By SUE BAILEY, CP OTTAWA --  The gap between Canada's rich and poor is growing with alarming speed and Ottawa should be doing more to slow it down, say 20 experts who examined living standards yesterday at a post-budget conference.

Most slammed the federal Liberals, especially Finance Minister Paul Martin, saying he ignores how the nation's poor are falling further behind the rich.

"A lot of people are hurting and inequality is growing," said Bruce Campbell, head of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "If the political will is there, much can be done."

Ottawa should take steps to lower interest rates even more and reinvest in public infrastructure to create jobs, Campbell said.

Social programs such as Employment Insurance should be beefed up and higher education should be more accessible, he added.

Armine Yalnizyan, economic and social policy consultant at the Centre for Social Justice, described a culture of growing intolerance toward the poor.

Now that the federal "deficit dragon" has been slain, money should be invested in child care and other programs that benefit society's poorest, she said.

Trouble is, the resounding public mood calls for any federal surplus to be used for tax relief or to bandage the ailing health-care system, Yalnizyan said. She called the phenomenon a "culture of expectation."

As they spoke on Parliament Hill, a bearded man bundled in a sleeping bag collected spare change down the street.

The former Newfoundland cod fisher, 37, said he has slept under a downtown Ottawa bridge for the last 17 months. He has tried and failed to find work, he said.

Asked what he thinks the government should do to help people like him, Lorne smiled and said with an East Coast lilt: "I gave up on the government 10 years ago. They've done nothing for me."

Tom Kent, once a policy adviser to Lester Pearson and the author of Social Policy 2000: An Agenda, also had some advice for Liberals.

"Pitifully small" was how he described the federal child tax benefit to help parents raise children. That amount should be almost quadrupled, Kent said.

Early childhood education programs should be available to all parents and medicare should be expanded to include drugs and nutritional supplements for kids, he added.

Kent also rebuked the federal finance minister.

"The strongest indictment of Paul Martin is not what he's done, but what he has failed to do. He's minister of finance for six years and in all practical terms he's done nothing to restructure a tax system in desperate need of fundamental reform."

A Finance Department spokesperson said the government has delivered on its promise to lower taxes and will continue to do so, depending on its future financial situation.

Andrew Sharpe, executive director of Ottawa's Centre for the Study of Living Standards, was one of the only speakers who mentioned "progressive" measures in last week's federal budget, citing an extra $11.5 billion over five years for health care.

Others around the table called it a drop in the bucket that will only bring the health system back up to mid-1990s levels when it's finished.

- Between 1973 and 1996, Canadian families earning $14,000 a year or less rose to more than 16 per cent from 10 per cent.

- In the same period, families earning more than $80,448 rose to almost 18 per cent from 10 per cent.

- Since 1993, when the Liberals came to power, until 1996, average earnings for Canada's poorest families fell to $435 from $539.

- In the same period, earnings for the richest families rose to $136,737 from $130,235.

- Canada's top 10 chief executive officers each took home more than $10 million last year.

- On average, the top 100 CEOs enjoyed a hike of 56 per cent in compensation last year.