Are Islanders getting richer? Not really, new report says

Prince Edward Islanders have more income mobility than most Canadians, meaning their incomes are more variable, and that's both good and bad news, according to a recent report from Statistics Canada.

The report looks at the incomes of tax filers over five-year periods: whose went up, whose went down and whose stayed about the same. It classifies earners by decile — the bottom 10 per cent, the top ten per cent and every 10 per cent in between. 

On the plus side, from 2011-16, almost 35.7 per cent of Islanders moved into a higher bracket compared to just 35 per cent of all Canadians.

On the downside, a larger percentage of Islanders saw their incomes fall into a lower decile: 33.4 per cent versus 32.5 per cent of Canadians. That represents an additional 900 Islanders who saw a significant drop in their income.

Fred Bergman, a senior analyst with the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, said with more older people moving to the Island it is difficult for the overall population to see significant upward mobility.

"Maybe they're getting old age security income. Maybe they have a private pension plan with their employer or government pension," said Bergman.

"A lot of those pensions might have minor indexing to CPI, but beyond that there will be no real growth. So in other words, [seniors are] not going to get promoted."

In 2017, median after-tax income on P.E.I. was relatively high compared to others in eastern Canada, but considerably lower than that in provinces west of Quebec.

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