Time to battle poverty

Admin · Admin Number of posts: 158 Registration date: 2007-10-15

Time to battle poverty

In 1989, the House of Commons in Ottawa unanimously voted to achieve the goal of eliminating child poverty by the year 2000.Campaign 2000, a non-profit organization that tracks progress towards
that goal, said there's been none since 1989. In 2007, the same
proportion of Canadian children, 11.7 per cent, lived in poverty.
Ontario's child poverty rate is 12.6 per cent, similar to Durham where
12.3 per cent of children live below the poverty line. It's
disheartening to realize eight years after the target date and almost
20 years since the goal was set, we as a nation have collectively
accomplished nothing. Meanwhile an entire generation of children
grew up, with many of them now facing the exact same hardships their
parents faced. But in that time, the cost of housing has gone up
relative to incomes, as has the cost of food and transportation. Not
surprisingly, government benefits to the poor have not. I
recently spoke with one grandmother who is raising her grandson after
his mother died. She expressed frustration that the boy would receive
more financial support from the government if he was in foster care. As
an Ontario Disability Support Payment (ODSP) recipient, the grandmother
was also frustrated the National Child Benefit Supplement she received
was deducted from her ODSP payments. That changed as of this
July and she will also receive the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) for her
grandson. But as many recipients of social assistance know, the
government often gives with one hand and takes with another. Her
grandson will lose his back-to-school and winter clothing allowance
since it's been rolled into the OCB. The Income Security
Advocacy Centre, which was established by Legal Aid Ontario, calculates
a single mother with one child receiving Ontario Works is only better
off by $31 per month as of July, with that figure growing gradually to
$50 per month by 2011. For families living paycheque to
paycheque, it's hard to imagine that small amount of extra money will
be used for anything but the necessities and when it comes to extra
clothing, the dollars just won't be there. Last month, the
Durham Advisory Committee on Homelessness (DACH) met to come up with
recommendations to the provincial government which is working on a
poverty reduction strategy. One of the common themes among
Regional employees, non-profit groups, churches and recipients of
social assistance was that child poverty cannot be tackled on its own.
The entire family must be supported whether they're working poor or
recipients of ODSP or OW. Ed Goerz, executive director of
Cornerstone, which provides housing support including emergency
shelter, pointed out part of that is ensuring we're not demonizing the
poor and labeling poor children as deserving of support and adults as
undeserving. We know what the keys to fighting are, income
support, housing support, affordable childcare and educational
opportunities. The challenge is to find a way of addressing those
issues so people get a hand up instead of running through government
mazes and ending up where they started. The other key is to
convince all Ontarians, and indeed Canadians, that letting our fellow
citizens fall through the cracks hurts us all. It's both a moral and
economic imperative that we finally and fully fight poverty instead of
letting another 20 years go by with nothing to show for it.

Admin · Admin Number of posts: 158 Registration date: 2007-10-15

Canada's income gap under right wing Conservatives is worse than recession-plagued 1980's

by Armine Yalnizyan

A Census report from Statistics Canada today shows a booming economy
did nothing to reverse the gap between the rich and the rest of us - in
fact the gap is worse now than in the 1980's. Census data show the richest 20 per cent of Canadians enjoyed median
earnings increases of 16.4 per cent but the poorest 20 per cent had a
20.6 per cent drop in earnings since 1980.
Median earnings for middle-income Canadians stagnated.

If anything, this is a wake-up call for Canadians, and for our
governments to have long ignored persistent poverty and deepening
income inequality.
Today's Census report should have been a good news story. It
should have been telling us everyone is better off. Instead, we are
seeing a growing and deepening divide between the rich and the rest of
us.
The labour market is rewarding the richest 20 per cent but a
stunning majority of Canadians didn't get ahead in the last 25 years
even though our economy is doing better than it has in 40 years.
The Census report also shows young Canadians are struggling to
get ahead and things are worse for newcomers and children living in
poor families.
Canadians and their governments can't keep ignoring this
problem because it isn't going away -- in fact it's only going to get
worse.
There is an economic downturn on the horizon, and when that
happens, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride for a
lot of Canadians.

Guest

the war on poverty is a war against the poor.
Children will be removed at alarming rates , the CAS is singing all the way to the crash, building big wearhouses, and group homes, lots of mental health LOL services for sad children missing mom and pop.
Just take a drive ( if you can pay for the gas,) and look at the new castles children will be lock up in, because mom and pop lost the apt, could not pay the hydro bills, the dental bills, the school fees , never mind food,
its all neglect to them. As ODSP calls CAS to report, another family for you, and OW does the same, and its all in a days work, who's making the money,, is it the lawyers?

Jully · Number of posts: 7 Registration date: 2008-09-20

i was need to find the most accurate demographics on homelessness and/or poverty in battle creek michigan.Like how many,shelters, ect. does anyone know where this information can be found.....thanks

Himsagar · Number of posts: 1 Registration date: 2009-07-07

The poverty affects the children Health, Education and become violent. somewhat this should be defeated in schools by giving free education and food but it is not enough to battle poverty.