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A review of 21 infant deaths by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.'s independent Representative for Children and Youth, concludes that some of the children likely would be alive today if their families had received more help. Many of the parents struggled with poverty, inadequate housing, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health issues. But, too often, the province's public health, medical and child welfare systems either ignored the warning signs or did little to assist, the report says. "We must not become numb to these desperate situations," Turpel-Lafond writes in the report, Fragile Lives, Fragmented Systems: Strengthening Supports for Vulnerable Infants. "As a society, we must not accept that a crowded hotel room or a mouldy apartment is an adequate substitute for a real family home just because it provides a roof over their heads and is one step above sleeping on the streets." The 82-page review examines the lives of 21 children who died between June 1, 2007 to May 1, 2009. All of the infants in the review were involved with the Ministry of Children and Family Development and all died unexpectedly and in unsafe sleep arrangements before they were two years old. [...] Poverty and rising food prices...The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity, in collaboration with Open Policy Ontario's John Stapleton and research consultant from Toronto Public
Health, Brian Cook, releases its report recommen- Toronto – Though much progress has been made with Ontario's current Poverty Reduction Strategy, more needs to be done. We currently face an underlying challenge – here in Ontario, many people in poverty are facing hunger today. In 2009, over 375,000 Ontarians had to turn to food banks every month (a growth of 19 percent from last year alone), signaling the alarming effects of the recent recession on the diets and health of our most vulnerable residents. Though food banks have become the public face of our collective response to hunger, it is clear that in spite of their best efforts, food banks and community food initiatives are not a solution to hunger or poverty. [...]
The report recommends:
The authors conclude that everyone has the basic right to access healthy and nutritious food, and are concerned that people in Ontario – a region of great economic prosperity and opportunity – are going hungry today. Much needs to be done to ensure that we help reduce the obstacles that impede low income households from accessing their basic right to nutritious food. By supporting our most vulnerable, we can tap into the potential of our labour force, reduce healthcare costs, and help us reach one step closer to our full prosperity potential. The Three Cities Within Toronto...
'If nothing changes, The number of middle income neighbourhoods in Toronto has gone down dramatically over the last four decades, creating a social divide that will widen greatly in the coming years if left unaddressed, according to a new analysis of census numbers. The analysis, published in a report released Wednesday by the University of Toronto's Cities Centre, says what are thought of as middle class neighbourhoods — defined as areas where the average individual income is within 20 per cent of the city average of $40,704 — are being squeezed out.
"It's not a theory, it's a trend," said David Hulchanski, associate director for research of the Cities Centre who wrote the report, titled Three Cities in Toronto. "Census data from 1970 to 2005, [from] the ... now famous long-form census tells us a lot about ourselves. We simply asked where was each census tract, each neighbourhood in 1970 and where is it now," he told CBC's Metro Morning Wednesday. More low income neighbourhoods The report found that the proportion of neighbourhoods — what Statistics Canada refers to as census tracts — considered to be middle income was 29 per cent in 2005, down from 66 per cent in 1970. The proportion of low income neighbourhoods, meanwhile, rose from 19 per cent in 1970 to 53 per cent in 2005. Low income neighbourhoods are defined as those with average individual incomes at 20 per cent of the city average or lower. "Poverty does not lead to violence, but it creates the preconditions for that when you have so many neighbourhoods where people feel they have no place to go," said Hulchanski. "So that is something that social scientists worry about when they look at this kind of data." [...] Tale of 3 cities From 2001 to 2006, the trend of income and geographic polarization continued, said Hulchanski. Seven per cent of the city's 531 census tracts went down in average income, while four per cent increased in average income. "So the trend continues. If nothing changes, we will be a city in two halves, really," said Hulchanski. That's a change from the city currently described in Three Cities in Toronto. [...] → Read More National Council of Welfare releases the Welfare Incomes 2009 report...As the National Council of Welfare has done since 1986, in Welfare Incomes 2009 we look at the situation of four family types: a lone parent with a 2-year-old child, a couple with two children aged 10 and 15, a single person considered employable and a single person with a disability.
Chapter 1 lists the main elements of the complicated process of qualifying for welfare in Canada. Chapters 2 to 5 focus on each family type, comparing their welfare incomes over time and gauging their adequacy using two low-income measures—Low income cut-offs and the Market Basket Measure—as well as average and median incomes. Chapter 6 looks at liquid asset provisions as of January 1, 2009 and for the first time compares 1989 levels in constant dollars of 2009 to those of 2009. Earnings exemption provisions are the subject of Chapter 7, where we also look at the potential impact of the federal Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) on welfare households with earnings. [...] [...] 2009 All welfare incomes increased in 2009 compared to 2008.
Yet most welfare incomes remained inadequate.
WELFARE INCOMES OVER TIME
ASSETS There was wide variation in the level of liquid assets, such as money in a bank account or retirement savings, that were exempt in calculating eligibility for welfare.
The worst child income inequality in the "developed" world...A new report by UNICEF has shown that child poverty in Canada is among the worst of developed counties, ranked 17 out of 24. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched its ninth report card, entitled The Children Left Behind: A League Table of Inequality in Child Well-being in the World's Rich Countries. The report shows that when it boils down to the material welfare of our nation's children, Canada has slipped to 17th place out of 24 high-income countries evaluated by UNICEF.
The report was authored by researchers working at UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre located in Florence, Italy. The report draw on the research of a previous UNICEF working paper carried out by Candace Currie, Dorothy Currie, Leonardo Menchini, Dominic Richardson and Chris Roberts. The report examined 24 countries that are a part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Family income and adequate housing are among the key indicators for assessing and ranking countries. In Canada, income inequality remains a critical concern, having improved very little over the past decades. Sharing its place at the bottom with Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, Canada has the worst child income inequality in the "developed" world. However, thanks to Canada's universal approach to social policy, the country fared better when it came to children's access to education and health, being ranked third and ninth among OECD countries, respectively. Canadian children's access to healthy food was also scored favourably. Capturing the attention and commitment of national and provincial governments, while enlisting the help of well-placed civil society organizations is absolutely vital for realizing child rights in Canada to an adequate standard of living. UNICEF's report found one particularly frightening statistic that it identified as being especially striking in Canada: "exposure to poverty in childhood doubles the risk of death by age 55." In a country where the average life expectancy is 81 years old, this is not acceptable and a very easy-to-grasp indication of the extremity of relative poverty in Canada. UNICEF's report is timely, coming out soon after Canada's Campaign 2000 released its report on Child and Family Poverty in Canada [see description, next post] over the past 21 years. Not surprisingly, the United States, Italy and Greece had the lowest child-equality scores, while the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands—and Switzerland had the best scores. Rise of Canada's Richest 1%TORONTO – Canada's richest 1% are taking more of the gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The Rise of Canada's Richest 1% looks at income trends over the past 90 years and reveals the 246,000 privileged few who rank among the country's richest 1% took almost a third (32%) of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007.
"That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken," says Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA senior economist and the report's author. "The last time Canada's elite held so much of the nation's income in their hands was in the 1920s. Even then, their incomes didn't soar as fast as they are today. It's a first in Canadian history and it underscores a dramatic reversal of long-term trends." Post-war, Canada became more equal with the rise of the middle class but by 2007, the richest 1% reversed equality trends, amassing incomes gains reminiscent of the 1920s. Among the report's findings:
The study looks at the source of incomes for the richest 1% and finds another surprising trend: 67.6% of their income comes from working wages, just like the rest of Canadians. In 1946, only 45.5% came from wages. "The incomes of the richest Canadians are increasingly reliant on their jobs," says Yalnizyan. "They work, like the rest of us, but their work is more richly rewarded." The study notes Canada's tax system is playing a different role, too. In 1948, the top marginal tax rate was 80% but by 2009 it had been cut almost in half, to 42.9%. "The last time the richest Canadians were taxed at this level was in the 1920s," says Yalnizyan. "Combine record-breaking growth in incomes with historically low top tax rates, and the richest 1% is truly breaking new frontiers of income inequality." 2010 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada
The 2010 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, Reduced Poverty = Better Health for All, looks at the nation's most recent child and family poverty rate compared to 21 years ago, when Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty by 2000, and finds that 610,000 children (2008 LICO after-tax) and their families lived in poverty even before the recession hit. The child poverty rate of 9.1 per cent is slightly less than when it was 11.9 per cent in 1989. Lessons from past recessions tell us that poverty will rise before the recovery is complete.
