Poverty plan crucial, activists say

from The Toronto Star

Advocates call for government action just before MPP committee begins work on strategy for needy

Laurie Monsebraaten
Tanya Talaga
Social justice Reporters

A feared economic downturn could spell disaster for Ontario's poor if Queen's Park doesn't move quickly to put a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy in place, advocates warned yesterday at a day-long forum to discuss the Liberals' election promise.

"There are those who say that in difficult economic times it's hard to commit public resources," said retired Ryerson University social policy professor Marvyn Novick. "But they are the same people who say it's hard to commit public resources in good times."

Advocates must also guard against piecemeal government announcements and those who don't believe poverty exists, Novick told the downtown Toronto gathering that drew about 250 from across the province.

Yesterday's forum met one week before MPP Deb Matthew's cabinet committee on poverty reduction begins to flesh out the McGuinty government's promise to put a plan in place with goals and timetables within one year.

It is following Quebec, Newfoundland and many European countries, which already have strategies in place.

The forum's sponsor – the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction – wants to see poverty cut in Ontario by 25 per cent in five years and to ensure low-income people and those who help them are at the table. The group says such a goal would lift 400,000 Ontarians out of poverty within five years.

In addition, the group wants a higher minimum wage, more affordable housing, better income support for those outside the workforce and input into how the government will define poverty, which has long been the subject of debate.

Not since the social justice movement of the 1960s that created Medicare and our now-tattered social safety net have advocates gathered to discuss what's needed to address the roots of poverty, several participants noted.

"This is really a gift from the Liberals," said Nick Saul of the Stop Community Food Centre. "We have to open the door and go through it hard."

Some said the government should aim even higher than the forum's call to reduce poverty by 25 per cent in five years.

"If we were living in poverty, how many of us would be prepared to wait five years?" asked economist Armine Yalnizyan of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto.

"We should be demanding a minimum wage of $10 now and aiming to get up to 60 per cent of the average industrial wage in five years," she said. "That would bring us up to $11.70 if that was happening today."

That idea was first recommended in federal Liberal Senator David Croll's groundbreaking report Poverty in Canada published in 1971, she noted.

The provincial Liberals plan to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010. It now sits at $8 an hour.

Toronto health board member Fiona Nelson said the group should be advocating for higher taxes to provide the affordable housing, child care, public transit and other services low-income families rely on.

And Novick said the province should be prepared to go into deficit should the province slip into recession to put money in the pockets of the poor and fund public infrastructure projects, such as affordable housing, that create jobs.

The 25 in 5 network also wants to see a beefed up Ontario child benefit, medical and dental care for all workers and policies specifically geared to helping racialized communities, aboriginal people, women, the disabled and newcomers whose rates of poverty are higher and have a higher risk of poverty.



Ireland's Deprivation Index

The first task of Ontario's new committee assigned to combat poverty is to define what poverty is. Some anti-poverty advocates are calling for a definition along the lines of Ireland's benchmark of Consistent Poverty.

In Ireland, people are regarded as living in poverty if they earn less than 60 per cent of the median income and fail to meet two of 11 indicators in the following so-called Deprivation Index:

Have two pairs of strong shoes

Have a warm, waterproof coat

Buy new, not second-hand, clothes

Eat meals with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day

Have a roast joint or its equivalent once a week

Did not have to go without heating in the last year due to lack of money

Keep home adequately warm

Buy presents for family or friends at least once a year

Replace worn out furniture

Have family or friends for a meal or drink once a month

Had a morning, afternoon or evening out in the last fortnight for entertainment

Austria, Australia and New Zealand already use similar indexes and the United Kingdom is currently developing one.