Fewer Manitobans are on welfare, but some say the shift is not necessarily a positive change.

A national report released Thursday found cuts in welfare rates across the country in the past 10 years.

In Manitoba, nearly 61,000 residents are on welfare, down about 8,000 from a decade ago.

"I think it has had profound impacts on Manitoba society," Jino Distasio, director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, said on Thursday.

But Distasio added fewer Manitobans receiving social assistance doesn't mean there is less poverty. It could mean fewer people are receiving less social assistance.

"I think it has really led to the concentration of more and more people living in poverty in poor neighbourhoods. And right now in Winnipeg there are 11 neighbourhoods where more than 50 per cent of households live in poverty," he said, citing Statistics Canada definitions. He added that there were only three such neighbourhoods in 1981.

"I think that tells us right now that poverty still remains an ongoing problem here."

Report 'just a lie': analyst

The report, released Thursday by the National Council on Welfare, suggests the 1.7 million Canadians on welfare in 2005 saw some of the lowest welfare rates since 1986.

The report notes that in the last five years, Manitoba has recorded its lowest levels of welfare incomes.

But Dennis Owens, senior policy analyst with the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy, said Thursday he doesn't buy the report at all.

"I think we're very generous to the poor in Canada," said Owens, who added national poverty levels have been declining precipitously over the last 50 years.

"Fifty years ago, 35 per cent of the people in Canada couldn't meet their basic needs with their income. That figure's down below five per cent now.

"So for these very highly paid people to get out and hector the rest of us that we should pour out our hearts and our help to other people because they're suffering is just ridiculous. It's just a lie."

David MacLean, Saskatchewan regional director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said if people aren't on social assistance, it is more likely because they are working.

In Manitoba in 2005, a single employable person on welfare received $5,818, which the report found was down 35.6 per cent from 1992, when it was $9,036. The report found a 15 per cent decrease in welfare for a lone parent with one child in that same period and a 21.4 per cent decrease for a couple with two children.

 Helping 'families keep more of the dollars'

Jan Forster of the province's Family Services and Housing Department said Thursday the province is investing millions of dollars helping Manitobans on welfare.

She said some provincial initiatives include a new shelter benefit program, help for people with disabilities and no clawbacks on child-care cheques.

"A lot of these measures are really helping low-income families keep more of the dollars that they do have," she said.

But that's not all, Forster said: the minimum wage of $7.60 an hour is set to rise to $8 on April 1, 2007.