Well, poverty did rise through the early nineties, and around 1997, depending on the measure, it started to come down. But the increase in the early mid-nineties was not only directly related to the business cycle, it was also driven by rising housing costs and other expenses.
Poverty has basically been trending down from 1997. It's basically been static. If we're using the after-tax cycle, it's basically been sliding sideways around the 11% mark for the last four years or so.
Income inequality has continued to grow, so the gap between the rich and the poor, as measured, actually has grown. That's a trend that's evident in many advanced industrialized countries in Europe, and in the United States it's even more pronounced. You see income concentrating in the hands of upper-income Canadians.