Archive for the ‘Social Security Policy Context’ Category
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Alberta mayors stick back guaranteed minimum income
Friday, June 5th, 2015
Currently, low-income Canadians get assistance from a host of programs and agencies managed across levels of government, such as minimum wage, community housing, child benefits and Ontario Works.
But what if governments got rid of all these programs? What if the poor were just promised a basic income? … findings show that while a guaranteed minimum income can be costly for governments, it can also lead to savings down the line.
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Canada needs 21st century social programs
Wednesday, May 20th, 2015
… the Caledon Institute, the Mowat Centre, the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity and the Institute for Research on Public Policy has been drafting a comprehensive plan to replace Canada’s fraying, outdated safety nets with fresh, effective ones. The framework is now complete and three of the pillars — support for caregivers, access to affordable housing and employment skills training — are in place… Eight more components will be released by the end of June.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Reframe Canada’s social safety net as its social architecture so we can rebuild it before it crumbles: report
Wednesday, May 13th, 2015
A demographic storm has ripped through social architecture: in 1980, there were 14 seniors for every 100 workers, in 2013 there were 22 for every hundred. By 2056, the report says there could be 50 seniors for every 100 workers. Add in a debt-hobbled, over-educated generation in precarious work, fewer and fewer defined retirement benefits and more new Canadians… if we don’t fix the broken windows and leaky roofs now, he said “we’re likely to see increasing poverty and inequality, we could see a less productive economy
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Could Alberta implement a living wage?
Wednesday, May 13th, 2015
Premier-designate Rachel Notley has pledged to raise her province’s wage floor to $15 an hour during her first mandate. That would catapult Alberta from the bottom of the national rankings at $10.20 an hour to the top, surpassing the current leader, Ontario at $11 an hour, by a wide margin… “It is simply unacceptable that in a province as prosperous as ours that hard-working Albertans cannot make ends meet,”
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living, tax
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The 2015 Deficit-of-Ideas Budget
Monday, April 27th, 2015
Budget 2015 is a wide-ranging document with a few good ideas, but not much for key social policy measures such as child benefits, which took the wrong route. Income splitting, enhancement of the Universal Child Care Benefit and boosting the Child Care Expense Deduction will be a waste of money. They represent a substantial bleeding of scarce funds that could be spent on the real challenges facing Canada, especially poverty and inequality.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Next PEI Premier to Promote BIG!
Saturday, April 25th, 2015
It is welcome news that the next Premier of Prince Edward Island is committed to exploring a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) program for Island citizens. It is understood that this will be in the form of a demonstration project of at least five-to-seven years. During the Leaders’ Forum on Women’s Issues held April 14, 2015, at Holland College, each one of the party leaders endorsed a Basic Income Guarantee program as a poverty reduction strategy.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Welfare recipients treated like guinea pigs
Wednesday, April 1st, 2015
… a new Employment-Related Benefit for people with disabilities… has been postponed to Oct. 1 to the vast relief of the intended beneficiaries. They didn’t ask for — and don’t want — an overhaul of the Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP)… The government’s assumption is that ODSP recipients need hand-holding to get into the labour market. Self-starters who have already found a job with an employer willing to accommodate their disabilities lose $100 a month.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Reforming Retirement (5): Don’t cut OAS. Cut the need for it
Friday, March 13th, 2015
The federal government’s long-term plan to address rising OAS costs – which are a real threat – may end up reintroducing elder poverty to a country that had nearly done away with it. There is a better way. If more middle- and lower-income Canadians had better pensions, they would not be so reliant on taxpayer-supported OAS. The best way to make that happen is through CPP expansion.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Today is a big day on the road to ending poverty in Canada.
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015
This plan was developed through an extensive process of community engagement by Dignity for All and presents the key planks of an anti-poverty plan that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of low-income people living in Canada, achieving greater prosperity and security for all… Canadians care about poverty; it is no longer an issue that individual members of parliament can avoid.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Two Views of a Guaranteed Annual Income
Monday, January 12th, 2015
The new [Fraser Institute] report states that “eliminating work and other requirements may lead to administrative savings but also increase the risk of long-term dependency among able-bodied Canadians”… Segal disagrees… “The level of payment… I am recommending wouldn’t be sufficient to keep people comfortable. It would be sufficient to meet their basic needs, but most folks want to do better than that. There’d be no disincentives in our system to them doing that.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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