Archive for the ‘Social Security’ Category
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Progress finally possible on social issues
Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
Why all the gloom then? … It is partly habit… It is partly a product of the time lag between statistics and reality… It is partly a legitimate wariness about promises made by politicians… And it is partly because it is easier — and safer — to lament the lack of progress than highlight incipient opportunities… But there is price to pay for accentuating the negative. It reinforces the belief that poverty is immutable.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ed Broadbent reflects on the child-poverty pledge of 1989
Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
Broadbent was encouraged by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, which had spent years helping to craft the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the General Assembly only one week prior to Canada’s historic vote. But what he hadn’t counted on was the way the North America Free Trade Agreement would usher in a decade of deregulation and cost-cutting… Twenty-five years on, Broadbent is encouraged by the way inequality has again resurfaced in political discourse… democracies have to deal with this issue,” he said.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security History | No Comments »
Child poverty a better target for family relief
Saturday, November 8th, 2014
Let’s imagine you’re a prime minister with $4.6 billion to spend. Do you: Eliminate child poverty? Or, Give upper middle-class parents a 1 per cent increase in income? … the total package of measures will give the average family with an income under $60,000 an additional $970 per year, while families with incomes over $180,000 per year will get, on average, an additional $1,452… People without children younger than 18 get nothing… what else could we do with $4.6 billion per year aimed at helping children? Could we eliminate child poverty? I think we could come close.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax, women
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s food banks are booming, to our shame
Saturday, November 8th, 2014
The short story from this report on hunger is this: if there’s room in the Harper government’s budget to lose $27 billion in revenues for income-splitting and family tax cuts, there’s room for measures to make sure that everyone in this country is properly fed.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax, women
Posted in Social Security Debates | 2 Comments »
Welfare in Canada 2013
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
In 2013, welfare incomes for single employable households ranged from 36.1 percent of the after-tax poverty line in Manitoba to a ‘high’ of 65.0 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of the other jurisdictions cluster around the lower rate… Welfare incomes for single persons with disabilities, while low, were slightly higher, ranging from 49.3 percent of the poverty line in Manitoba to 70.5 percent in Ontario… Welfare incomes for the four illustrative households typically ranged between 20 and 40 percent of after-tax average incomes.
Tags: disabilities, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Canada dodged recession, so why are so many children in poverty?
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014
Canada’s relative ranking in child poverty still only puts us 20th out of the world’s 41 wealthiest countries. This isn’t good enough for a country like ours – and one of the key reasons is ongoing inequity… It’s time for a coordinated child well-being strategy at all levels of government in Canada. If we can use a “child-impact lens” to look at fiscal and policy decisions from the outset, we can ensure the well-being of our children isn’t forgotten as policies are made.
Tags: budget, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Refugee access to social assistance would be limited under budget bill
Saturday, October 25th, 2014
Buried in the Harper government’s latest omnibus budget bill is legislation that could restrict the ability of refugee claimants to access social assistance… It proposes to amend the legislation governing federal transfer payments to provinces for social programs… The budget implementation bill would lift the prohibition on minimum residency, which was intended to ensure a national standard for supporting refugee claimants in need.
Tags: budget, ideology, immigration, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Who’s Hungry Report Shows Rise in Food Bank Usage
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014
Daily Bread Food Bank released their report on trends… [with] some startling statistics, including finding that from April 2013 to March 2014 there were 1,040,400 food bank visits across the GTA. This is the sixth year in a row that those numbers have surpassed one million… despite these startling numbers, Canada still has no federal anti-poverty plan. This means that there is NO plan for how we will address the causes of hunger in Canada.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 3 Comments »
More spin than substance in poverty reduction plan
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
Anti-poverty advocates have learned to welcome crumbs from the Ontario Liberals. That is what they got in the five-year poverty reduction strategy unveiled by Deputy Premier Deb Matthews last week. The 56-page blueprint consisted of recycled promises, long-term goals, soothing language and self-congratulations (despite the fact she fell far short of her last five-year target.)
Tags: budget, homelessness, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Toronto must stop rise in child poverty
Wednesday, August 27th, 2014
After gradually declining to 27 per cent in 2010 from a high of 32 per cent in 2004, the city’s child poverty rate has increased once again… As the [Conference] board [of Canada] said… “Not only is it socially reprehensible; it also risks being a drag on the economy for years to come.” … there are almost 149,000 children in Toronto whose families are living on less than half the median household income (after taxes). They don’t need more statistics. They need action.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, poverty, tax, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | 4 Comments »
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