Statistics Canada recently reported that in at least one respect this country is moving in the wrong direction. Income inequality has risen to the highest level ever recorded.

The highest income households (top 20 percent) saw the largest increase in their share of disposable income compared with other groups, largely due to investment gains from high interest rates. The lowest 20 percent did see a slight rise in their share of disposable income due to wage increases, but the middle 60 percent saw a decrease.

The wealthiest 20 percent of Canadians now account for over two-thirds of the country’s total net worth, while the bottom 40 percent account for less than three percent.

I have written before, and will again, why inequality is a bad thing. In their book The Spirit Level, authors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett illustrate how excessive inequality results in unhealthy societies exemplified by higher rates of violent crime, drug abuse, mental illness and other social ills. The United States, by far the most unequal of the advanced countries, exemplifies this with its high rates of the full range of social problems.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz confirms Wilkinson and Pickett in his book The Price of Inequality, explaining that moneyed interests have made the U.S. the most unequal advanced industrial country while undermining democracy.

Fortunately we are far less unequal than our southern neighbour. A common measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient which measures income inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. The higher the value, the higher the inequality. Canada is rated .32 compared to the U.S. at 0.41, after taxes and benefits. Canada’s value approaches those of Scandinavian countries which cluster around .30.

In Canada, the richest one percent receive 10.6 percent of the national income compared to 20.9 percent in the U.S.

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland claims “We are working very, very hard to lean against this tendency in the global economy towards more inequality. We’re leaning against it with very specific policies designed to support middle class Canadians and people working hard to join the middle class.”

And a number of achievements support her claims. For example, the government has brought in a $10 per day child care program which will be of great help for families, particularly working mothers. They have also brought in dental and pharmacare programs to help support low and middle income families. All these contribute to the “social wage” which has always been critical to creating an equitable society.

Other policies that deserve mention are legislation banning scab labour in federally regulated industries and the Sustainable Jobs Act to align the country’s approach to skills development, job creation and regional economic development with climate goals. Ms. Freeland did not mention the pressure from the NDP in creating these policies.

The current government is at least aware of the trend toward inequality and is making moves to counter it. Unfortunately, we are predicted to have within the next year a new government that may have rather less concern about inequality.