Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

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What the new Ontario budget means for those on social assistance

Friday, March 24th, 2023

In this budget, as in all its previous changes to social assistance, the government did not introduce any new funding for the province’s nearly 400,000 Ontario Works beneficiaries. Ontario Works is social assistance for those who are not disabled but cannot work. The program provides a maximum of $733 per month for a single adult, an amount that has not changed since 2018, when the current government halved planned increases . 

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Interpreting the data: Key takeaways from Welfare in Canada, 2021

Friday, March 24th, 2023

Welfare incomes were deeply inadequate across Canada: – All households in every province lived in poverty, and the large majority lived in deep poverty… Most jurisdictions did not make substantive increases to already inadequate social assistance benefits… Total welfare incomes increased in a limited number of cases. In most instances, higher inflation in 2021 negated their positive impact.

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Getting a fuller picture of poverty in Canada: why the government’s official poverty measure is insufficient

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023

The material dimension of poverty is calculated by taking low-income and material deprivation indicators into account… Examples of these necessities include a pair of properly fitting shoes and at least one pair of winter boots; the ability to eat meat, fish or another protein equivalent every second day; and the ability to buy small gifts for family or friends once a year.

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A bitter truth: 30 years of child welfare data collection reveals deep systemic inequities, racism and harm

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023

The data in this study told a different story from the shocking, high-profile physical and sexual abuse cases covered in media. “The majority of situations we were documenting in Ontario had to do with neglect rather than physical or sexual abuse… most cases revealed toxic combinations of struggling parents trying to raise children within a context of poverty, systemic racism, substance abuse and lack of support.

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Canada’s Gender Pandemic Response: Did it Measure Up?

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

Canada introduced unprecedented relief measures in the early days of the pandemic to offset the huge losses resulting from necessary public health closures. Looking back, how did those measures stack up? Did they address the pandemic’s heavy toll on women and other marginalized communities? … The imperative now is to apply the lessons of COVID-19 in service of a more sustainable, resilient and gender-just future…

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Poverty in the Midst of COVID-19

Friday, February 17th, 2023

The number of children in poverty in Ontario fell from 498,600 to 377,040 between 2019-2020, largely as a result of temporary federal assistance… Ontario is capable of building an effective social safety net and providing children and their families with the economic security they need. The pandemic has shown that governments can do big things much more quickly than we ever thought—if they decide to.

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Reducing poverty among minimum wage workers in Ontario: The potential impact of the Canada Working-Age Supplement

Thursday, February 16th, 2023

To reduce the deep poverty unattached working-age single adults experience, Maytree and Community Food Centres of Canada have proposed the development of the Canada Working-Age Supplement (CWAS) by enhancing the existing Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) for unattached single adults… Overall, the CWAS would meaningfully reduce the depth of poverty and improve the quality of life of all unattached single adults earning the minimum wage in Ontario.

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Laugh at the farcical scandals of John Tory and Doug Ford but the joke’s on the powerless

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

… for-profit nursing homes had four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes… Ontario announced funding for new nursing home beds in 2022…  adding 200 new police won’t decrease wait times for police to respond to calls. It doesn’t support the idea that more police equals less crime, either. But data shows reducing poverty can reduce crime… The proposed 2023 budget cuts $4.3 million from jobs and social services. 

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There’s money for police and the World Cup. So why did council give the cold shoulder to warming centres?

Thursday, February 9th, 2023

The city owns big heated buildings that are empty at night. We could unlock the doors and let them sit inside… Instead, [Council] made yet another request to the provincial and federal governments to chip in dollars to help out… the city’s current shelter system “has the ability to meet the need” without doing so… On the icy Toronto streets, when our city government fails to act, lives are at stake.

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A judge’s ruling focuses attention on the homeless crisis

Monday, February 6th, 2023

A court ruling that Waterloo cannot dismantle an encampment may oblige governments to do a better job of ensuring that people have shelter… Clearing encampments is traumatizing for those being moved, costly for taxpayers and ultimately counter-productive, since it only serves to displace unhoused individuals rather than provide lasting accommodation. 

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