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Frantic parents search for housing for severely autistic son
Monday, September 24th, 2012
September 22, 2012
[Despite] an additional $25 million for residential services for people in urgent need… the need has likely far exceeded the funds… “This is a provincial, system-wide problem and it is bad in all regions”… waiting lists for residential care are growing daily and many people are falling through the cracks. “Some end up in hospital, long-term care and prisons”…
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, homelessness, mental Health, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario dead last in terms of inequality, poverty and funding for public services
Saturday, September 1st, 2012
August 29, 2012
… according to Ontario’s finance ministry and 2012 budget, the province spends less than any other province on public programs and services. Provincial budget advisor Don Drummond said this is a sign of fiscal prudence and good management. But… Ontarians are paying for this through reduced services and the highest user fees in the country. Last spring’s cuts to social assistance, school closures, cancelled hospital projects, delayed child benefits, eroded social housing budgets and public sector restructuring that will result in “thousands” of lost jobs, will only make matters worse…
Tags: budget, economy, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | 8 Comments »
Ontario’s Trillium Benefit: A new way to help the poor
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
July 12, 2012
About 3.5 million low- and moderate-income Ontarians this week are receiving their first Trillium Benefit, a provincial initiative that combines three quarterly tax credits into a new monthly payment… Designed to help households better manage their monthly expenses by providing the money earlier and more frequently than before, the benefit, worth about $2.4 billion annually, is the first outside Quebec to be paid monthly through the tax system to all low- and moderate-income people. Quebec’s monthly “Solidarity Tax Credit” was also introduced this month.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Tackling the income gap in Canadian cities
Monday, July 9th, 2012
July 08, 2012
Toronto’s middle-class suburbs of the 1970s have turned into “urban deserts” of growing poverty while the city centre has become an enclave for the ultra rich… the middle class is shrinking… This type of large-scale data analysis combined with local, participatory research has never been done on a national scale… The goal is to create “a more inclusive society in which youth have hope for the future, newcomers are welcomed, the elderly have support in their communities…
Tags: economy, housing, multiculturalism, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
… Destitution Day
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 06 2012
The D is for destitution, and it is the date a single person on welfare would run out of money if he or she were living at the poverty line, according to Social Planning Toronto… Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off, after taxes, for a single person living in a large city like Toronto is about $19,800. “We have dubbed June 7 Destitution Day to highlight the severity of poverty in Toronto and the inadequacy of government benefits in light of the upcoming provincial social assistance review”… “What is striking is that even in the most affluent wards of the city there are still substantial numbers of people living in poverty,” he said. “In every ward there is a good-sized small town living in poverty.”
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s Youth Leaving Care hearings call for fundamental change to child welfare system
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
May 14 2012
The goal is to make Ontario a better parent to roughly 8,300 children and youth in its care and make their transition to adulthood more secure. The report being released Monday at Queen’s Park, says the government should act immediately to raise the age of financial and emotional support from 21 to 25; allow youth to stay in foster care beyond age 18; and declare a “Youth in Care Day” to raise awareness and reduce stigma.
Tags: rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Welfare rate freeze really a cut, activists say
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Mar 27 2012
“What was the point of all of those meetings and consultations on a poverty reduction strategy anyway?” she said Tuesday, referring to the province’s 2008 plan to cut child poverty by 25 per cent in five years… With the latest Consumer Price Index pegged at 2.9 per cent over last year, the freeze is, in fact, a cut, anti-poverty activists say… (especially given) the budget’s plan next January to eliminate two benefits that help people on welfare with urgent housing-related expenses once every 24 months… In addition, the budget is also capping health-related discretionary benefits for adults on Ontario Works, which pays for things like funerals, glasses and emergency dental care.
Tags: budget, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa axes National Council on Welfare
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
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
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario food bank use… on the rise again
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Mar 19 2012
Among the reasons for the current increase are recent plant closures in southern Ontario and native people leaving troubled reserves in the north… While the national unemployment rate in 2011 was the lowest since 2008, food bank use persists because many laid-off workers are taking lower-paying jobs and having trouble making ends meet… Ten per cent of food bank users in 2011 had never sought emergency assistance before… Single adults remain the largest percentage of users, at 39 per cent, followed closely by children younger than 18. They are among almost one in 33 Ontarians who go hungry each month
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Sweet spot for low-wage earners: after-tax salaries of $30,000 or more a year
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb 10 2012
… low-wage workers experience the biggest jump in financial well-being, personal skills and connections to family and community when their after-tax incomes rise to between $30,000 and $40,000. “This is when a single wage earner moves from merely existing to living,” says Peter Frampton, executive director of the Learning Enrichment Foundation, which is conducting the research in partnership with the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)… “We think this shows in very real terms what a person needs to earn to feel a sense of financial and personal well-being,”
Tags: budget, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 2 Comments »
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