The report card's key findings show Canada has a long way to go to prevent and reduce poverty:
Federal Poverty Reduction PlanOttawa (19 Nov. 2010) - The Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) is encouraged by the release of a long-awaited report, entitled Federal Poverty Reduction Plan: Working in Partnership Towards Reducing Poverty in Canada, by the parliamentary committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development. "The report is based on a three-year study on the federal role in addressing poverty and will be a core element in developing a national strategy to reducing poverty in Canada," says CASW president Darlene MacDonald. "As a contributor to the report, CASW is encouraged by the collaborative approach of the parliamentarians on the HUMA committee and we hope that this approach will be mirrored in its delivery." Canada has an estimated five million people living in poverty, including hundreds of thousands who are visibly homeless and millions more without the means to meet basic human needs. These facts underscore the critical importance of a comprehensive national plan that compliments provincial poverty reduction strategies. "The will of the people is to end poverty in Canada and our hope is that with this report eliminating poverty in Canada has become the will of parliament as well," MacDonald says. CASW says the report adds to the momentum in the fight against poverty in Canada, building on the In from the Margins Senate report of 2009 that highlighted the tremendous cost of failing to address poverty, a 2009 unanimous resolution to develop a federal plan to eliminate poverty for all and a June 2010 tabling of a private member's bill entitled the Poverty Elimination Act. "The Government of Canada has 120 days to respond to this report and with an election on the horizon Canadians expect that each political party will publicly commit to implementing the recommendations of this report," notes MacDonald. "Shelving the report, as has been the practice of the current and previous governments, is not an option for the ballot box this time around."
HungerCount 2010 — Food Banks CanadaHungerCount 2010 provides unique, essential information on levels of food bank use in Canada, profiles people in need of food assistance Ottawa – The results of the HungerCount 2010 survey released today show food banks across Canada helped 867,948 separate individuals in March 2010, an increase of 9.2%, or more than 73,000 people, compared to March 2009. This is 28% higher than in 2008, and is the highest level of food bank use since 1997. Of the 867,948 people helped in March this year, 80,150 – 9.2% of the total – stepped through the front door of a food bank for the first time. The survey also shows that food bank use grew in every province in 2010. "This is a reality check. Food banks are seeing first hand that the recession is not over for a large number of Canadians," said Katharine Schmidt, Executive Director of Food Banks Canada, which coordinated the annual national study. "We are hearing that it is really tough out there," Ms. Schmidt said. "Many people who lost their jobs during the recession have now exhausted their unemployment benefits, and are looking to self-employment or to temporary and part-time jobs for income. Others have been forced to fall back on social assistance. These options aren't paying the bills, and people are accessing food banks to fill the gap."
As in past years, the profile of those assisted by food banks is highly varied:
"Coming to a food bank is not an easy decision for people," said Bill Hall, Executive Director of the Battlefords and District Food and Resource Centre, in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. "Unfortunately, there continues to be a need for help in our community, and we have expanded our efforts to meet that need – when the overall goal should be to address the causes of hunger more broadly, and to be able to reduce our services and even close our doors for good." "Though the recession has made things worse, the causes of hunger and low income run much deeper than the recent economic crisis," said Ms. Schmidt. "The need for food banks is a result of our failure as a country to adequately address a number of social issues, including a changing job market, a lack of affordable housing and child care, and a social safety net that is ineffective." The HungerCount provides recommendations on how the federal government can work to increase people's ability to be self sufficient. Food Banks Canada's recommendations include the following:
Bad Medicine: A Judge's Struggle for Justice in a First Nations CommunityEarly in his career, Judge John Reilly did everything by the book. His jurisdiction included a First Nations community plagued by suicide, addiction, poverty, violence and corruption. He steadily handed out prison sentences with little regard for long-term consequences and even less knowledge as to why crime was so rampant on the reserve in the first place.
In an unprecedented move that pitted him against his superiors, the legal system he was part of, and one of Canada's best-known Indian chiefs, the Reverend Dr. Chief John Snow, Judge Reilly ordered an investigation into the tragic and corrupt conditions on the reserve. A flurry of media attention ensued. Some labelled him a racist; others thought he should be removed from his post, claiming he had lost his objectivity. But many on the Stoney Reserve hailed him a hero as he attempted to uncover the dark challenges and difficult history many First Nations communities face. At a time when government is proposing new "tough on crime" legislation, Judge Reilly provides an enlightening and timely perspective. He shows us why harsher punishments for offenders don't necessarily make our societies safer, why the white justice system is failing First Nations communities, why jail time is not the cure-all answer some think it to be, and how corruption continues to plague tribal leadership. → Read Reviews NOTE: On 8 November 2010, John Reilly was interviewed by Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC's The Current. You can listen to the full interview: Nov 08/10 - Pt 1: Judge John Reilly (21:59) In 1997, Judge John Reilly did something no provincial court judge was supposed to do. Frustrated by so many impoverished people from Alberta's Stoney Reserve facing charges, he pointed to the Native leadership and ordered an investigation into corruption on the Reserve. We talk to Judge Reilly about his new book, Bad Medicine. [...] The figures are staggering. According to Stats Can, Aboriginal adults account for twenty-two percent of the prisoners in Canada, while making up only three percent of our population. And those numbers are bound to jump when the federal government's tough on crime legislation starts to be felt across the country. It's a situation that John Reilly knows well. He is a provincial court judge in Alberta. And for most of his career he had jurisdiction over the Stoney Nakoda First Nation in Morley, Alberta. At first he thought he was doing good from his courtroom but eventually Judge Reilly's views changed. His story is told in a new book, Bad Medicine: A Judge's Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community. [...]
Can you imagine living on less than $10,000 a year? Many Canadians assume that people with disabilities are well provided for. Few, unless they have a family member with a disability, understand that disability and poverty are largely synonymous - disability can lead to poverty and poverty can lead to disability. Many a newly disabled Canadian has been shocked to learn that the average Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit is only $720.00 a month and that is only if you meet stringent eligibility requirements. The myth of robust disability pensions means that:
In Ottawa, at a national forum called End Exclusion 2010, people with disabilities and their allies are challenging the myth that people with disabilities are "well taken care of in Canadian society." We are speaking out about the realities of living in poverty with a disability. People with disabilities, researchers and policy analysts will present new knowledge and policy alternatives to existing Canadian income security programs. End Exclusion is coordinated by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) and Canada Without Poverty (CWP). For the past two and a half years, CCD has been coordinating a research project, Disabling Poverty/Enabling Citizenship funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This project brings together university-based social scientists and grassroots disability activists and their organizations to develop innovative policy models for addressing the poverty of Canadians with disabilities. End Exclusion 2010 is pleased to be launching one of these models – the Basic Income Plan for Canadians with Severe Disabilities – developed by Michael Mendelson, Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman of the Caledon Institute and Ernie Lightman of the University of Toronto. [...] The Government of Canada has turned its back on low income people in Canada, the diligent work of the Senate and the majority will in the House of Commons for serious action on poverty. In its response to the 2009 Senate report In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty[, Housing and Homelessness], the government of Canada rejects the comprehensive recommendations in the report. It is noteworthy that all parties in the House of Commons excepting the minority Conservative government party support aggressive policies to drive down the poverty rate.
At least 1 in 10 Canadians was experiencing poverty before the economic turmoil set in. As Canadians continue to live through the economic upheaval of the past few years, it becomes clear that the situation will get worse before it improves. Current indicators highlight the numbers of people who have exhausted EI benefits, the rising caseloads of people applying for social assistance, and a record high rate of Canadians carrying debt. "It's hard to understand the government's simplistic assumption that local communities should lead the fight against poverty while the federal government can walk away from basic income security and child care responsibilities. This is the moment for the federal government to embrace its historic role in addressing poverty and income inequality. Instead, the Government of Canada ignores creative public policy recommendations," said Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator of Campaign 2000. "It's also too facile to rely on the labour market alone to lift people out of poverty. Low wage jobs with no benefits entrench poverty and do not pay for the cost of raising children. It's no surprise that one third of children in poverty had at least one parent working full time throughout the year in 2008. For adults with disabilities who may have limited availability for employment and for seniors in their post-employment years, strong and assured income support is also essential," commented Adrienne Montani, Provincial Coordinator of First Call. "We are calling on the federal government to honour the unanimous all-party resolution of November 24, 2009 and begin to work with provinces and territories on 'an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada for all'. In August, the Winnipeg Statement was ratified at a roundtable of political representatives, civil society, Aboriginal leaders, labour and the business sector [...] They confirmed that poverty eradication needs to be on the working agenda of the Premiers and the federal government. The Premiers, in the communiqué of the 2010 Council of the Federation meeting, committed to reducing poverty as part of economic recovery. Now the federal government must act responsibly," added Rothman. Fighting poverty ought not to be a partisan issue. Indeed, the Senate subcommittee was notable for its bipartisanship, with Art Eggleton, a Liberal, as chair, and Hugh Segal, a Conservative, as vice-chair. That makes it doubly disheartening that Harper's government has ignored the committee's call for a comprehensive anti-poverty plan. OTTAWA/CNW/ - The CPA calls upon the Government to live up to the commitments made less than one year ago today to establish a plan to eliminate poverty in Canada Yesterday, the Government of Canada listed its accomplishments in reducing poverty in Canada yet did not directly comment on a single recommendation contained in the report, In from the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness. Earlier this year, the Senate of Canada unanimously endorsed this landmark report which contained 74 recommendations to help lift Canadians out of poverty. November 24, 2009 Parliament voted unanimously to support the Government of Canada in the development of an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada. This motion was brought forward on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 resolution by The House of Commons to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000—a goal that was not achieved. "You can't effectively build a response to poverty without dealing with the recommendations of the In from the Margins report. People with mental illness often live in chronic poverty. Conversely, poverty can be a significant risk factor for poor physical and mental health. Safe and affordable housing is pivotal to a person's recovery," says Dr. Nizar Ladha, President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. The Canadian Psychiatric Association is the national voice for Canada's 4,100 psychiatrists and more than 600 psychiatric residents. Founded in 1951, the CPA is dedicated to promoting an environment that fosters excellence in the provision of clinical care, education and research. On December 15, 2009, Dietitians of Canada, BC Region and the Community Nutritionists Council of BC released the report The Cost of Eating in BC 2009: Low-income British Columbians can't afford healthy food. The report was endorsed by 23 organizations.
