Municipalities are picking up the slack, but can they handle it?

Across the country, over a dozen municipalities have implemented poverty reduction strategies to tackle issues of poverty at the local level. With poverty most visible at the local level, it is important for municipalities to get involved. But the reasons for getting involved go beyond just visibility – with the cutting and scaling back of provincial and federal programs, starting in the mid 90s, and continuing throughout the 2000s, it comes down to necessity.

This week the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) released a report, Quality of life in Canadian communities – Mending Canada’s frayed social safety net: The role of municipal governments. This report, based on data taken from 2001 to 2006, first described the many different services offered at the municipal level, such as transportation, childcare centres, emergency shelters and community housing. Then, an analysis was made of the importance of such services in light of insufficient federal and provincial programs to keep people from falling into poverty.

Social assistance and EI payments fall far below the poverty line, based on the costs of living, including that of housing, food and other necessities. There are no national programs for issues like housing, causing many to live in poor conditions, or without a home altogether. Also, the gap between the rich and poor keeps growing. These conditions are only made worse by the recent recession.

In this report, the FCM describes the national and provincial safety nets as frayed and falling apart. As a result more and more people are falling through. It is the municipal safety nets that are catching these people. Insufficient funds from provincial and federal programs are often the reason people seek help from emergency shelters, food banks and social housing projects in the first place.

But can the municipal safety nets handle all those that fall through? According to the FCM, municipalities typically use property tax and other revenues to finance physical infrastructure. Can they adequately fund social infrastructure as well? What happens when these nets get too frayed?

The municipalities are being innovative and stepping in where provinces and the federal government fall short. But if anything, this should be a wakeup call to higher levels of government to the seriousness of the situation of poverty in Canada, and the need for stronger programs that are adequately funded. The action of these municipalities shows that they are willing to take initiative, but the provinces and especially the federal government needs to step in and share the burden.