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Recession and recovery: Where are we now?

Now that we’ve passed the halfway point of the year, it’s a good time to check out some of the trends reported on in Bearing the Brunt, CPJ’s study of the recession and poverty. How is that recovery coming along?

Statistics reveal a mixed bag – some improving trends, and some discouraging ones. Overall, the picture is less robust than headlines about economic recovery would suggest. GDP may be growing steadily, but recovery has yet to trickle down to those who suffered most from the recession – the poor, economically vulnerable and unemployed. Read more »

Centre of the storm: Alberta

The 2008-2009 recession hit Alberta very hard, creating poverty and economic insecurity for Alberta’s families. Proportionally, Alberta lost the more jobs than any other province as unemployment shot up. Employment Insurance coverage was very low, forcing many Albertans to turn to social assistance. Low income Albertans had to stretch their dollars further as food costs increased far more than core inflation. The effects of the recession on Alberta can be seen in the skyrocketing number of bankruptcies and the largest increase in food bank use of all Canadian provinces.

Standard measures of poverty are published with a two year lag time. But while we need to wait until 2011 to see the recession’s effect on those measures, new research by Citizens for Public Justice, with funding from World Vision Canada, already reveals the impact of the recession on key economic indicators and poverty trends. Read more »

Canadian municipalities and Dignity for All

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 »

The Great Recession? What Happened to Economic Security in 2009?

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

Good news on the job front?

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 »

Bearing the Brunt

Bearing the Brunt: How the 2008-2009 Recession Created Poverty for Canadian Families details the rise in poverty and economic insecurity caused by the recession. Read more »

Hunger, poverty and the economic downturn

On Tuesday Food Banks Canada released their annual report, Hungercount 2009, on food bank usage across the country. The report revealed that almost 800,000 individuals used a food bank during March 2009. This is an increase of 18% from March 2008, the biggest year-by-year national increase (by almost 10%) ever recorded by Food Banks Canada!

For over a decade, Food Banks Canada has been keeping track of the number of people using food banks during one month out of every year. Numbers of food bank use peaked in 2004 with over 840,000 people served, but since then usage has been gradually declining- that is until this year. Read more »

Alberta government announces plan to end homelessness by 2019!

Yesterday, the government of Alberta released a ground-breaking new plan that aims to end homelessness in the province over the next ten years.The Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness has created a Plan for Alberta with the objective of ending homelessness by 2019. Read more »

Momentum is Building

It feels counter-intuitive, but very, very real. Despite a global recession and a federal government seemingly blind to social exclusion, momentum is building for action on poverty in Canada.

It began in Quebec. In 2002, following three years of grassroots mobilization and a citizen-led initiative to draft anti-poverty legislation, the Government of Quebec passed an Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. The bill created a strategy that aims to make Quebec “one of the industrialized nations having the least number of persons living in poverty” by 2013. Read more »

Student loans: Alberta

Protected Persons are eligible for funding from both Alberta and Canada student loans. You do not apply for these separately: when you submit your Alberta Student Financial Assistance (ASFA) application, you will automatically be considered for the federal student loan program.

For more information see the Alberta guide.

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