Dietitians publish the report to bring attention to the fact that not all British Columbians have enough money to buy healthy food. While shelter and food costs have risen significantly over the past decade, income assistance rates have remained virtually unchanged and minimum wage, once the highest in the country, has remained at $8.00/hour. For those receiving income assistance or earning minimum wage there simply is not enough money to pay for housing and food, let alone other necessities. Unemployment is up and more people are relying on assistance. There are too many living in poverty in BC and too many lined up at food banks. Dietitians are calling for the provincial government to take some additional action to address poverty in this province. Other provinces are taking action. Quebec and Ontario have anti-poverty legislation, while Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and New Brunswick all have poverty reduction plans. Common to them are significant changes to income assistance and increases to minimum wage. It is well documented that income is closely tied to health. Low-income Canadians are more likely to report poor health and die earlier than Canadians with higher incomes. They spend less on food and eat fewer servings of vegetables, fruit and milk and are less likely to get the nutrients they need for good health.
New data released today by Statistics Canada confirms the number of children living in poverty has declined more in Manitoba than elsewhere in Canada, Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh and Housing and Community Development Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross announced today. "Although under all measures of low income Manitoba continues to improve and now has the second lowest rates of child and overall poverty in Canada, numbers are no comfort to those still living in poverty. The progress so far merely reminds us that concerted efforts to attack poverty do make a difference," said Mackintosh. The minister said the new data provides information up to the year 2008 and demonstrates that child poverty dropped 10 per cent from 2007 to 2008 and 44 per cent since 2000, lifting over 19,000 children out of poverty since 2000. Manitoba has the lowest poverty rate for single parents across Canada. Between 2000 and 2008, the low-income rates for single parents dropped by 67 per cent.
The market basket measure (MBM) looks at purchasing power based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services that includes food, clothing, footwear, shelter, transportation and other items like personal care, household equipment and supplies, telephone services, educational and recreational items, and reading materials. The cost of that basket is checked in different communities to accurately take into account differences in the cost of living. [...] Under ALL Aboard, Manitoba's Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Strategy, Manitoba now invests $950 million a year to combat poverty. This year, more than 30 new initiatives are being introduced building on work done last year including:
The final measures for Manitoba's ALL Aboard strategy will be announced in 2011 after feedback from engagement sessions with stakeholders across the province has been incorporated [...] [...] Ontario's core social assistance programs – Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program - together with the other programs that make up Ontario's income security system, continue to fall short in providing an economic safety net for individuals and families as well as promoting opportunity to ensure everyone can contribute to the long-term prosperity of the province. The current social assistance system is based on the budget deficit model. By its nature, the budget deficit model is intricate, rule-bound, complicated, hard to understand and difficult to administer fairly. The consequences are stigma, a high degree of invasiveness into the personal lives of recipients and the enforcement of rules placed above real support. The system requires applicants to deplete most financial assets, making it harder to recover from an economic setback. Once in the system, recipients live on substandard incomes, and often become trapped in a cycle of poverty.
The income security system as a whole fails to provide effective alternatives to social assistance. Lack of Employment Insurance coverage, inadequate workforce development and lack of income benefits to ease recipients' transition to independence all make social assistance the first program many people turn to in times of financial hardship. While a need for reform is widely acknowledged, a consensus about how to fix the system does not yet exist. With these challenges in mind, the Ontario government's poverty reduction strategy, entitled Breaking the Cycle, undertook to initiate: "[A] review of social assistance with the goal of removing barriers and increasing opportunity – with a particular focus on people trying to move into employment from social assistance. The review will seek to better align social assistance and other key programs and initiatives and better communicate program rules to achieve the aims of increasing opportunity for the individual." [...] The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council recommends the Ontario Income Security Review explore the following six strategic directions for reform. These strategies should form the basis for consultations with Ontarians. Based on the results of those consultations and research, the review would then develop a detailed 'road map' for implementing a transformed system.
Specific reforms which could follow from each strategy are noted in the body of this report. [...] Download full Report
The study this year, as in previous years, looks at critical housing variables across Ontario including production trends, rental housing availability, vacancy rates, rental demand, and affordability. The report also takes a snapshot of 22 municipal housing markets throughout the province. The findings for the 2010 edition are not significantly different from when we began this annual review in the late 1990's. The pages ahead tell the following story:
Toronto, April 6, 2010 – The Stop Community Food Centre today announced the second phase of "Do the Math," the anti-poverty organization's campaign to highlight the failure of Ontario's current social assistance rates to support healthy, dignified lives. [...] The Stop's Do the Math campaign, initially launched in August 2009 [...] features an interactive website where visitors are asked to add up the monthly expenses they think necessary for a single person on social assistance. This budgetary exercise vividly illustrates that, after housing, clothing and transportation, most people have no money left over for food and must rely on food banks and drop-in meals to survive. More than 5,000 people have done the math online and thousands of others have signed Do the Math postcards addressed to the Premier of Ontario. These supporters joined The Stop in asking the provincial government to immediately introduce a $100/month Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on social assistance and to establish a clear and transparent process to set rates based on what it actually costs to live a frugal, but healthy and dignified, life in Ontario. [...]
It may have been a Depression era coincidence, but broad based minimum wage laws brought in by the Ontario government in 1937 closely followed the first issuances of cash welfare in 1935. Back then, the minimum wage (which applied mainly to working women in Toronto) was $12.50 a week, or about $54 a month. The going relief rate at that time for a single person in many parts of Toronto was about $ $19.50 a month. So a single relief packet amounted to 36 per cent of what someone could make working for minimum wage. Flash forward to today, the minimum wage in Ontario just rose to $10.25 an hour, which works out to $1,625 a month based on a standard 36-and-a-half-hour work week. Meanwhile, the single maximum welfare rate is $585 a month. That means that, for the first time in 73 years, the welfare rate will again equal 36 per cent of the Ontario minimum wage. What happened in between? In 1944, relief rates were tied to a nutritious food basket through the efforts of the predecessors of the Toronto Social Planning Council and various academic departments at the University of Toronto. In the 20 years after the Second World War, the minimum wage began to climb toward the elusive $1.00 an hour mark while welfare rates lingered at low levels before the advent of the Canada Assistance Plan. We almost dropped back to 36 per cent – but not quite. In 1967, Canada's centennial year, one of the great acts of unintended symmetry was realized in Ontario: 100 years of Canada, a $1.00 an hour minimum wage, and welfare rates that finally surpassed the $100 a month mark. The ratio of social assistance to minimum wage stood at 63 per cent. By 1980, minimum wage in Ontario had reached $3.00 an hour, but social assistance did not keep pace and the ratio dropped to 41 per cent just as a major recession hit. However, by November 1991, propelled by a robust economy, the social assistance single rate was raised to $626 with a $6.00 an hour minimum wage. The ratio reached its high-water mark of all time at 70 per cent. Although no one knew it at the time, that 70 per cent standard would relentlessly erode over the next two decades under governments of all political stripes. The Rae government stopped raising social assistance in 1993 but implemented two more minimum wage increases, bringing it to $6.85 an hour in 1995 where it would stay until 2004. When Premier Mike Harris cut the social assistance single rate to $520 a month, the ratio dropped to 47 per cent. Since 2005 the minimum wage has risen at a higher rate than social assistance and the ratio relentlessly fell to the current 36 per cent. The yearly difference between the single welfare rate and minimum wage is now $19,500 in gross minimum wages versus $7,020 in basic assistance. So we have the same stark work incentives as we did in the depths of the Great Depression. Who says history doesn't repeat itself? OTTAWA, March 24 - The federal and provincial retreat from traditional social transfers in the 1990s has frayed Canada´s social safety net, and cities are now struggling to fill the growing gaps. That trend, exacerbated by the current recession and growing urbanization, is the principal finding of a new report from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), entitled Mending Canada´s Frayed Social Safety Net: The role of municipal governments. This is the sixth report in a series looking at quality-of-life issues and indicators in Canada´s urban centres. "We have a new class of working poor in our country; waiting lists for affordable housing that keep getting longer; and people struggling to get to work and find childcare," said FCM President, Mayor Basil Stewart of Summerside, P.E.I. "More and more, the only things giving these people a fighting chance are the services provided by municipal governments." [...]  WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR POVERTY REDUCTION?
