Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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Learning the price of dignity and also the need to dream big
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Apr 09 2010
… my taxes showed that I had made $6,000 from Confederation College and only $2,000 from ODSP. But had I laid in bed all year (as I had the year before when I was too ill to work), I would have made $10,000 from ODSP. Why should people work when they can earn an extra $2,000 just lying in bed? For myself, I loved working, and some things are more valuable than money, like pride and dignity, but it makes no sense to punish those who want to be out there striving.
Tags: disabilities, poverty, standard of living
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Reality of living on social assistance
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Apr 06 2010
…the recent budget is a stark reminder that you can’t eat nice words. Yes, they have moved on increasing the minimum wage. But when it comes to people on social assistance this government has, in real terms, done nothing to reverse the Harris cuts… it’s not just those on social assistance who are affected. Poverty affects us all through lost productivity, unsafe neighbourhoods, ballooning health-care costs, unrealized potential and a shortage of skilled workers. With this latest attack on the poor, the Liberals are stealing from our future.
Tags: poverty
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Poverty stalks the nation’s big cities
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Apr 07 2010
Mending Canada’s Frayed Social Safety Net is the sixth in the federation’s quality of life series… In its 2010 report, the proportion of low-income families in the big cities stood at 13.5 per cent, compared to 9.1 per cent in the smaller communities… It’s not hard to identify the reasons.
What is most troubling about this retrogression – which affects 18 million Canadians – is that no one is talking about it at any level of government.
Tags: poverty, standard of living
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A poor excuse for a food allowance
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Apr 01 2010
“If the government is going to provide support for people who are not able to earn a living,” McKeown says, “they should provide support at a level that will allow for dignity and decent health.” Starting April 5, he plans to participate in the Do the Math campaign, along with Torontonians such as author Naomi Klein, councillor Joe Mihevc and singer Damian Abraham. “I think this experience will help me understand this on a personal level and make me a more effective advocate,” McKeown says.
Tags: poverty
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Ontario scraps special-diet allowance
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010
The cost of the special allowance ballooned from $6 million a year in 2002 to $250 million last year, and could swell to $750 million if something isn’t done, Premier Dalton McGuinty said. “We have a responsibility not only to those individuals who are in need of special nutritional support, we also have accountability to taxpayers to make sure this is run as efficiently and effectively as we can.”
Tags: poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | 3 Comments »
Guaranteed annual income worth pondering
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Mar 31 2010
In March 2009, 374,000 Ontarians visited a food bank. Too many Ontarians are forced to be dependant on such emergency programs, which where meant to be temporary. This shows the erosion of Canada’s social safety net. What kind of nation denies its most vulnerable citizens access to the healthy foods they need in order to be well again? It is time for a change.
Tags: featured, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
A way to reduce poverty and health costs
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Mar 28 2010
This government could meet both its goals of reducing poverty and reigning in health-care costs in one go: by increasing the incomes of people living in the most extreme poverty. Poverty is the most powerful determinant of health, and where poverty is reduced, health costs will be reduced as well. Under this government, money is being “saved” by increasing the depth of poverty experienced by the poorest Ontarians, which will worsen their health. This is not a sound economic choice, it is a sad moral one.
Tags: Health, poverty
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Poverty missing in budget plans
Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Mar 27 2010
While the government says it remains committed to reducing poverty, Thursday’s budget does little to move us toward that goal. In fact, there are some backward steps in the budget. For example, the government is cancelling a program that currently provides one in five social assistance recipients with extra funds to buy healthy food; it is raising welfare rates by just 1 per cent, less than projected inflation; and it fails to begin overhauling our rules-bound welfare system, which does a better job of keeping people down than lifting them up.
Tags: budget, poverty
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2010 Budget Holds Only Threat For Ontario’s Most Vulnerable
Friday, March 26th, 2010
March 25, 2010
“…the Government’s claim that it is increasing rates by 1% and has already increased rates by 11% since 2003 is a charade… these 1-2% increases are cost of living adjustments, made to protect the purchasing power of the existing rates. They are not real rate increases. So, actually for people on social assistance in this province, Premier McGuinty’s Government has done absolutely nothing to begin to reverse the 22% rate cuts instituted by Mr. Harris in 1995.”
Tags: featured, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
CANADA´S SOCIAL SAFETY NET IS FRAYING, CITIES STRAIN TO FILL THE GAPS SAYS NEW REPORT FROM FCM
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
March 24, 2010
The report looks at the changing face of poverty and the growing reliance on municipal social services for many vulnerable groups in the 24 urban communities that make up FCM´s Quality of Life Reporting System. According to the report, cities are doing what they can to fill the gaps created by federal and provincial program cuts but their limited resources have meant difficult trade-offs.
Tags: poverty
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