Toronto anti-poverty plan reaches final hurdle
TheStar.com – News/GTA – City spending to cut poverty must be seen against the cost of doing nothing, activists say as council prepares to debate merits of 20-year anti-poverty strategy.
Nov 03 2015. By: Laurie Monsebraaten, Social justice reporter
As Toronto city council debates the merits of moving forward with a 20-year plan to tackle poverty this week, community activists are calling for a broader balance sheet to measure progress.
“In an era of scarce government resources, it’s crucial to have a sense of the long-term impact of social spending,” said Michael Polanyi, a community worker with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.
Other cities such as Calgary and Edmonton are beginning to look at the economic benefits of poverty reduction measures and it is time Toronto used a similar lens, said Sean Meagher, head of Social Planning Toronto. “We count in all kinds of off-sets when we invest in capital, but we don’t count them when we make social investments, even though there is very strong evidence available to do so,” he said.
Although the city may not be in a position to do this kind of accounting now, groups like Social Planning Toronto, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and social policy experts such as John Stapleton are willing and able to help, Meagher said.
For example, studies have shown that for every $1 spent on affordable child care, governments receive more than $2 in increased taxes from mothers’ employment income. Every $10 spent on housing and supports for the chronically homeless results in $21.72 in savings related to health care, social supports, housing and involvement in the justice system, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
A McMaster University study has shown that when single parents receive counselling support and their children have access to recreation, more of them get jobs and fewer rely on welfare, Meagher noted.
In 2008, just before Queen’s Park released its first poverty reduction strategy, the Association of Ontario Food Banks released a report that pegged the cost of poverty in the province at about $38 billion a year. “It would be interesting to look at the cost of poverty in Toronto,” said Stapleton. “It would help to put the spending (related to poverty reduction) into some context.”
Toronto’s 20-year poverty reduction strategy includes 17 recommendations and 71 actions “to advance equity, opportunity and prosperity for all Toronto residents.” It also features 17 measurement tools or “indicators” to track progress on the strategy’s six areas for action, including housing stability, access to services, transit equity, access to healthy food, quality jobs with livable incomes and systemic change.
But with no annual or long-term funding targets — and no sense of the financial cost of doing nothing — the strategy risks playing second fiddle to other budget pressures, activists say.
Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong confirmed their fears last week when he warned his support for the “aspirational” and “ambitious” plan “all comes down to money.” “Budgetary implications have to be considered,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Pam McConnell, who was appointed by Mayor John Tory to oversee the strategy has said the city should commit to spend at least $100 million on poverty reduction in 2016. “Investing in the future health of our city and its people makes good sense,” she said Monday. “This down payment saves dollars upstream, but also strengthens the fabric of our neighbourhoods. “I welcome our partners quantifying these savings as we proceed together along the path to shared prosperity.”
With files from Betsy Powell
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Tags: budget, economy, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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