March 10, 2010 – Ottawa, Ontario – The tuberculosis rate among Inuit has doubled in the past four years – to 185 times the rate of Canadian-born non-aboriginals – at a time when the national rate is declining, according to 2008 figures recently made public by the Public Health Agency of Canada. This compares with an Inuit rate 90 times higher than the non-aboriginal, Canadian-born population as recently as 2004. The rate among First Nations is also climbing, from 29 times the non-aboriginal, Canadian-born rate in 2004 to a rate now 31 times higher.
"Behind the high results," said Gail Turner, chair of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami's National Inuit Committee on Health, "are significant disparities in the health of Inuit and other Canadians and inequity in access to health care. It is unconscionable that these conditions exist in a country that boasts of having one of the lowest TB rates in the world." The root causes of these elevated rates lie partly in historically high exposure during TB waves in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Aboriginal peoples lacked a natural resistance and the burden of disease was high. Many were removed from their communities and sent to urban centres for treatment. Some never returned, creating a legacy of fear among those left behind that endures to this day. Add to that co-morbidities, such as HIV and diabetes, which increase the risk that significant occurrences of latent TB will progress to full-blown tuberculosis. "Overcrowded housing, poor nutrition and lack of access to health care contribute to the higher rates of this disease among First Nations – many of the same conditions that made First Nations communities especially vulnerable to the spread of H1N1 last year," said Chief Angus Toulouse, who holds the national portfolio for health at the Assembly of First Nations. "Addressing these issues will require First Nations-led economic solutions, expanded access to treatment and improved tracking of cases and underlying causes." In the Arctic and in many First Nations communities, housing is a major contributor. Often entire families are forced to live in a single bedroom, while mold is rampant in houses built to construction standards that are ill suited for the climate. Immune systems are compromised by a general lack of healthy, affordable food. A shortage of health care providers in remote communities further challenges the ability to manage TB and be proactive in elimination strategies. [...]
FREDERICTON (CNB) - Ombudsman and Child and Youth Advocate Bernard Richard today released a report entitled, In his report, Richard recommends sweeping changes to the child welfare system on First Nations, reducing the number of agencies to three from the current 11. Richard also calls for the establishment of a single First Nations Child and Family Services Office that would provide financial and administrative functions to the three agencies. Furthermore, he provides recommendations related to funding, governance, service delivery standards, training and accountability.
"My objective was to recommend changes that will reduce the duplication of administrative work being done in each community in order to maximize frontline social work services," said Richard. "In my view, it is necessary to maintain and augment the number of social workers in each community who provide culturally based services and to give them access to the same resources employed by social workers in the rest of the province." Richard, in his report, also delves into the deep-seated issues affecting First Nations communities, such as poverty, drug addictions, domestic violence, and the erosion of the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet cultures and languages. "It was essential to examine the underlying social, economic and cultural conditions for this report," said Richard. "To simply put in place an improved child welfare system would not be enough to truly create equal opportunities for First Nations children. For real change to occur, we must address the determinants of child welfare and focus on prevention-based solutions." Continue reading for Backgrounder Children raised in poverty in their first five years are more likely to feel its effects well into adulthood.
It's no surprise that growing up in poverty makes it more likely you'll be poorer as an adult. But new research shows that the earliest years of life are the most critical in determining future earnings. Even more strikingly, a growing body of research shows that childhood poverty causes lasting changes in the brain -- from its overall structure down to the level of gene expression. These findings highlight the importance of programs that specifically address the needs of the youngest children, the researchers say. [...] "Early experiences are built into our bodies, for better or worse," said Jack Shonkoff of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., speaking at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Sunday. "If you begin with the experience of adversity and stress, those get translated into changes in brain function and structure that get translated into changes in cellular and neuronal connections, and most recently, down into lasting changes in how the DNA is expressed," said Thomas Boyce of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who has carried out several studies that show these effects. Poor children perform worse in many ways, said Katherine Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from standardized tests to amount of schooling to behavior and health. "We've known this for a long time. What is interesting and emergent is our ability to talk about these as being caused by income per se rather than the range of things that are associated with poverty," Magnuson said. [...]
Source:
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 The Coalition had an opportunity to meet with members of the Social Assistance Review Advisory Council (SARAC) in late January, and to present them with a list of quick changes that could be made to some of the "stupid rules" in ODSP [Ontario Disability Support Program]. This Council was recently appointed by the government to give advice on two things: some "quick fix" changes to counterproductive rules, and the mandate and scope of a more conprehensive social assistance review to be carried out later this year. Our Policy and Research Committee had already been working on a list of rule changes that had been suggested at our last conference and by our committees. So we very quickly wrote up and discussed a series of recommendations that we asked the SARAC to consider. Given the short time frame, (SARAC had to give their input on this to MCSS by the end of January), we were not able to deal with all the many problems in ODSP, nor to priorize our recommendations. But we are hopeful that at least some of these issues will be taken up by SARAC in their discussions with government, and then that we see some actual improvements in the rules that ODSP recipients have to deal with. We will also be pushing for meaningful consultation in the larger revew of OW [Ontario Works] and ODSP, with representation from all over the province, rural and urban, all consituencies impacted by social assistance. This particula[rl]y means including people in receipt of OW and ODSP.
A Paradigm Shift in Social Policy -- New Brunswick
Hundreds of thousands of unemployed Canadians could see their benefits run out with no job prospects in sight, according to an analysis the Canadian Labour Congress released Monday. The analysis by CLC chief economist Andrew Jackson found that 500,000 Canadians who initiated EI claims in 2009 could exhaust their benefits before finding a new job despite Ottawa's move to extend Employment Insurance benefits by five weeks. [...] The number of Canadians who were collecting benefits rose from about 500,000 to more than 809,000 between October 2008 and October 2009, but the number who were jobless and not collecting benefits also rose, Jackson said. Many of those were women [...] Only about half of the unemployed nationally were collecting benefits as of last October [...] In Ontario, one of the hardest-hit provinces, that number was as low as 41 per cent [...]
On Thursday, the Community and Protective Services Committee approved Ottawa's Poverty Reduction Strategy, an extensive report prepared by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Steering Committee.
The City partnered with the Social Planning Council of Ottawa to plan and deliver two targeted Poverty Reduction Strategy community consultation sessions held on September 18th and September 21st. A total of 118 people participated in the targeted sessions. Approximately 50% of participants were people on low income, and approximately 20% were Francophone. The investment required to implement the 16 recommendations is $3.5M. For 2010 the funding will come from new or existing one time provincial funding within the Community and Social Services Department. Each recommendation summarizes the financial impact in 201o, as well as potential impact in future years based on outcomes, recommendations stemming from the initiatives and direction from Council. Strategic Priorities and Recommendations
Source: Whether he meant to or not, the auditor general's December 7th analysis of OW/ODSP let a dysfunctional social assistance system off the hook, instead laying blame with the people who have nowhere else to turn to for basic support. The ensuing debate risks losing sight of the simple fact that when it comes to social assistance, it's not the people who are the problem. Instead it's the 800+ rules that trap people in poverty and powerlessness, fail to provide social and community supports and education and training tools to enable opportunity, and leave people so short of income that living a healthy, dignified life is impossible. As Premier McGuinty recently stated, social assistance "stomps people into the ground" and something must be done to make the system work the way it should. That something cannot come soon enough, as evidenced by the confusing picture painted by the auditor general's report:
Backgrounder: Just the Facts [...]
Conclusion
That's why it's critical that Ontario move ahead with its promised review of social assistance – to remove the stigma and shame that accompany these programs
and to align these programs with what should be their real goal – support and opportunity for all Ontarians.
Right now, Ontario's social assistance system is simply not up to the task. Making social assistance consistent with Ontario's goals for poverty reduction and economic opportunity is the right move now. [...]
The Committee recommends that the federal government:
The Committee recommends that provincial governments increase current limits on assets for qualifying applicants for the first six to 12 months, to allow those relying on social assistance for short periods of time to retain the assets they need to re-engage in the labour force and regain their economic footing [Recommendation 2].
Poverty reduction strategies The Committee has chosen to focus on concrete changes to federal programs, some of which were recommended by provincial and local initiatives, to raise the income of Canadians through federal income and social insurance programs, and to support the work already underway in more than half of Canada's provinces and many local communities. Detailed recommendations with respect to these income security programs follow; in the short-term, the Committee offers the following recommendation with respect to supporting provincial initiatives. The Committee recommends that the federal government target "shovel ready" social infrastructure for investment, with their provincial counterparts, specifically housing, income security, and social agencies, whose ability to serve can be quickly enhanced through increased and accelerated investment in the Canada Social Transfer, to parallel its investment in "shovel ready" physical infrastructure, to combat recession [Recommendation 36]. [...]
