A/HRC/22/50/Add.1 II. The situation of food insecurity 5. Canada is ranked sixth in the Human Development Index1 and has an average GDP per capita of $39,070.2 While the recent financial and economic crises have impacted Canada, with rising unemployment rates and a drop in income per capita, Canada has fared reasonably well compared to its peers.3 Meanwhile, however, the gaps between those living in poverty and the middle- and high-income segments of the population are widening. In 2008, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that the average income of the top 10 per cent (Can$103,500) was 10 times higher than that of the bottom 10 per cent (Can$10,260) and noted widening disparities in labour earnings and a lack of redistributional mechanisms. Statistics Canada indicates that the ratio of aftertax income of the top 20 per cent of families to the bottom 20 per cent of families rose from 4.6 in the early 1990s to about 5.5 in 2000, remaining fairly stable since. Canada, however, ranks very high in the OECD 2010 Intergenerational Social Mobility Index. 6. A growing number of people across Canada remain unable to meet their basic food needs. In 2007/2008, 7.7 per cent of households reported experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity,4 approximately 1.92 million people, aged 12 or older, lived in foodinsecure households and a staggering one in 10 families, with at least one child under the age of six, were food insecure.5 Preliminary household data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2011 indicates that 8.2 per cent (1.1 million) households now may be food insecure, some estimates putting the figure at 4.3 million people.6 Furthermore, in 2007/2008, 55 per cent of households in which the main source of income was social assistance were food insecure, the result of a pronounced discrepancy between social assistance levels and the rising costs of living. 7 7. The inadequacy of social protection schemes to meet the basic needs of households has precipitated the proliferation of private and charity-based food aid. In 2011, Food Banks Canada calculated that nearly 900,000 Canadians were accessing food banks for assistance monthly, slightly over half of whom were receiving social assistance. 8 However, without access to food banks, vulnerable households in remote and northern communities also depend on private and charitable food support, although no figures are available on this. 8. Certain segments of the population remain particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Households with low incomes, those relying on social assistance as their main source of income, those who do not own their own dwelling, women single-headed households, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 4 International Human Development Indicators, http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/. Statistic from OECD.Stat Extracts 2011, http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=558. Conference Board of Canada, http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/hot-topics/recession.aspx. Health Canada. Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.2 Nutrition (2004): Income related household food insecurity in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Products and food Branch 2007. Health Canada, “Household Food Insecurity in Canada in 2007-2008: Key Statistics and Graphics”, http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/surveill/nutrition/commun/insecurit/key-stats-cles-2007-2008-eng.php. NDP Submission – UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, 2012 Mission to Canada, prepared by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Department, May 8, 2012, p. 1, http://foodsecurecanada.org/sites/foodsecurecanada.org/files/NDPSubmissiontotheUNSpecialRapport eur(May82012)EN.pdf Health Canada, Household Food Insecurity in Canada in 2007-2008 (see footnote 5) Food Banks Canada, http://www.foodbankscanada.ca/Learn-About-Hunger/About-Hunger-inCanada.aspx.