Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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NDP urges extended sick benefits
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
June 8, 2010
The federal NDP wants the Conservative government to extend EI benefits to people suffering from chronic or long-term illnesses such as cancer. People already get 15 weeks of EI sick benefits but NDP MP Fin Donnelly says that needs to be extended to 52 weeks and is introducing a private member’s bill to compel the federal government to act… Donnelly said the chronically ill slip into poverty when they fall ill because they can’t afford their bills or mortgages when their EI runs out.
Tags: Health, standard of living
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How a bill of rights could challenge policy [UK]
Monday, June 7th, 2010
07 Jun 2010
It is widely recognised now that poverty is about much more than low income – it reflects poor health and education, deprivation in knowledge and communication, and the inability to exercise political rights. Conversely, socioeconomic or “anti-poverty” rights – the right to health, housing or food – are increasingly recognised as a tool for empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty… There is little point addressing one without the other. But it takes a brave politician to admit it.
Tags: poverty, rights, standard of living
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Ottawa must lead poverty fight: MP
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
June 5, 2010
Martin said he will present a bill in the House in the coming weeks. It will empower the government to take a leadership role to help reduce poverty in Canada. The federal government’s role has diminished since the mid-1990s when it eliminated the Canada Assistance Plan, Martin said. “It has been reduced to only transferring dollars to the province over the years and those amounts have declined,” he said.
Tags: poverty, standard of living
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Charter challenge aims to force governments to create public housing
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
May. 26, 2010
… a recent study conducted for the Senate found that, over a 10-year period, the homeless could be housed for half of what it will cost to treat the medical and social problems caused by homelessness. The documents supporting the challenge also include an affidavit from Miloon Kothari, an Indian housing expert who served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing from 2000-2008. “The most striking feature of my mission to Canada was the contrast between the abundance of resources available and the dire living conditions facing the most vulnerable in society,” Mr. Kothari said.
Tags: housing, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario modernizes not-for-profit groups
Friday, May 14th, 2010
May 12 2010
“We have to make sure there’s some accountability and transparency”… by setting up a more stringent legal framework groups must follow, such as better access to financial records, setting out responsibilities for boards of directors and giving group members more remedies to go after boards not seen as acting in a group’s best interests… The bill would also make it easier for not-for-profit groups to incorporate, better protect directors and executives from personal liability and allow groups to engage in commercial activities, providing the revenues are reinvested in their not-for-profit activities.
Tags: featured, participation, standard of living
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Flaherty right to worry about burden on young workers [pensions]
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
May 10 2010
Jim Flaherty has stated the first principle for any national initiative to help Canadians increase their retirement income should be: Do no harm… “I think we have to be conscious that we don’t put a burden onto (young workers) that benefits those of us who are older. That’s important. “I want (younger workers) to have confidence in the system. I also want the system to be there for them when they’re older.”
Tags: pensions, standard of living
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Beware ‘pensioncare’
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
May 08, 2010
The main argument at work here is the belief that large institutions such as the CPP Investment Board and major state agencies such as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan can investment money more efficiently and at lower costs than a private mutual fund or other market-driven investment firm. Individual Canadians are apparently too dumb to manage their own money in a market setting, and it is the role of the state to intervene to save investors from themselves.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
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Weakened by recession, charities face uncertain future
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
May. 06, 2010
A recent survey of 1,500 charities by Imagine Canada, a national umbrella body, found that 22 per cent said they were at risk because of the economic downturn. Just under half said they were having difficulty fulfilling their missions… Individual donations dried up as donors cut back, foundations slashed grants as their endowment funds shrank, and governments pulled funding to cope with rising deficits.
Tags: participation, poverty, standard of living
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Restraint hits poor the hardest
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
May 04 2010
Despite a softer, more kindly demeanour, McGuinty has simply fine-tuned the cutback strategy, leaving today’s poor actually worse off than they were in the dark days of Harris… The government insists the poor were taking advantage of the special diet program… Of course, it’s not surprising that the poor turned out to be hungrier than anticipated, since, after inflation, welfare benefits today only have 55 per cent of the buying power they had in 1993.
Tags: standard of living
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Focus on Food & Income
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
April 20, 2010
Several events on April 13, 14 and 15 in Toronto focused attention on the issue of the inadequate access of people on social assistance to healthy food. Ten local celebrities reported on the results of their attempts to live on one week’s supply of food bank provisions. None could make the food hamper they were given last through the week and several used community dining services provided by churches and charities to make it through the week.
Tags: Health, poverty, standard of living
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