Source:
1 Mitchell, A. and R. Shillington. (2008).
What's Happened since 1989? The depth of poverty – the amount of money the average low-income family would need to reach the poverty line – remained high; in 2007, the average depth for two-parent and female-led lone parent families was in the range of $9,500. Seven out of ten provinces have (or will have) a poverty reduction strategy; British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan remained uncommitted. Atlantic and Ontario premiers called on the Federal Government to develop a national poverty reduction strategy to work in concert with provincial efforts to prevent and reduce poverty in 2008.
What's Needed?
HungerCount 2009 provides essential information on levels of food bank use in Canada, profiles people in need of food assistance Ottawa, November 17, 2009 – The results of the HungerCount 2009 survey released today show food banks across Canada helped 794,738 separate individuals in March 2009, an increase of 17.6%, or almost 120,000 people, compared to March 2008. This represents the largest year-over-year increase since 1997. Of the 794,738 people helped in March this year, 72,321 – 9.1% of the total – stepped through the front door of a food bank for the first time. "Food banks have unfortunately seen first-hand the effects of three recessions in three decades," said Katharine Schmidt, Executive Director of Food Banks Canada, which coordinated the annual national study. "It is crucially important that, as we rebuild the economy, we begin to better address the barriers that prevent too many Canadians from sharing in the national prosperity," Ms. Schmidt said. "It is unacceptable that, for most of the past decade, more than 700,000 people every month have needed help from food banks just to get by." The need for food banks increased in every region – the Western and Prairie provinces, the North, Central and Eastern Canada. Alberta (+61%), Nova Scotia (+20%), Ontario (+19%), and Manitoba (+18%) experienced the largest increases. The profile of those assisted is as varied as in past years:
"It is likely that hunger in Canada is even more widespread than HungerCount findings
suggest," Ms. Schmidt said. "For every person who turns to a food bank for help, several
others in need of assistance do not ask for it. Canadians need to focus on long-term,
policy-based solutions to resolve the problem of hunger."
TORONTO — Canadians living in homeless shelters and rooming houses have a much shorter life expectancy than the general population - and poverty is not the only factor contributing to their premature deaths, researchers conclude. In a 10-year study, researchers found the chance of surviving to age 75 among the homeless or inadequately housed is 32 per cent for men and 60 per cent for women, compared to 51 per cent and 72 per cent respectively for the lowest income group in Canada's population. To put that in perspective, the probability that a 25-year-old man living today in marginal housing would make it to age 75 is equal to the life expectancy of the average young male in 1921 - long before the advent of antibiotics and other life-saving treatments. For homeless or poorly housed females, their chance of surviving to 75 is the same as women in the general population of Canada in 1956. "Even compared to the poorest one-fifth of the Canadian population, people living in shelters, rooming houses and hotels had a much lower probability of survival," said lead researcher Dr. Stephen Hwang, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto's downtown core. [...] [Read More]
We didn't know it then, but 2007 was a peak year for working Canadians. Income data released by Statistics Canada shows Canadians in all income brackets had better incomes in 2007, compared to 2006, and still paid lower taxes. The highlights of the 2007 income data include:
The good news is that incomes went up. The bad news is that's as good as it gets. Unfortunately, looking at the 2007 income data is like watching an accident in slow motion. [...] [Read More] British Columbia has the highest level of poverty in Canada, but there are solutions, according to Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives researcher Seth Klein. In 2006, the most recent year there are statistics for, 13 per cent of British Columbians lived in poverty – more than one in eight. In addition, 16 per cent – nearly one in six – of children in B.C. are growing up in poverty. B.C.'s poverty rate has been above the national average since 1996. In 2006, the national poverty rate was approximately 10.5 per cent. "If we commit to a bold plan, a dramatic reduction in poverty and homelessness is feasible," Klein said. "We had, until recently, many years of strong (economic) growth ... but there were still increases in poverty. Many of the benefits of growth are concentrated higher up the income scale."
Poverty is not only wide-spread in B.C. but very deep, Klein said. The average low-income family in B.C. is living $7,700 below the poverty line. According to Statistics Canada, 331,730 British Columbians – more than 10.5 per cent – were living on less than $5,000 per year in 2006. Nearly 20 per cent of British Columbians earned less than $15,000 per year. Nationally, 18.5 per cent of Canadians lived on less than $15,000 per year in 2006, according to Statistics Canada. The problem is compounded by B.C. having the least-affordable housing in Canada, Klein said. Nearly one in three households, and 44 per cent of renters, pay 30 per cent or more of their income on housing. In May, 2008 B.C. Housing had a waiting list of 13,400 applicants for assisted housing. Of the 13 per cent of people in poverty in B.C., 3.5 per cent are on welfare or disability assistance. The remaining 9.5 per cent are working, Klein said.
"It's a low-wage story, overall. The bottom 60 per cent of families are worse off than they were 30 years ago," he said. [...]
[...] For years, anti-poverty activists have been pleading with government to take poverty seriously. Teachers have talked about how poorly children do in school when they are hungry and distracted. Health practitioners have listed the ways poverty makes people sick and costs the health-care system millions of dollars. Low-income people have insisted that they should not be blamed for their poverty, but rather that the root causes of poverty such as low wages, lack of child care, discrimination and low levels of training and education should be addressed. Finally, government has started to listen. In December, the McGuinty government released "Breaking the Cycle," its poverty reduction plan. A critical component of the strategy is a promise to launch a review of social assistance, comprised of the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works. Advocates were relieved to hear Ontario Works and the ODSP are going to get some attention. Indeed, it would be strange if they did not because the current social assistance system is at fundamental odds with the goals of poverty reduction. At the heart of the poverty reduction strategy is an acknowledgement that in order to reduce poverty we must: come up with a plan; address the root causes of poverty rather than "blame-the-victim;" and offer people meaningful support and training opportunities. In stark contrast, the current social assistance system does nothing to reduce poverty. In fact, it contributes to poverty. It was designed to ensure that the fewest possible number of people would have access to Ontario Works and ODSP and that they take the shortest possible route to employment, even when the first available job would virtually guarantee long-term poverty. People involved in Ontario Works often are forced into employment that is so insecure and poorly paid that they perpetually cycle on and off social assistance rather than being propelled out of poverty. What's more, the current system is fraught with a range of widely acknowledged "stupid rules" that overwhelm and impoverish people with punishment and disincentives. For example, if a family is having trouble eating properly with their inadequate benefits and decides to accept an invitation to regularly visit a neighbour for Friday night dinner, that dinner may be counted as "income" and deducted from their social assistance cheque. If a single mother finds she can better make ends meet by sharing accommodation with a roommate, the "shelter" portion of her social assistance benefit is reduced. A social assistance review is essential to the success of Ontario's poverty reduction strategy. However, we must not simply tinker with the system and its "stupid rules." The problem is not a few rules that create barriers to escaping poverty. The rules are reflective of how the program was designed to operate and indicative of how inconsistent the philosophy of the current social assistance system is with the goal of poverty reduction. The review must have a broad scope so that we can rebuild a social assistance system that contributes to poverty reduction. A broad social assistance review offers us the opportunity to reimagine and redesign the system. [...] [Read More] [WORD] A look at the expectations and outcomes of key issues highlighted in Ontario's new anti-poverty plan.
