Native patience runs thin four years after residential-school apology
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Jun. 11 2012
… patience with discussions about poverty, housing, resource-sharing and education is wearing thin among first nations… the federal government is fighting in court to quash demands from first-norganizations to fund aboriginal child welfare at the same level as provincial governments. On education, demands that first-nations schooling be funded at the same level as provincial schools have been met with process – a task force… and promises for legislation down the road.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Finley defends pension reform but does not address poverty concerns
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Feb. 21, 2012
The federal government is stepping up its rhetoric to justify plans to cut public pension benefits, but remains silent on how it will address seniors’ poverty… Government officials have made it clear that when cabinet ministers talk about reforming old age security, they are lumping in the guaranteed income supplement with the basic benefit that delivers about $500 a month to 98 per cent of Canadians over 65… Unless Ottawa takes steps to separate the top-up from the basic old age security benefit, poor seniors would stay on provincial welfare rolls for an extra two years.
Tags: ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Poverty report shows single men faring less well than single moms
Monday, June 20th, 2011
June 15, 2011
A new national study by Statistics Canada shows poverty is still much higher among single mothers than among the general public. But with one in five single moms living in poverty, they have seen a steady improvement for the last 15 years — even during the recession. The same study… found that almost a third of single men are living in poverty. Single men have long wrestled with a poverty problem, and 2009 was no different. The percentage living with low incomes was 30.1, up from 27.9 per cent in 2008.
Tags: poverty, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Poverty handbook offers practical policy suggestions
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
May 13, 2011
Some of the country’s foremost thinkers on social policy have put together a handbook of ready-to-use options for decision-makers seeking to help the most vulnerable… “The approach is very practical, pragmatic and policy-ready,” said Alan Broadbent, chairman of the Toronto-based Maytree Foundation that spearheaded the report… The report recommends making tax credits refundable so that the poor can benefit. It also calls for better protections for seasonal and temporary workers, improvements to employment insurance and income support for caregivers…
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Harper government won’t act on anti-poverty plan
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Mar 07 2011
The federal government has no plans to act on an exhaustive House of Commons plan to fight poverty. The Commons human resources committee took three years to assemble 58 recommendations that would have given Ottawa a key role in efforts to help the poor. The report called for a new federal transfer payment to complement provincial anti-poverty programs. It also pushed for a national housing strategy.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Rich getting richer while middle class stagnates: StatsCan
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Dec. 1, 2010
The inequality gap of the ‘20s and early ‘30s eventually collapsed and then switched direction with the Second World War, narrowing and steadily declining until about 1982. Since then, the super-rich have gradually claimed larger and larger pieces of the total income pie… The higher up the income scale, the more dramatic the gains. For the richest one per cent, the share of all Canadian incomes almost doubled between the late 1970s and 2007. For the richest 0.1 per cent of tax files, their total share almost tripled…
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Young men the face of poverty in post-recession Canada: study
Thursday, November 25th, 2010
23/11/2010
…the recession has revealed two key trends. The good news… is that federal and provincial programs for families have helped single mothers deal with poverty. They have better access to child support than in the past, as well as new child benefits… As a result, the number of single mothers relying on welfare has actually fallen… The opposite is true for young, single men. In Ontario, the number in this group on welfare has risen 61 per cent in nine years, to 148,000 from 92,000… “Single, young men are the new face of poverty in Canadian cities”
Tags: poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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