Posts Tagged ‘poverty’
How a national disability benefit would improve my life — and the lives of so many others
Saturday, October 9th, 2021
I’m one of more than six million Canadians with a disability. More than 40 per cent of people who live below the poverty line in Canada have a disability… Poverty makes my life challenging. COVID-19 made it worse. A national disability benefit would improve my life in many ways. A national disability benefit would help people like me improve our living conditions and be less isolated. It would have a positive impact on our health and wellness. It would raise us out of poverty and allow us to live with dignity.
Tags: budget, disabilities, housing, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Affordable child care will help women re-enter workforce, stimulating the economy
Monday, September 13th, 2021
By subsidizing child care to women who intend to return to work, the government provides adequate social support to those who need the help the most. Such a policy will eventually help the economy to grow naturally, and will embolden consumers’ confidence to increase spending. As women return to the workforce, their increased income yields greater spending power, boosting demand for normal goods and further stimulating the economy.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Stronger EI and paid sick days are vital for workers. Labour Day is a moment for voters to judge parties on that
Monday, September 6th, 2021
… Canada needs a modern Employment Insurance system that covers all workers, including gig workers, self-employed people and the many misclassified workers who have been abandoned on the sidelines of so-called economic progress… If the pandemic has shown anything, it’s that systemic change is needed in how we view and regulate employment, and that how we treat workers (especially those in low-wage jobs) affects us all.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Would a wealth tax be effective?
Monday, September 6th, 2021
There is no more efficient way to reduce inequality and boost the economy than through funding public programs that people need. All within reach are things like affordable child care, ensuring high-quality and compassionate care for our seniors, funding a just transition to the zero carbon economy, or building enough affordable housing units to meet the need… A wealth tax will help us get there by making the tax system more progressive — and that will make it more fair. – vs – Canada already has a highly progressive income tax system where upper income earners pay a disproportionately large share of taxes.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada needs a social contract for mental health
Wednesday, August 25th, 2021
… the Canada Emergency Response Benefit was arguably the most important mental-health innovation of the pandemic because it decreased financial uncertainty, demonstrating how important government can be in improving mental health. The Canadian Medical Association has calculated that 85 per cent of our risk of illness is linked to social factors such as housing, unemployment, poverty, systemic racism, and lack of access to social supports and health services. These are the types of stresses that are interacting with COVID-19 to drive our mental-health and substance-use crisis.
Tags: economy, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Here’s what Erin O’Toole doesn’t understand about daycare
Tuesday, August 17th, 2021
There’s no doubt more money flowing to parents would help with affordability… [but] Spurring demand without building supply is not a balanced equation. That’s partly why the Liberal budget dedicated billions of dollars to agreements with the provinces to expand early learning and child-care capacity and to boost the wages of child-care workers — simultaneously lowering fees and creating more spots. The $30-billion price tag is enormous, but the Liberals — and many a public-policy researcher — argue that society will benefit handsomely over time and the net cost to Canadians will eventually be negligible.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, tax, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
As a server, hearing others blame CERB for restaurant staff shortages is dehumanizing. If an industry is harmful, why blame low-wage workers?
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
Nobody wants to live in poverty. The idea that the government assistance available is more than what a business can pay makes you think: is it workers in the wrong or is the structure open to oppressive and abusive business models? I hear a lot of talk about how “this is just the way it is,” or “we’ll all go under if we raise wages.”
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Advancing justice: Human rights, poverty, racism, and Canada’s criminal justice system
Friday, July 30th, 2021
… Maytree will explore the interface between human rights, poverty, racism, and the criminal justice system by inviting various researchers, practitioners, and those with lived experience to deepen our understanding of the issues. The series will explore themes including the historical roots of the present-day realities, the challenges associated with the lack of race-based data, issues specific to Indigenous communities, lack of access to justice, as well as potential solutions and promising practices.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, rights
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Developing a costing for a basic income is not a neutral exercise
Tuesday, July 27th, 2021
Creating income floors for everyone in Canada is necessary and desirable, but basic income and income floor are not synonymous… Expanding and improving social assistance, increases in targeted tax credits and benefits, strengthening Employment Insurance, stronger labour standards, and investments in public services would be less costly, more effective, and have fewer negative consequences than the suggested basic income.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ensuring the success of Ontario’s vision for social assistance transformation
Tuesday, July 27th, 2021
The overall vision that MCCSS has laid out for service delivery transformation is encouraging. However, it is important to recognize that the vision set out in the paper can only be realized if meaningful investments are made in public services. To that end, it does not appear that the government of Ontario has a plan to enable the vision’s success. There is only so much progress and fiscal room that can be made through streamlining administrative processes.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, participation, poverty
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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