WELFARE What they got: Minor rule changes, including letting people on welfare who attend college and university keep part-time earnings; broadening eligibility for a child care benefit that helps low-income parents pay first- and last-month fees; extending the deadline for internal welfare reviews. The government will review social assistance to remove barriers and increase opportunity for people trying to move off social assistance and into employment. It will increase the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) to up to $1,310 per child annually by 2012. The benefit is now $600 per child per year and will rise to $1,100 by 2011. Reaction: Cindy Wilkey of the Income Security Advocacy Centre was pleased with the review: "We had wanted to see social assistance programs transformed into programs that have at their heart the objective of lifting people out of poverty. Current systems can't do that. [...] [Read More]
Cross-Canada action needed as economy worsens, National Council of Welfare says
In the case of the lone parent with a pre-schooler in Newfoundland and Labrador, welfare income slightly surpassed the MBM, at 103 per cent. "This information is considered significant because welfare incomes in Canada have historically been only a fraction of the real costs of survival and far below the poverty line", said John Rook, Chair of the Council. "This means that lone-parent incomes, which include social assistance and federal child benefits, have reached a level that begins to give these families a reasonable chance in life. Even more encouraging, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have poverty reduction strategies in place where social assistance is part of a larger, integrated framework with links to child care, health, education, and labour market policies. This can truly help people to get ahead." At the same time, however, the report found that single employable people receive welfare incomes at less than half of the MBM in most provinces, far below any measure of poverty or decency. These incomes range from a low of 27 per cent of the MBM to a mere 67 per cent even in the best of cases. The Council is also concerned about the maze of rules and regulations that can trap welfare recipients and often discourages or even prohibits them from helping themselves out of poverty. For example, people on welfare can keep little or none of their earnings if they can find some employment, which can discourage them from looking for work. Administrative rules vary throughout the country, but the new report details consistently how qualifying for welfare is a complicated, cumbersome and stigmatizing process. As the economy deteriorates, the National Council of Welfare is concerned that the number of Canadians facing hardship will likely grow. In addition to welfare recipients, there are people who manage to leave the welfare system on their own, and others who can't qualify, have been cut off or won't sacrifice their assets or dignity to apply, Rook noted. While some may get ahead, others may be trading one form of poverty for another, and that is not good news for Canada anytime, especially not now. "A comprehensive, pan-Canadian strategy to solve poverty is needed", Rook added. "It should have targets and timelines, a plan of action, accountability and measurable indicators." Many partners must be involved. Canada is not unique. "For any nation to solve poverty or foster prosperity there must be government action, political will and a real recognition of the human face of poverty." There are 77 595 children living in poverty in the province, according to a new study, and the looming economic downturn could make the situation much worse without the development of a comprehensive provincial poverty reduction strategy to tackle the problem. "We Can Do Better: Toward an Alberta Poverty Reduction Strategy for Children and Families," released November 21 by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, found that despite a decline in rates of child poverty in recent years, one in 10 children in Alberta still live in families whose 2006 after-tax income fell short of Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-off (LICO) measure of poverty. Child poverty rates in the province are highest in Edmonton, where one in six children within the city and one in eight children in metro Edmonton live in low-income households. Calgary has the second highest rates, with one in eight children in the city living below the LICO threshold. But it's a problem that cuts across the province, according to John Kolkman, the research and policy analysis coordinator with the ESPC and the study's principal author.
Lethbridge and Medicine Hat had the highest rates of child poverty of Alberta's regional centres, with rates matching the provincial average. "And while poverty rates are somewhat lower in Red Deer, Grande Prairie and Wood Buffalo/Fort McMurray, these communities have higher living costs than most medium-sized cities in other provinces," Kolkman cautions. "Since poverty rates are based on national averages, the full extent of poverty in these booming cities is not captured by these numbers." While poverty cuts across demographic boundaries, the study found that children living in certain family types are more likely to live in poverty. "Children living in lone-parent families and Aboriginal families are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as other Alberta children," Kolkman says, explaining that 45 per cent of children living in poverty live in families headed by a lone parent. "Recent immigrant and visible minority families face many barriers placing them at greater risk of poverty," Kolkman adds. One of the study's more troubling findings is that the vast majority of impoverished children lived in families in which at least one parent worked. "For many low-income families, a job is no longer a ticket out of poverty. Four out of five children live in families where their parent or parents are working. One in three of these children live in families where one or both parents works full-time, year round," says Kolkman. "Despite more low-income families working harder, most are not begin rewarded for this increased work effort. Their incomes have remained largely stagnant despite Alberta's economic growth." [...]
The Saskatchewan Party government has already made a series of changes to give lower-income people a leg up -- there just hasn't been enough time to let the policies make a difference, the minister of social services said Friday. Donna Harpauer was responding to a Saskatoon Health Region report that makes 46 recommendations the authors say would lift people out of poverty and lead to noticeable improvements in their health. "The initiatives that we put in place, particularly in the last few months, I am looking forward to seeing how they track out," Harpauer said. The minister said the province has already made several changes -- including increased housing allowances, transportation allowances and rental and employment supplements -- that are recommended in the region's report to close the health gap between the rich and poor in Saskatoon. Part of the report takes some of the most successful poverty-tackling programs enacted elsewhere and suggests how they should be applied in Saskatchewan. Ireland, for example, set a simple goal in 1997 -- to reduce the rate of people living in poverty from 15 per cent to 10 per cent within a decade. After articulating that plan, the Emerald Isle increased social assistance payments and introduced bold training initiatives, such as dedicating college spaces for low-income adults to get a free education. The results were incredible, says Mark Lemstra, senior research epidemiologist with the Saskatoon Health Region. Although any one of the 46 recommendations in a new report he co-authored, Health disparity in Saskatoon: Analysis to intervention, could help on its own, Lemstra said the ideas work more effectively in a package. Four years into its decade-long program, Ireland had surpassed its goal, reducing the poverty rate from 15 per cent to five per cent. Lemstra wants to know what's so different between Ireland and Saskatchewan. "If they can do it, we can do it," he said. [...] How could taxpayers afford this generosity? With the new Child Poverty Protection Plan (CPPP), the report's authors say. The CPPP would be based on the Canada Pension Plan, which reduced the number of Canadian seniors living in poverty from 58 per cent to six per cent. The report recommends each Saskatchewan worker pay $6 a week, and each employer shell out $5 a week to fund the plan. "The researchers have laid the evidence out very clearly that we can tackle health disparity effectively by ensuring that there is a strong social safety net in society and effective supports in place to help people living in low income," writes Coun. Charlie Clark in his letter of support for the report. He calls the social assistance reforms and CPPP proposals "unquestionably bold," but adds, "we must be reminded that they are based on an analysis of what actually works." [...] [Read More] A RECENT public opinion survey conducted for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that 88 per cent of those surveyed wanted Canada to be a leader in poverty reduction. It is not surprising that Canadians would like to significantly reduce poverty. Poverty is a blight on the country, a barometer of the kind of society we want. It's also important economically since the larger the share of the population in productive activities, the richer the society overall. But what's remarkable is that there is no official definition of poverty in Canada. So when a huge majority of Canadians say they want to significantly reduce poverty, they may have many different ideas in mind. Some may be concerned primarily with rescuing Canadians in abject poverty where they may lack essentials for living. Others may have in mind a much more ambitious program that not only allows all Canadians a decent minimum lifestyle but also provides for good access to education, job training, early childhood development, sports and recreation and basic tools of modern life, such as a phone and a monthly transit pass. Without a clear definition of poverty we don't really know how many people need help, or what level of help would be necessary. Right now, Canada has three different measures that may give some indication of poverty, but none in its present form is an adequate measure. [...]
In 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to "seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000." Nearly two decades later, 760,000 children - almost 1 child out of every 9 in Canada – still lives in poverty when measured after income taxes. The rate of child and family poverty in Canada was essentially the same in 2006 as it was in 1989 despite an unprecedented period of strong economic growth since 1996. There have been cyclical variations, reflecting recessions and recoveries, but the high rate of child and family poverty has remained tenacious. This figure does not include the shameful situation of First Nations' communities where 1 in every 4 children is growing up in poverty.
Child and Family Poverty Varies Across Canada
[...]
WHY A FOCUS ON POVERTY/ POVERTY THROUGH AN URBAN LENS Since the aftermath of World War II, the trend toward urbanization has been picking up speed in Canada and with it, the concentration of poverty in Canada's largest cites. In 1967, the year of Canada's Centennial celebrations, Statistics Canada observed that "[a]n increasing pace towards urbanization means that low income will become more and more an urban problem."3 In March 2007, Statistics Canada began to release the preliminary results of the 2006 Census. These early results confirmed the trends that were predicted forty years earlier. In 2006, four out of every five individuals, more than 80 per cent, lived in an urban centre of 10,000 people or more. Just over two-thirds (68 per cent) of Canada's population in 2006 lived in the nation's 33 census metropolitan areas (CMAs).4 [...] Data gathered during the 2006 Census showed that an estimated 3.4 million Canadians (or 10.5 per cent) lived in low income (after-taxes) in 20065. In nine of the 14 CMAs that are the focus of the Committee's review, the percentage of the population living below the post-tax Low Income Cut Off (LICO) exceeds the national average. In a report on urban poverty released in 2007, the United Way of Greater Toronto (UWGT) noted that in 2000, the effects of the recession of the early 1990's lingered on for many. As evidence, UWGT pointed to the increased use of food banks and emergency shelters, and warnings issued by social services agencies that their clients were falling further and further behind. The UWGT asserted that: Nowhere are these changes felt more keenly than in Canadian cities. As Canada's population has become increasingly urbanized, the number of poor households living in urban areas has grown as well. Today, chronic levels of poverty, polarized job opportunities, low wages, and unaffordable and inadequate housing in large cities create a fundamental challenge to the future of Canada and the quality of life of Canadians. Although stark disparities remain between rural or remote communities and urban centres, the experience of deprivation in cities – especially Canada's largest cities – is now significant.6
The Conference Board of Canada has argued that the concentration of poverty in
Canada's major cities is a matter that should be of concern to all Canadians regardless of
where they live or the standard of living they enjoy. At the conclusion of a lengthy study
of Canada's economic prosperity in the context of globalization, "Canada's prosperity,"
the Conference Board stated "unequivocally depends on the success of our major cities."7
In January 2008, the Canada West Foundation released its own study of big cities in
Canada with an emphasis on the rapid urbanization occurring in western provinces.
