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^ •-. Comprel�ensi��e Neighbourhood Stuclie�: Characterii.in� Decline 4.4. The Canadian Experience In Canada, there is a problem of linking a nation-wide source of income data with areal definitions of the inner city (Broadway and Jesty 1998). As a result, the few studies examining Canadian inner-city decline use census data, whieh contrasts to the extensive literature documenting inner-city deprivation in Britain and the US. However, Canadian inner cities and inner cities in these countries have much in common. Published census sources focus upon such limited aspects of material deprivation as housing tenure or access to household amenities, while, with the exception of education and employment status, little attention is given to social deprivation, and no information is collected at the census-tract level concerning dietary, clothing, environmental or locational deprivation. Longitudinal analyses are further hampered by the collection of deprivation indicators at one time period. These difficulties have undoubtedly served to hamper the development of a Canadian urban deprivation literature (ibid. pp.1424-1425). To document levels of the neighbourhood distress and identify distressed neighbourhoods in Canada, Hatfield (1997) used five indicators: � A high individual poverty rate in the census tract; • A high proportion of total household income in the tract coming from transfer payments from government; • A low proportion of the 15-24 population in the tract attending school full- time; • A low percentage of the male population 15 and over employed for pay full-time 49 or more weeks in the previous year; and • A high percentage of families with children at home headed by lone parents. Hatfield reports, that the best indicator of the five for identifying a"distressed" neighbourhood is an abnormally low percentage of males 15 or over working full-time. The next most reliable indicator was an abnormally high dependence on government transfer payments as a source of income. The least reliable indicator was a high proportion of families with children headed by lone parents. In addition to these criteria, distressed neighbourhoods also exhibit disproportionate incidences on a number of other indicators: housing, educational attainment, age structure, and presence of Aboriginals and recent immigrants (ibid.) 4.4.1. Winnipeg: Defining Neighbourhood Designation Indicators In 1999 Winnipeg's City Council Adopted the Winnipeg Housing Policy that defined neighbourhood designations as follows (City of Winnipeg 1999, 2000a, 2000b): 1. Major Improvement Areas: older areas that have experienced significant decline to the point where housing and neighbourhood infrastructure require complete renewal. 36