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The proportion of Ontarians living in low-income rose a scandalous 26 per cent from 2003 to 2016. No other province even comes close to performing that badly. Most provinces actually made significant progress in terms of people moving out of low-income situations: the rate of low-income incidence fell in every province except Ontario and Prince Edward Island between 2003 and 2016.

As a result, the latest Statistics Canada data show that in 2016, the percentage of Ontarians living in low-income exceeded the national average for the fifth straight year. This was despite the fact that in 2003, only 10.9 per cent of Ontarians lived in low-income, well below the national average of 13.2 per cent at the time.

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If we look at the statistics for children, the numbers are even worse for Ontario. From 2003 to 2016, the proportion of Ontarians under the age of 18 living in low-income rose from 13.3 per cent to 16.2 per cent. Meanwhile children elsewhere in Canada fared much better, with the low-income incidence rate nationwide falling from 16.1 per cent to 14.0 per cent over the same period.