The Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty Focus Groups

[posting]

The Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty will be conducting two focus group sessions over the next few weeks. The first, on April 30th, will be with people living in poverty, having experienced poverty, or working at a grassroots level advocating for those in need. The second session, on May 7th, is with direct service provider agencies. The Task Force is looking for responses to particular questions:

1. How would you rate poverty as an issue in Kingston on a scale of 1 to 5, with 0 being “not all serious” and 5 being “the most serious issue facing the community?”

2. What do you think are the main causes of poverty in Kingston?

3. What do you think this community can do to improve quality of life for people living in poverty in Kingston?

4. What do you think this community can do to actually reduce poverty in Kingston?

5. The Mayor has proposed establishing a permanent community-based planning and advisory committee – often referred to as a “roundtable” – that can help improve how the Kingston community responds to poverty.

a. Who do you think should be on this roundtable?

b. What role do you think this roundtable should play?

c. How do you think the Task Force should go about setting up this roundtable?

6. Any other comments?


We’re encouraging written submissions, which can be sent to povertytaskforce@cityofkingston.ca . A Task Force web page is now live and people are able to reply online by visiting www.cityofkingston.ca/poverty (http://www.cityofkingston.ca/poverty).

We’re asking those who wish to make a verbal presentation at the meetings to call 613-546-4291, ext. 1415, so we have a sense of how many to expect and to ensure everyone has a chance to speak.

Please feel free to attend and to encourage those people you know with an interest in poverty to attend the appropriate session.

With many thanks and best regards,

David Morris
(Task Force Coordinator)
Tel. 613-546-4291, ext. 1415

[Dogma]

In search of a poverty strategy

ANDREW WALLACE/TORONTO STAR
Emily Shelton, 23, a University of Toronto graduate, asks a question of the panel at the third Star-sponsored forum on poverty yesterday.


Finn Poschmann, researcher for the fiscally-conservative C.D. Howe Institute, says the focus should be on why people aren't succeeding in the labour market.

Stop picking away at the edges of poverty, say forum speakers, and take a leaf from Ireland's comprehensive plan

May 09, 2007 04:30 AM
Laurie Monsebraaten
Rita Daly
Staff Reporters

Canada needs a game plan to tackle poverty, a Toronto forum heard last night.

For too long, Ottawa and Queen's Park have been playing at the edges of poverty, instead of investing in affordable housing, child care and education, said former Ontario premier Bob Rae.

"We now have to restore and renew our commitment to help people in difficult times," said Rae, one of four panellists at the Toronto Star-sponsored forum on the growing income gap.

"Going forward, how do we want to live as a community?" asked Rae, a federal Liberal candidate for Toronto Centre. "I personally don't want to live in a gated community."

Toronto economist Armine Yalnizyan said governments need to act now – not only to tackle poverty, but to ensure everyone is benefiting from a healthy economy.

"The issue is not just about poverty. It's about the distribution of income and the amazing degree to which everyone is feeling economically insecure," Yalnizyan told a crowd of more than 250 at the St. Lawrence Centre.

"Income inequality is the second inconvenient truth in our society," said Yalnizyan, research director of the Toronto Social Planning Council.

There are signs Queen's Park is starting to listen.

Last month's provincial budget put poverty reduction on the agenda with a new Ontario child benefit for all children in low-income families – not just those on welfare. And it outlined a plan for raising the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010, from $8 today.

But Yalnizyan, author of a study released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, showing a widening income gap in Ontario, said these measures need to be backed up with a comprehensive strategy.

Governments need to set firm targets, create timetables and report annually so the public can easily see progress being made against poverty, she said.

This is what the national government in Ireland did in the mid-1990s, reducing poverty from 15 per cent to 6.8 per cent in just 10 years, she noted.

Closer to home, Quebec has had anti-poverty legislation since 2002. Newfoundland last spring announced a strategy to become the province with the lowest poverty rate by 2016.

Despite sunny economic times, immigrant families are constantly struggling to cover basics such as food, childcare and rent, said panelist Parbattie Ramsarran, a York University sociology professor and chair of the Centre for Social Justice.

Calling it the "great Canadian immigration myth," Ramsarran said Canada has lured thousands of foreign skilled workers and professionals, only to offer them low-paying non-unionized service jobs.

In Yalnizyan's study, she found that 40 per cent of Ontario families have seen no gain in real income – and often a loss – compared with their predecessors 30 years ago. The richest 10 per cent, meanwhile, have seen their incomes soar.

And even though Ontario parents are better educated, they spend more time working than the previous generation did, the study says.

But the focus should not be on income inequality alone, Rae said. The real issue is people's wellbeing, whether they can afford the basics in life like proper housing and childcare, he told the gathering.

"To me, the reality is that there are still too many people being left behind. So let's stop arguing about the statistics," he said.

Rae noted that Canada is the only government in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that doesn't have a national housing policy, and that's reflected in the country's poverty figures.

The latest income figures released by Statistics Canada last week show 788,000 children were living in poverty in 2005, a rate of 11.7 per cent.

The Senate notes that Canada ranks 22nd among 26 wealthy nations in terms of children living in relative poverty.

Deep cuts to welfare rates over the past 15 years have hurt the country's neediest families, Rae added.

"And because governments have not reinvested everything they took out in the early, mid and late 1990s, we need to look at how to reinvest that money," he said.

Restoring the previous Liberal government's national child-care program is crucial for parents leaving welfare for work and would make this key service more affordable for working families, Rae said.

"I think without any question, ... we've seen a dramatic reduction in the willingness of governments to address the poverty issue in the country."