median Income for Ottawa-Gatineau has actually dropped from 2009 to 2010 (I guess reflecting the drop in private sector jobs here).
Yet Another Big Table
So I really like this Big Table from Stats Canada because it points out the differences between lone-income families and couple-income families (a sore topic with me as well).
Table 2: Median total income of couple families and lone-parent families, by census metropolitan area
| Couple families | Lone-parent families | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 | 2009 to 2010 | 2009 | 2010 | 2009 to 2010 | |
| 2010 constant dollars | dollars | % change | 2010 constant dollars | dollars | % change | |
| Canada | 76,700 | 76,950 | 0.3 | 36,760 | 37,050 | 0.8 |
| St. John’s | 87,700 | 88,890 | 1.4 | 35,050 | 34,960 | -0.3 |
| Halifax | 85,090 | 85,170 | 0.1 | 35,590 | 35,330 | -0.7 |
| Moncton | 74,240 | 74,740 | 0.7 | 33,960 | 34,270 | 0.9 |
| Saint John | 79,380 | 78,670 | -0.9 | 32,300 | 31,930 | -1.1 |
| Saguenay | 73,470 | 74,130 | 0.9 | 37,870 | 38,780 | 2.4 |
| Quebec | 81,880 | 81,620 | -0.3 | 45,110 | 45,410 | 0.7 |
| Sherbrooke | 68,300 | 68,980 | 1.0 | 36,480 | 36,820 | 0.9 |
| Trois-Rivieres | 69,120 | 69,130 | 0.0 | 35,570 | 35,670 | 0.3 |
| Montreal | 73,850 | 73,690 | -0.2 | 39,000 | 38,930 | -0.2 |
| Ottawa & Gatineau | 100,350 | 99,880 | -0.5 | 45,500 | 46,250 | 1.6 |
| Kingston | 84,300 | 84,880 | 0.7 | 37,980 | 38,760 | 2.1 |
| Peterborough | 75,920 | 76,200 | 0.4 | 34,630 | 35,860 | 3.6 |
| Oshawa | 91,850 | 91,320 | -0.6 | 41,040 | 41,300 | 0.6 |
| Toronto | 75,470 | 75,580 | 0.1 | 38,950 | 39,340 | 1.0 |
| Hamilton | 84,180 | 84,930 | 0.9 | 38,980 | 39,900 | 2.4 |
| St. Catharines & Niagara | 72,320 | 72,730 | 0.6 | 35,250 | 35,930 | 1.9 |
| Kitchener, Cambridge & Waterloo | 82,670 | 84,210 | 1.9 | 38,580 | 39,600 | 2.6 |
| Brantford | 75,880 | 76,730 | 1.1 | 32,530 | 33,570 | 3.2 |
| Guelph | 87,340 | 89,620 | 2.6 | 41,390 | 41,990 | 1.4 |
| London | 79,090 | 79,710 | 0.8 | 35,660 | 36,740 | 3.0 |
| Windsor | 77,120 | 78,500 | 1.8 | 32,930 | 34,590 | 5.0 |
| Barrie | 82,680 | 83,350 | 0.8 | 36,420 | 37,290 | 2.4 |
| Greater Sudbury | 84,940 | 85,560 | 0.7 | 36,710 | 38,000 | 3.5 |
| Thunder Bay | 82,790 | 84,310 | 1.8 | 35,590 | 37,950 | 6.6 |
| Winnipeg | 80,540 | 79,680 | -1.1 | 37,560 | 37,330 | -0.6 |
| Regina | 95,910 | 95,260 | -0.7 | 40,080 | 39,840 | -0.6 |
| Saskatoon | 89,180 | 89,350 | 0.2 | 37,720 | 37,610 | -0.3 |
| Calgary | 97,390 | 97,070 | -0.3 | 46,580 | 45,090 | -3.2 |
| Edmonton | 96,510 | 96,750 | 0.2 | 43,730 | 42,690 | -2.4 |
| Kelowna | 74,400 | 73,750 | -0.9 | 35,680 | 34,710 | -2.7 |
| Abbotsford & Mission | 69,540 | 68,250 | -1.9 | 32,560 | 32,200 | -1.1 |
| Vancouver | 74,410 | 72,610 | -2.4 | 38,880 | 38,080 | -2.1 |
| Victoria | 85,670 | 84,410 | -1.5 | 41,900 | 41,220 | -1.6 |
I worked for the federal government in my younger days. From what I saw people took it really easy. I wonder what the cost-per-work-unit (kind of like CPA) would look like? I.e. what kind of bang for the buck do we get?
I believe we are about to find out thanks to our friends in the Harper Government (many less doing the same jobs)