Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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We can’t afford poverty
Sunday, July 11th, 2010
July 9, 2010
My bill calls on all future governments and Parliaments to make eliminating poverty their goal. The law would be anchored on Canada’s international human rights commitments and hold the government to account for its action or inaction. I know it’s the right thing to do and I believe it’s also smart economics. With 3.4 million people poor, Canada leaves one of every 10 persons out of productivity. The bill for poverty is about $90 billion each year. A job may be part of the solution but, with an estimated 750,000 working and still poor, Canada also needs a bold strategy.
Tags: poverty
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Farmers’ market vouchers help poor eat farm fresh
Friday, July 9th, 2010
Jul 07 2010
The market vouchers offer a perfect solution. “It gives people a chance to buy things they’d like to buy, rather than what they are forced to take,” says Julia Graham, community health worker… That might help with the Ontario health ministry’s conundrum on how to reform the special diet allowance. People who eat fruit and vegetables tend to be healthier than people who eat tuna three times a week… That way we’d be investing in health and local farming and people wouldn’t be hungry.
Tags: standard of living
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Lone-parent poverty: Canadian social policy can still do better
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
July 6, 2010
Canada’s poverty rate in the mid-2000s was 12.5 per cent, two points above the midpoint among OECD countries. Unfortunately, further reductions in Canadian poverty are likely to be more complex than welfare-to-work programming. In many provinces, most welfare recipients are no longer “employables”; they are “persons with disabilities.” A high-profile category is the urban homeless, most of whom combine some form of mental illness with abuse of drugs or alcohol. Here, effective policy requires provision of housing and expensive services. The long-term goal of social policy is to reduce the numbers in at-risk groups.
Tags: economy, participation, poverty, women
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Welfare Must Change!
Monday, July 5th, 2010
July 5, 2010
While ISARC supports the federal and provincial governments creating an income security system for people caught in unemployment or recession, ISARC asks the Ontario government to work as quickly as possible to eliminate the “stupid rules” in the welfare system, increase income of recipients, and appoint the commissioners and the social assistance advisory committee to conduct the Social Assistance Review. To do a thorough job, 18 months might be necessary, but people with low income should not suffer further because transformation takes a long time.
Tags: poverty, standard of living
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WSIB fixes troubled injured worker re-training program
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Jul 02 2010
A wasteful $150 million worker retraining program has been scrapped and replaced by a streamlined system provincial officials say will protect vulnerable workers and save money. A Toronto Star investigation in early 2009 showed the costly provincial Labour Market Re-Entry program, which had been outsourced to the private sector, failed to lead nearly half of its participants to jobs. The Star found injured workers were being sent to for-profit schools charging high tuitions so they could prepare for menial jobs as cashiers and attendants.
Tags: budget, standard of living
Posted in Debates, Social Security Debates | 6 Comments »
Did ‘tough love’ cut poverty rate?
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Jun 30 2010
Richards claimed the dramatic drop in the poverty rate among single-parent families over the past decade proves that the “tough love” policies imposed on welfare recipients by the governments of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia in the mid-1990s worked… Yalnizyan countered that the three principal causes of the drop in the lone-parent poverty rate were strong economic growth, the introduction of the National Child Benefit and a buoyant labour market. “When there are jobs, people take them.”
Tags: ideology, poverty
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Welfare programs working
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
June 28, 2010
Focus, a six-week program created in 2004 by Sarnia-Lambton’s Ontario Works office and recognized by the province as a “best practice,” is being adopted by other communities… Some 181 people have graduated from Focus so far, and after two years 68% have left social assistance for jobs, school, training or other reasons… “We’re tying to provide all the human services we can to help move people to the goals they have in being able to be self-sufficient,” Dalziel said. “We want to do all we can to help the whole situation and not just hand out a monthly cheque.”
Tags: participation, poverty
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One-parent family poverty drops by half
Monday, June 28th, 2010
June 24, 2010
A decade and a half of welfare-to-work policies — some offering carrots and some dependent on big sticks — have dramatically reduced poverty among single-parent families in Canada. The percentage of single families who live in what’s considered to be poverty is down to less than half of what it was, says a new study by SFU public policy professor John Richards. But what’s been accomplished so far is the easy part, Richards cautions. Dealing now with those one-parent families who remain poor will be tougher.
Tags: participation, standard of living
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A province where everyone can live in dignity
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Jun 23 2010
The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council clearly exceeded its mandate. It gave the minister a long-term plan to make Ontario a province where disadvantaged citizens can live in dignity and lift themselves out of poverty… Judging from Meilleur’s initial response to the panel’s report, Ontarians can expect more procrastination and dithering… “These are complex issues that require careful consideration,” Meilleur added. She’s been saying that since 2008. It has become evident that what’s missing is the will, not the means, to proceed.
Tags: featured, participation, poverty, standard of living
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NDP pushes anti-poverty plan
Friday, June 18th, 2010
June 16, 2010
The bill would establish a poverty elimination commissioner to hold the government accountable, Martin said. “There will be benchmarks, there will be significant accountability measures in there, reporting back to Parliament and to the people of Canada in it,” he said. Poverty costs the Canadian economy $90 billion a year, which makes it a prosperity issue, said Rob Rainer, executive director of Canada Without Poverty.
Tags: poverty, standard of living
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