Social Policy in Ontario

Kids short-changed

Posted on October 25, 2017 in Debates

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TheGlobeandMail.com – Opinion/Letters – Re: Fiscal Update Prioritizes Policy Over Deficit, Oct. 24
Oct. 25, 2017.   Sid Frankel

So, Royal Bank of Canada economist Josh Nye and Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter would prefer smaller deficits (Fiscal Update Prioritizes Policy Over Deficit, Oct. 24). But smaller deficits would come at the expense of enhancements to programs such as the Canada child benefit, which are crucial for reducing child poverty and improving economic growth.

Did they not notice that the 2016 census demonstrated that a shocking 17 per cent of Canadian children live in poverty?

Do they not understand that, as Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz said in his 2015 book Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity, child poverty is a strong drag on economic growth and that child benefits are necessary to decrease child poverty and economic growth? How far away is Bay Street from the real world that Canadians experience?

Sid Frankel, associate professor, faculty of social work, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living

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