Conclusions reached by this study mirrored those of the Conference Board, stressing the
"tremendous importance of Canada's big cities to our future economic prospects,
standard of living, and quality of life."8 Cities are our primary generators of ideas, our centres of economic control, and of much important production, even in an economy driven by commodities. The prosperity of us all, even those of us who work in rural areas, depends on the prosperity of our cities. As surely as all Canadians rely on commodity production, we rely on the health of our cities, and of the networks of infrastructure and services that keep them viable.9 Faced with mounting debts and economic recession in the early 1990s, Canada's federal and provincial governments reduced their provision of, and funding for, social programs. As a consequence of this withdrawal, Canadian cities faced a growing obligation to support their low-income citizens, without the resources to adequately fulfill the obligation. Shrinking programs and services to sustain those in low income constrained the ability of low-income city dwellers to "play the roles, meet the obligations and participate in the relationships and customs of their society"10 (in this case, the cities in which they live) – resulting in further disadvantage to major cities whose human capital deteriorated as a result. [...]
The measurement of basic needs poverty is important, even in developed nations like Canada. Despite their unequivocal rejection of basic needs poverty measurements, and their protestations that the measurement of absolute poverty is "mean-spirited," many of those in the social welfare community routinely use absolute images to describe the living conditions of Canada's poor. [...] This paper provides the latest information about the incidence of basic needs poverty in Canada [...and] raises additional concerns about data quality related to the issue of underreporting and hidden income.
(Vancouver) A ground-breaking study that for two years followed British Columbians living on welfare paints a disturbing picture of how people are forced to make ends meet under new welfare rules and low rates.
The study was released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Raise the Rates Coalition, as part
of the Economic Security Project, a joint CCPA-Simon Fraser University initiative.
Source: In April 2007, the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth asked the Representative to investigate the deaths of four Northern B.C. children who died between 1999 and 2005. The detailed analysis that follows in this report focuses on identifying those enduring lessons that can be used to inform improvements to the child serving system and child protection.
Losing Ground, a research report released by United Way of Greater Toronto in November 2007, documents how
Toronto families with children 17 years of age and under are faring financially compared to families in the Toronto
Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), in the province, and across Canada. By examining median incomes, rates of low income,
depth of poverty and warning signs of poverty, the report's key findings have led to
eight recommendations.
The persistent rise in poverty in the City of Toronto in the first half of this decade, after the huge increase in the 1990s is disturbing. These trends must be turned around if Toronto is to remain a strong and healthy place for families to live, work and raise their children. For this reason, United Way welcomes the Government of Ontario's commitment to build a poverty reduction strategy for Ontario. In releasing Losing Ground, United Way is making a number of recommendations that it believes are critically important for ensuring that the poverty reduction strategy is as effective as possible. OTTAWA–An ambitious national housing program and a strategy to combat poverty is urgently needed to tackle the disaster-like conditions of homelessness and inadequate housing found across the country, a United Nations envoy says. Miloon Kothari, the UN's special rapporteur on adequate housing, warned yesterday that Canadians are becoming complacent to the crisis unfolding on the streets and that public attitudes could soon mirror the indifference found in the United States. "What is beginning here has already happened in the U.S., where you speak to people (and) they say, 'the homeless are there by choice,' or 'it's those drug addicts,'" Kothari said in an interview yesterday. "That is a very serious mental shift." Kothari ended his two-week visit to Canada yesterday with harsh words for provincial and federal politicians, painting a dramatic picture of a crisis caused by governments' deep funding cuts in the mid-1990s to housing programs and social assistance that once helped impoverished Canadians afford a home. The result is crowded homeless shelters, tenants living in substandard housing and aboriginal communities without safe drinking water. [...] [Read more] According to the latest statistics from the World Bank, the widening gap between rich and poor in Canada is now roughly on par with that of Indonesia. Indeed, in the matter of income equality, Canada trails not only the Scandinavian countries, but Egypt and Pakistan, as well. You might think that fact alone would place poverty high on the national agenda. But in this week's throne speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper devoted no more than 98 of 4,000 words – less than 3 per cent – to the subject. More than a decade of tax cuts at the federal level and in certain provinces has not put a dent in the rising number of people in poverty, despite being among the advertised benefits of tax reduction. With an estimated 1 million children living in poverty, we risk raising a new generation of Canadians unable to contribute to our economic progress. And the continued decay of impoverished urban and rural communities threatens their demise, as gangs, drug-dealing and prostitution take over once livable neighbourhoods. So vague and relatively fleeting was the throne speech's attention to poverty that the Harper government's commitment to addressing the crisis is open to contrary interpretations. For instance, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion denounced it as a "complete and shocking indifference about poverty in this country." That's how the landmark annual address, which outlines the government's priorities for the coming year, struck poverty expert Hugh Mackenzie, as well. "A visitor from Mars would think the government doesn't have a clue about a social infrastructure that's in near-collapse," said Mackenzie, research associate for the Inequality Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Harper's throne speech includes issues of poverty, homelessness and the growing gap between rich and poor in neither what it describes as "our shared values" as Canadians, nor in its "five clear priorities" for the future. It does say, "Our government will continue to invest in our families and our future, and will help those seeking to break free from the cycles of homelessness and poverty." Yet, in a speech that denounces mere "rhetoric and posturing," there is no mention of the meagre $1 billion in current annual federal spending on housing, which is set to expire at the end of the 2008 fiscal year. There is, however, lengthy self-congratulations on the planned cut of another 1 per cent sliver from the GST, which will cost Ottawa about $5 billion in forsaken revenues that could instead be used to quintuple Ottawa's commitment to decent shelter. For those Canadians concerned about the social health of their country, here's a partial list of facts the Speech skipped over: Statistics Canada reports that 2.8 million families, or one in five, live below the low-income cut-off, or LICO, the new politically correct term for poverty line.
The Federal Homelessness Secretariat estimates that 150,000 Canadians are homeless. Most groups that work with homeless
people think the figure is at least double that amount. [...] OTTAWA – The pension fund of the employees of Canada's largest federal public service workers' union has invested $2 million to help finance affordable housing initiatives in the National Capital Region, marking the first such investment by a pension fund in the country. The employees and full-time elected officers of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and many of its components have agreed to invest the sum to establish the Alterna Community Alliance Housing Fund which was launched at Ottawa City Hall today. "I am very happy to say that through the diligent and persistent efforts of pension committee members working with community housing advocates and finally in partnership with Alterna Bank, we have found the mechanism, a housing fund in which we have invested $2 million," said PSAC National President John Gordon. The $2 million has been invested at market interest rates with Alterna Savings and designated specifically to fund affordable housing projects that meet certain criteria. The Ottawa Community Loan Fund, a non-profit organization that provides community-focused financing, will be responsible for screening the projects to make sure they meet the following core criteria:
Ottawa has been suffering from a shortage in affordable housing due to low vacancy rates, rising rental costs and lower incomes that haven't kept up with inflation. The waiting list for social housing in Ottawa stands at well above 11,000. "We are committed to work with our community allies to support social justice initiatives and we are delighted to be supporting the creation of affordable housing in this community," Gordon said.
For information:
Findings from HungerCount 2007 make it clear that more must be done to address the needs of Canada's poorest citizens. The past year has seen advances in this area, with increases to minimum wages in many provinces, the initiation of the federal Working Income Tax Benefit, and legislation ensuring predictable increases to the Canada Social Transfer. Federal and provincial governments can build on this progress through the following steps:
Canadian food bank use has not dropped below 700,000 individuals per month since 1997. This fact suggests that the need for emergency food assistance has been only marginally affected by a decade of social policy reform at the federal and provincial levels. Governments must do more to help Canadians lift themselves out of poverty, and they must act immediately. [...] [Read more]
Analysis Several measures that appear to address poverty, on closer examination turn out to be inferior versions of previous Liberal initiatives or actually deliver more benefit to rich families and less or nothing to poor children who need assistance the most. A case in point is the Child Tax Credit announced in this Conservative budget, which should not be confused with the Canada Child Tax Benefit that Make Poverty History has been campaigning to have increased to $5100 per child. The Conservative Child Tax Credit will do absolutely nothing for the poorest children whose families have no taxable income. [...] [Read more] ... Raising the Income Floor: Children and Social Assistance
Provincial social assistance is the minimum income program of last resort for people with little or no other income. Parents who rely on social assistance are often in transition and need a standard of living that allows them to live and raise their children in dignity and decency. Many are stuck in a poverty trap where they cycle between social assistance and low wage work. They turn to social assistance for a variety of reasons: unemployment or under-employment; separation from a spouse; and poor health or disability. In 2006 there were 279,304 Ontario children in families who relied on social assistance. Most of these children (78%) relied on the Ontario Works (OW) program. The vast majority (80%) were led by lone parents. And 90% of these lone-parent families were led by women.
