Archive for the ‘Inclusion’ Category
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Harper throws National Council of Welfare on the scrap heap
Apr 12 2012
Since 1962, the National Council of Welfare had held up a mirror to the nation, highlighting the pockets of poverty and warning policy-makers of the consequences of neglecting those in need. It gave non-profit groups the facts they needed to speak credibly about hardship in a land of plenty. It tracked the emergence and growth of a crack in society between the comfortably well-off and the struggling. And it brought together social policy thinkers to find solutions to poverty… Now it’s gone.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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“A Tale of Two Reports” [Poverty in Ontario]
March 12, 2012
Poverty does not just happen. There are things that we do in society that create poverty and inequality. And there are things we can do to reduce poverty and inequality. Therefore, to respect the letter and the spirit of Ontario’s landmark poverty reduction act, passed with unanimous support from all parties in the legislature, we call for these changes to the 2012 Ontario Budget: raise social assistance rates to at least cover the rise in the cost of living; immediately implement the full Ontario Child Benefit; – do not make structural changes to social assistance programs before hearing the recommendations from the Social Assistance Review Commissioners.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, poverty, standard of living, tax
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For those with intellectual disabilities, a decades-long wait for a home and care
Apr. 10, 2012
… the quest to find a home and services starts early and can last decades – something that becomes more pressing as parents age and their ability to physically and financially support their adult children fades… The housing crisis follows the closure over the years of institutions that cared for them from cradle to grave… That has left parents across the country caring for their aging intellectually disabled children with the daunting realities of trying to cobble together housing and care-giving, not to mention an enormous price tag that is only partly offset by government… 73 per cent of working-age adults with an intellectual disability who live on their own live in poverty.
Tags: disabilities, housing, poverty, standard of living
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Broadbent poll uncovers public desire to close inequality gap
Apr 09 2012
The biggest worry among Canadians is that it will lead to declining living standards, followed by concern about increased crime, and the erosion of public health care and other public services. The majority of Canadians are also worried that income inequality leads to fewer opportunities for young Canadians to do as well or better than their parents… Perhaps most alarming in the long run is that a majority believe that the growing gap can erode the quality of our democracy. No matter where you live or how much you make, our public opinion research shows that the growing gap is viewed as decidedly un-Canadian.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Canadians open to tax hikes to create more equal society, poll finds
Apr. 10, 2012
… talk of raising taxes has been considered political suicide for more than a decade. But the survey commissioned by the Broadbent Institute suggests that most Canadians would not be opposed to paying a little more to preserve social programs and prevent the poor from falling even further behind… More than three-quarters of the respondents (77 per cent) said they viewed the gap between the very rich and the rest of Canadians to be a serious problem with long-term negative consequences for society… a clear majority of Conservative voters (59 per cent) also felt that way.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Picking prisons ahead of citizenship
April 5, 2012
Despite the fact that Katimavik is a highly valuable program that more than pays for itself, the government has shut it down for what can only be ideological reasons. Katimavik is the country’s oldest and largest youth engagement program, open to all Canadians aged 17-21…. The federal budget states that Katimavik is being cut because it serves, “a very small number of participants at an excessive per-person cost.” (page 218). A 2006 report called Social and Economic Impact Study of the Katimavik Program, however, demonstrated that Katimavik actually generates excess value in the communities where it operates… Most of this value is invested in rural and remote communities.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
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Why the federal government picked a fight with charities
April 3, 2012
Stephen Harper’s majority government has issued a stern warning to charities to quit doing advocacy, and behave more like charities, in the most paternalistic sense of that term. If you represent a charity committed to eradicating poverty, do you need to stop advocating for poor people? Any government with a keen sense of the ephemeral nature of its own political future should pay close attention to what groups have to say, even if they abhor those views. Sadly, this government has demonstrated, time and again, its utter contempt for the views of groups that disagree with them, even groups that can back up their advocacy with evidence.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
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Ottawa axes National Council on Welfare
Mar 30 2012
The council’s annual report on welfare incomes in Canada is the only comprehensive analysis of social assistance across the country and how it interacts with federal benefits… The council has also produced authoritative reports on child care, child benefits and low incomes in Canada. Its latest report, “The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty,” released in August, showed that it would cost $12.6 billion to give some 3.5 million poor Canadians enough money to live above the poverty line. However, the economic and social consequences of poverty cost Canadians twice as much, the report found… “Without the information, no one will be able to report on how many people this Conservative government is leaving behind,”
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario budget is a requiem for a caring province
Mar 27 2012
Most Ontarians accept the need for belt-tightening. What they don’t accept — at least not yet — is that this province can no longer afford to support the vulnerable. That is the premise on which Tuesday’s budget… is built… It is the small items – cutbacks imposed on those eking out a precarious existence – that raise questions about McGuinty’s values. Although the premier enacted a poverty reduction plan in 2009, he has now effectively renounced it.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Do Canadians need more direct democracy?
March 6, 2012
… voting is a critical component of any functioning democracy, but it is certainly not the only one. Equally important is the presence of political discourse, public debate and consultation, and accommodating citizen demands. The problem with this, though, is that so few opportunities exist for ordinary citizens to participate directly in the political process – especially when it comes to actually influencing or shaping public policy and political decisions.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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