May, 2010

In a case of interesting timing, The Mark posted an op-ed I wrote on the lack of economic recovery for those hit hardest by the recession on the same day that the Globe and Mail headlined “Canada’s hot economy tops forecasts.” Rather than reiterate my arguments here as to why we should temper the recovery celebration, I’ll just send you to The Mark to check it out for yourself.

Over at the Progressive Economics blog, Erin Weir has a post pointing out that Canada’s stronger-than-expected first quarter GDP growth depended heavily on businesses restocking inventory and housing. We can’t count on either one to continue unabated, meaning that the need for government investment to stimulate the economy has not passed. Read more »

Hunger has become a reality for too many Canadians. No Canadian should go hungry.- Food Banks Canada.

June 1 is Hunger Awareness Day in Canada. It is a wake-up call to the need to address hunger in Canada and around the world.

Food Banks Canada estimates that approximately 2.7 million Canadians struggle to get enough food to eat. Many of these people make sacrifices and go without quite enough food, while others rely on food banks every month. According to the annual Hungercount report from 2009, 794,738 Canadians used a food bank in March 2009.

So, what can we do to really address this problem –to get to the root and bring an end to hunger in Canada? What would you do? Read more »

This week, from May 28-31, over 1,500 representatives from municipalities across Canada will convene in Toronto for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) annual conference.

Earlier in 2010, Calgary City Council put forth a motion that the FCM endorse Dignity for All – The Campaign for a Poverty-Free Canada. This week, representatives from across the country will be able to vote on the motion. Read more »

Last week Karri and I participated in Community Justice Camp in Hamilton, Ontario. An initiative of the Anglican Church of Canada, Justice Camp seeks to bring people together from across Canada to explore, promote and expand our knowledge of various issues of social and public justice, and Christ’s calling for us to participate in these activities. This year the focus was community development and how we can build community through our work in various aspects of justice. Read more »

Those who oppose Guaranteed Livable Income often argue that people won't work if you give them unconditional income security. In fact, one of the main assumptions behind the belief in a "work disincentive" is the assumption that people are solely or primarily motivated to work by money. Take away the financial incentive to work, and people will stop working.

In reality, however, money is one of many possible motivations that guide human behaviour. Empirical evidence also demonstrates that money is not necessarily always a motivator. In this video (by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), author Dan Pink describes the surprising conclusions of two studies that discovered financial rewards and punishments do not correlate with successful outcomes: Read more »

Housing is a major concern for many social policy and charity groups across the country, especially those focused on poverty. Canada has been without a national housing strategy since the mid 1990s, making it the only country in the G8 to be without such a strategy. Housing has become the responsibility of provincial and municipal governments who can’t keep up with the demands and needs.

Recently the Salvation Army released a report, Poverty shouldn’t be a life sentence: A report on the perceptions of homelessness and poverty in Canada. In this assessment of the state of homelessness in Canada, the report looks at the many factors of poverty that lead to homelessness, some of which include unemployment, disability and/or mental illness, domestic abuse, addictions, poor education and little or no access to affordable housing. Read more »

As promised, here are the slides from my presentation at the BIEN conference on Montreal. Read more »

Many Canadians have long celebrated the fact that everyone in Canada has access to free health care. The Canadian government is one of the world’s biggest spenders, proportionally, on national health care programs. But is all the spending making a difference? Is covering health care sufficient for the health and well being of all Canadians?

A new report issued from York University by Juha Mikkonen and Dennis Raphael, Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts, shows that health and well being is determined by many social factors, not just the health care system itself.The report shows that the circumstances in which people live play a significant role in their health and well being. Read more »

On Friday, Statistics Canada announced that 108,700 jobs were created in April 2010. Newspapers were almost breathless in their rush to declare this as good news for the economy and a sure sign that our recovery is stronger than anyone anticipated, complete with the requisite quotes about stimulus being unnecessary and speculation about interest rate hikes.

What I didn’t see, however, was any coverage that went beyond the headline. Yes, 108,700 new jobs are good news. But Friday’s report also contained some troubling details. Read more »

Since the 1970s, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) has been working in crisis and emergency situations, providing care and helping those most vulnerable, including refugees and internally displaced people. MSF estimates that over 42 million people around the world have been uprooted by war, either as refugees or internally displaced persons.

But what do we really know about what experiences in these camps are like, and how can we become more informed and make a difference? Read more »

Yesterday CPJ launched a new research paper, Bearing the Brunt: How the 2008-2009 Recession Created Poverty for Canadian Families, on Parliament Hill. This paper looks rising economic insecurity and indicators of poverty including Employment Insurance, social assistance, costs of living and food bank usage caused by the latest recession.

Check out the photos!

Read more »