Re: 'Growing poverty will have severe local consequences,' Editorial, March 12.

I was pleased to read your editorial. I hope that politicians at all three levels of government took the time to read your words and that they will act on the wisdom The Scarborough Mirror has put "out there" for all of us.

The Mirror is absolutely right. There is a growing income and wealth gap here in Canada that is creating two classes of Canadians. This is especially true in Toronto. The United Way of Toronto published a report in the fall of 2007, the title of which captures our largest challenge as a city. It was called Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth Of Family Poverty In Canada's Largest City.

It was also heartening to read in editorial that Scarborough-Guildwood MP John McKay and York Centre MP Ken Dryden are interested in having a Canada where all of us can participate and where incomes are not unjustly and disproportionately distributed.

It is time for us to remind federal politicians of all parties that they voted unanimously in 1989 to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Since then, however, their actions have demonstrated that this was not their priority.

Surpluses in the federal accounts have not been invested by either Liberal or Conservative governments in anti-poverty measures. This means that the after-tax, child poverty rate today is 11.7 per cent exactly where it was in 1989. No improvement. Can McKay and Dryden make a difference? Yes they can.

Of course, there are measures that governments at all levels can take to reduce poverty in Canada.

A national affordable housing strategy would help; a provincial minimum wage of at least $10 per hour would help; and uploading the cost of social services from municipalities to the province would help our city to provide better services for all Torontonians.

Along with an unjust and unequal distribution of income there is also an unjust distribution of wealth here in Canada.

Figures from Statistics Canada show that 46.5 per cent of the net worth of Canadians is held by only 8.2 per cent of the population. This gap in the resources available to Canadians - not simply incomes - is also unjust. This is another contributing factor to the growth of poverty that is described in the report from the United Way of Toronto.

The United Way of Toronto is providing leadership on how we might deal with the disgusting existence of poverty here in our city. However, we also need the politicians to take action, not just to talk.

I hope that our Scarborough politicians have read The Mirror's editorial and that they will reflect on the need to have a more equitable society. The current trends will not lead to a just society.

Allan Baker