At the same time, one child in five (19%) on social assistance are in families in receipt of the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). More than half (56%) of these families are led by single parents. Children make up 14% of all the beneficiaries of ODSP. A sizeable portion of Ontario's low income children rely on social assistance, yet they have been neglected and forgotten. As Figure 3 shows, levels of basic provincial income support have declined dramatically. Since 1994 for a lone parent with one child on social assistance, federal child and tax credit benefits increased by 68% in real dollars while provincial benefits declined by 43%, or a staggering $8,038 drop in income. As a result, unemployed and vulnerable families are now farther away from the low income cut-off. It is shameful that this occurred over a period of real growth in the economy.
The Ontario government should close the poverty gap for families and children who rely on social assistance. Ontario should immediately redress the reasons provincial social assistance benefits have deteriorated: the lack of inflation protection; the claw back of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS); and deep rate cuts of 21.6% in 1995.
Inflation Protection Between 1993 and 2004 inflation eroded the purchasing power of social assistance benefits by 22.3%. The current government promised in the 2003 election to implement annual cost of living increases to OW and ODSP. Benefits should be indexed to inflation on an annual basis permanently, just as is done with federal income benefits.
Ending the Clawback
Raising the Income Floor
Introduction The poll also showed 67% of Canadians believe the majority are not benefiting from the nation's hot streak of economic growth. This study confirms Canadians' perception is reality: Canada is performing better economically than it has in decades, but the income gap between the rich and the rest of Canadian families is growing at a faster rate than ever. The rewards of Canada's booming economy have been going disproportionately to a select few. What's more, this study finds the growing gap is not just a problem for "the poor", who are taking advantage of Canada's strong economy and working more hours than the generation that preceded it - only to find themselves stuck in poverty. This study finds the majority of Canadian families are falling behind compared to a generation ago. They are falling behind in the best of economic times, under conditions that would typically yield a reduced income gap: low unemployment rates, more Canadians working, and more Canadians putting in longer hours in the workplace... [Read more]
War on Poverty: The working poor
...there's no strategy to lessen the suffering of the 5 million Canadians living in poverty, more than 1 million of them
children. To reduce poverty to a mere memory for the 750,000 Canadians who rely on food banks, and for the 1 million working
poor in Ontario alone who must find a way to raise their families on wages of less than $10 an hour, as calculated by the
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). More articles from this source...
Hungry for Change Toronto, Ontario (6 December 2006) – The OAFB is at Queen's Park today to release Hungry for Change: A New Vision for Reducing Hunger and Poverty in Ontario. As a follow-up to last week's Ontario Hunger Report, the 182 page collection of three discussion papers offers an in-depth examination of those hardest hit by hunger – including Ontario's children, Ontarians with disabilities, and working Ontarians – and presents long-term solutions to reduce hunger and poverty for these Ontarians. "We know that hunger hits Ontario's children, Ontarians with disabilities, and working Ontarians the hardest," Adam Spence, Executive Director of the OAFB. "We need to bring a new perspective on poverty to the table that recognizes the spiraling costs of this growing social deficit. We need to change the hearts and minds of Ontarians so that they can see the impact that hunger and poverty have on the daily lives of thousands, and the long-term effect it has on our collective socioeconomic well-being." The new perspective must be accompanied with a new vision and long-term commitment by the provincial and federal governments to reduce hunger. "The long-term costs of poverty – including its impact on our health care system, lost taxation revenue, and decreased productivity – can be reduced with investment today," says Sandy Singers, Chair of the OAFB and Executive Director of the Partners in Mission Food Bank in Kingston. "We need a new vision with clear targets and solutions. It's simply an investment in Ontario's future." [Read more] Key Findings
A Betrayal of Ontario's Poorest Citizens The McGuinty Government's latest 2% increase - to take effect in September 2006 - will still leave the poorest Ontarians worse off at the end of the government's mandate, when inflation is taken into account, than they were when the government was elected in September 2003. [This chart] tells the story. The crisis of poverty in Ontario has been ignored. Despite the financial good news, there is nothing new for child care. Despite the financial good news, there is nothing new for affordable housing. And despite the financial good news, the government is still determined not to deliver on its campaign promise to eliminate the claw-back of federal child benefits from the lowest income Ontario families with children. The failure of the government to act in the Child Benefit claw-back speaks volumes. The budget devotes half a page - out of a total of 20 - to congratulating itself for passing through the Child Benefit increases since it took office, conveniently ignoring the fact that the claw-back instituted by the Harris and Eves governments which it campaigned against is still in place.
Here's how the fiscal sleight of hand works. The result is that the government gets to continue its gradual deficit reduction plan. And it gets to build a substantial spending program into this year's budget that doesn't use up any of this year's fiscal room. That extra room will be available next year, to pay for a repeat of this year's budget strategy, just in time to provide both election goodies and a budget balanced ahead of time. [...] [Read more]
Who is Hungry in Canada?
Welfare Recipients
Working Poor
Persons With Disabilities
Seniors
Children For anyone worried about violent crime in Toronto, it's worth looking at a United Way report called Poverty by Postal Code. One of the scariest statistics in the 2004 study reveals the gap between the people in Toronto with money and the people without. It's the widest gap in Canada. Put simply, for every $1 the poorest families in Toronto have to spend, the richest families have $27. Income differences that big are troubling in themselves, but when linked to violence, especially homicide, there is even greater cause for alarm. [...] [Read more] VANCOUVER -- One in four British Columbia children are living in poverty - the highest of any province - according to a report by an advocacy group that calls for governments across Canada to change the conditions of the country's poorest children. The report, by anti-poverty group Campaign 2000, paints B.C. as the worst offender in a country where the gap between rich and poor families is growing and where children of aboriginals and recent immigrants are hardest hit. [...] [Read more]
CANADA
It's important to recognize that this is not a problem that can be completely resolved. To keep the income security system affordable, needs-tested benefits like welfare have to be scaled back as recipients' incomes rise. But, the phase-out inevitably raises marginal effective tax rates – i.e., the share of each additional dollar of earned income that is lost to higher taxes and forgone transfer payments and services – limiting the gains that people realize from earning extra income. Still, while the trade-off can't be eliminated, better program design can mitigate some of its worst aspects. In August 2005, the McGuinty government set out to do just that, by introducing a new set of rules for Ontario Works. In the body of this paper, we look at the impact of those changes on a couple of hypothetical welfare recipients in the province, to see how well the new rules live up to their stated purpose of helping OW clients make a 'permanent and successful transition into the workforce'. On balance, we can't give the total package a high grade. But, it's fair to say that the new rules do largely accomplish what they set out to do – reduce barriers to work – and that most, though not all, of the problems that still afflict the program are directly related to deeper failings in the rest of Canada's income security system. [...] [Read more] [Read full report] [...] Between June 2002 and January 2005, a period of 32 months, 6,065 people on welfare died. (To put that in perspective, in 2003, the latest for which statistics are available, 443 people reportedly died in traffic accidents in the province.) For comparison, during that period, 37,404 people left welfare by Campbell's preferred route, because they obtained employment. Put another way, for roughly every six people on welfare who got a job, one died. [...] [Read more] OTTAWA - One in six Canadian children lives in poverty despite a booming economy and record federal budget surpluses, says a national watchdog committee that monitors government activity on the issue. According to 2002 figures cited by Campaign 2000 as it issued its national report card Wednesday, 15.6 per cent of Canadian children live in low-income families. That's 1,065,000 children in all. The group says this is the first time the child poverty rate has gone up since 1996. [...] [Read more] OTTAWA -- The level of child poverty is up slightly for the first time in six years despite a humming economy and federal coffers bursting with extra cash, says an anti-poverty group. A yearly report card to be released tomorrow by Campaign 2000 calls on Ottawa to pay down what it calls Canada's "social deficit." About a million children, more than 15 per cent of all Canadian kids, are growing up poor in a country that consistently posts budget surpluses, says the group, a coalition of 90 anti-poverty organizations across Canada. [...] [Read more] Canada's child poverty rate has increased for the first time since 1996, with nearly 16 per cent of children across the country now living below the poverty line, a new report says. [...] [...] Across Canada, 10 per cent of couples with children and more than 50 per cent of single mothers live an average of $9,000 below the poverty line, the report says. The situation is even worse in several provinces, led by British Columbia, where the average low-income couple lives $10,000 below the poverty line, and the average low-income single mother lives $10,400 below the poverty line. Manitoba and Ontario are also in worse shape than the national average. Poor jobs are largely to blame, the report says, noting that almost half the country's low-income children have parents who worked for the whole year in 2002, while a quarter had at least one parent working full time all year round. A strong economy has also done nothing to close the gap between rich and poor: The top 10 per cent richest Canadian families have average incomes more than 11 times higher than the poorest 10 per cent. [...] [Read more] |
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