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Social Assistance Summaries: New numbers from across Canada
Friday, May 22nd, 2020
Social Assistance Summaries is an annual publication that reports on the number of people receiving social assistance (welfare payments) in each province and territory, and how those numbers have changed over time. It draws on data provided by provincial and territorial governments. The report also briefly describes social assistance programs in each province and territory.
Tags: budget, jurisdiction, participation, poverty
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Submission to the Government of Ontario regarding a provincial poverty reduction strategy
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
Maytree outlines the principles that should make up the foundation of the province’s five-year poverty reduction strategy and illustrates how these principles translate into action. This strategy will be implemented amid and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis will have ripple effects across the province for years to come… It is crucial that Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy strengthens or builds systems to protect people from the worst impacts and facilitates an economic recovery that benefits all.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
What poverty reduction advocates should know about the updated poverty measure
Friday, February 28th, 2020
… the basket now includes the cost of cell phone services… actual rents… updated in line with inflation… Under the new measure poverty has fallen from 14.5% in 2015 to 11.0% in 2018… it’s designed to show the overall level of poverty across a population rather than determine if a particular household is in poverty… to track how poverty is changing in different regions and for different groups. It’s best used to inform poverty reduction efforts… the data shows that single working-age adults have one of the highest poverty rates.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Changes to social assistance could harm, not help, people living in poverty
Wednesday, February 26th, 2020
The government is hoping to integrate employment and training services provided to social assistance recipients with Employment Ontario. Currently, municipalities are responsible for delivering these services for social assistance recipients, but the proposed reforms would transfer responsibility to Service System Managers across 15 regions in the province. These organizations can be municipalities or non-profit or for-profit entities, and they will be selected through a competitive process… similar reforms in Australia and the UK have been riddled with problems.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
System transformation in Ontario Works: Considerations for Ontario
Thursday, January 9th, 2020
… until better outcomes are precisely defined, funding mechanisms developed to facilitate a more integrated system, and policy goals and purposes outlined that put people at the centre of reform, a strong case has not yet been made for the government’s proposed reforms.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Putting economic and social rights at the heart of policy-making
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
Too many people are currently being left behind as changing social, economic, and political tides wash past them… we must help people and communities weather these changes by strengthening how we think about, and develop, public policy. We can do this by prioritizing the human rights and dignities of all Canadians. Not only civil and political rights, but economic and social rights, too.
Tags: featured, Health, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Welfare in Canada update now available
Thursday, November 14th, 2019
In 2018, total welfare incomes did not keep pace with the cost of living in 33 of the 52 scenarios tracked in this report (four household types across the 13 provinces and territories). In these cases, households receiving welfare were worse off in 2018 than they were in 2017… Even where welfare incomes were highest, they fell short of the poverty threshold.
Tags: budget, disabilities, housing, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Putting economic and social rights at the heart of policy-making
Thursday, October 31st, 2019
Too many people are currently being left behind as changing social, economic, and political tides wash past them… To stymie the rise in polarized and populist rhetoric, we must… strengthen… how we think about, and develop, public policy. We can do this by prioritizing the human rights and dignities of all Canadians. Not only civil and political rights, but economic and social rights, too.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Lessons from Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot
Thursday, October 17th, 2019
Michael Mendelson looks at Ontario’s experience to offer lessons on how to – and how not to – set up future Basic Income trials. The report focuses in particular on three aspects of the pilot in which the experimental design fell short: lack of a “saturation” site, problems of enrollment, and use of the income tax system to test recipients’ income… The author also suggests a five-step process for governments considering another Basic Income experiment…
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
The tax cuts you might vote for, but might not notice
Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
Would someone earning over $60,000 notice that they got another $420 a year by 2023 through the Conservative Party’s Universal Tax Cut? … if someone handed you $420 in 2023, you’d notice. But that’s not how this tax cut is going to be delivered. It’ll be incremental… Surely there must be a better way to spend over $5.5 billion a year. Couldn’t this money be better spent on healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and/or paying down the deficit?
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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