Realizing the right to an adequate standard of living
Posted on September 4, 2023 in Social Security Debates
Source: Maytree.com — Authors: Maytree
Maytree.com
August 8, 2023. Maytree
Everyone in Canada has a right to an adequate standard of living. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights – which Canada ratified in 1976 – defines this as having adequate food, clothing, and housing, and the continuous improvement of living conditions.
Maytree’s submission to the 2024 budget calls on the federal government to help people realize this right by strengthening income supports, investing in more affordable housing, and embedding human rights into social policies and programs.
Maytree’s recommendations
Strengthen income supports
- Recommendation 1: Transformation of the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) for unattached working-age adults into a Canada Working-Age Supplement (CWAS), as proposed by Maytree and Community Food Centres Canada.
- Recommendation 2: Design a Canada Disability Benefit that brings people above the Official Poverty Line, is accessible to a broad range of people with disabilities, and is delivered in a way that is transparent, timely, and people-centred.
- Recommendation 3: Provide an interim support to people with disabilities through an existing federal program, such as the Canada Workers Benefit disability supplement.
- Recommendation 4: Create a forgiveness policy grounded in rights-based principles for people with low incomes who are paying back Canada Emergency Response Benefits/Canada Recovery Benefits.
Invest in affordable housing
- Recommendation 5: Enhance the Canada Housing Benefit. continue the $500 one-time payment to low-income renters.
- Recommendation 6: Establish a fund for non-profit and public housing providers to acquire multi-family rental housing for people in core housing need.
- Recommendation 7: Make the Rapid Housing Initiative a permanent program.
Improve accountability on human rights
- Recommendation 8: Align the goals, eligibility requirements, and targets of the National Housing Strategy with the principles of the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019.
- Recommendation 9: Strengthen the conditions for social transfers to other governments to create more complementary human rights-based policies and programs.
- Recommendation 10: Improve the collection and dissemination of information on the demographics and income sources of people with lower incomes. Use this information to inform the federal Poverty Reduction Strategy.
https://maytree.com/publications/realizing-the-right-to-an-adequate-standard-of-living/?mc_cid=e859f8fca9&mc_eid=de33f0d3f7
Tags: disabilities, housing, poverty, rights, standard of living
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