Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update # 78

Dear Colleagues,

As world leaders gather in Scotland for the UN Climate Change summit, we need to consider the deep interconnection between poverty and climate change.  “The impacts of climate change tend to be larger on more vulnerable populations and reinforce existing demographic inequities, highlighting an unfortunate commonality between climate change and COVID-19.” (Grey County Draft CCAP, pg. 25)

People with low income have very little savings and ability to adapt to increased costs of living. The newly proposed general minimum wage of $15.00/hr effective January 1st, 2022, raises the rate from $14.35 but it does not come close to paying a Living Wage. In 2019, Grey Bruce’s Living Wage was calculated at $18.39. People’s ability to relocate to secure jobs and affordable housing requires resources that many people with low income do not currently possess. People who are already affected by food insecurity, will find it even more difficult to put food on the table if climate change impacts food availability like the pandemic has.

The data collected by the Bruce Grey Food Insecurity Data Collection Hub (BruceGreyFood.com) reflects an increase in the number of people accessing community meal programs and food banks under the pandemic. But while the pandemic lockdown has lifted we have not seen a decrease in usage but rather numbers are increasing and new families are accessing these services.

“It is for that reason that as we continue to try and learn from this pandemic, we need to, at the same time, identify ways in which we can apply these learnings in the fight against climate change.” (Grey County Draft CCAP, pg. 25)

The Grey County Draft Climate Change Action Plan is now available for review and comment at Draft Climate Change Action Plan. County staff would welcome feedback on the draft CCAP.  Comments can be sent to the Planning Department at linda.swanston@grey.ca until November 5th, 2021. 

RECONCILIATION BEGINS WITH US

  • Land acknowledgements are an honest and historically accurate way to recognize the traditional First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit territories of a place.  According to Anishinaabe-kwe Wanda Nanibush, land acknowledgements have one goal, regardless of format: they commemorate Indigenous peoples’ principal kinship to the land. Nanibush says “they’re a starting place to a change in how the land is seen and talked about [and they] help redefine how people place themselves in relation to First Peoples.”
  • Treaties Recognition Week. November 1-7th, 2021. It is important to learn about treaties and the transfer/ownership of land as an important part of t of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. As well as understanding what it means to live on Unceded land. 
  • We need to recognize and respect Indigenous peoples’ inherent kinship beliefs when it comes to the land, especially since those beliefs were restricted for so long.
  • Learn more about the Treaty history of where we live at: https://www.saugeenojibwaynation.ca/treaty-history
  • We know Ontario would not exist without treaties. https://twitter.com/solmamakwa/status/1455123667168415745?s=27
  • Hear from Saugeen Ojibway Nation Environment Office video with Doran Ritchie sharing Harvesting & SON Rights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4bky7svtxc

MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTIONS SUPPORTS

  • Indigenous Trauma-informed Supports: The provincial government is investing over $36 million to support community-led mental health and addictions in Indigenous communities across the province. This funding will help ensure culturally appropriate and trauma-informed supports are readily available, including supports for Indian Residential School Survivors and their families.

HOUSING SUPPORTS/RESEARCH

  • Spark Housing Initiative, The Meeting Place will be hosting focus groups to gather qualitative data on the housing situation in the Northern Bruce Peninsula. For more information you can reach out to The Meeting Place at 519-596-2313 or info@tobermorymeetingplace.com

EMPLOYMENT SUPPORTS

  • Grey Bruce Virtual Job Fair:  November 23rd from 2-7 pm. Job seekers are encouraged to register early as spaces are limited. Register grey.ca 

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & EQUITY

  • Grey Bruce Pride: have launched a Community Needs Assessment Survey.  They are asking people in the 2S-LGBTQQIAP+ community how they experience life in Grey Bruce and to suggest ways that you would like to see to make things better in the community. 

FOOD SECURITY SUPPORTS

  • Community Foundation Grey Bruce: announced its Fall Grants with a larger number awarded for food security programming such as expanding community gardens in Meaford, Owen Sound and Durham. As well as a new Community Closet and Pantry at the South East Grey Community Health Centre, and hot food programs or meal classes through the United Way of Bruce Grey, Safe ‘N Sound, Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre, and The Chesley Baptist Church Hot Meal Program.
  • Gateway Centre for Excellence in Rural Health: in partnership with Guelph University they are carrying out a study on food accessibility and insecurity among rural seniors in 4 counties: Huron Perth Bruce and Grey. 
  • Studies show that rural seniors face more significant challenges and are at a greater risk of food insecurity than their urban counterparts. Surveys will be completed by phone with seniors over 70. Please contact Casandra Bryant for any questions at: casandra@gatewayruralhealth.ca 

Stay well, Jill 

Ontario’s Labour Reform: a Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Update

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force supports employment situations that are fair, secure, safe and provide employees with a Living Wage. These are minimum standards necessary in the elimination of poverty.  We have published a Labour Reform Infographic 2018 that summarizes the recent changes and what it means for us locally.  As changes made to Ontario’s Employment Standards and Labour Relations Act come into place, it is important to reflect how these changes will impact those affected by poverty locally.

30% of employed Ontarians in non-Metro Census Divisions are paid a low wage.  That is a large percentage of people locally who may be paid a low wage and then we have to consider that some of the changes also change precarious work practices.

  • Minimum wage increase to $14/hr effective 1 Jan 2018
  • Minimum wage increase to $15/hr effective 1 Jan 2019
  • Equal pay for equal work
  • Updated regulations around shift scheduling
  • 3 hours pay for shifts cut to less than 3 hours or cancelled less than 48 hours in advance
  • 10 emergency leave days, including 2 paid sick days per year
  • Card-based voting for unionization
  • Hiring aditional employment standards officers (for greater enforcement and accountability)

What does this mean? 

  • More than 1 million of Ontario’s lowest wage employees received a big raise, the most signficant in almost 50 years.
  • Flexibility and stability through advance notice of scheduling and paid sick time will be afforded to all workers.
  • Quality of life, in the form of health and family outcomes, improves with higher income and decreased employment precarity.
  • Keeping money local. When the lowest wage workers earn extra income, they are able to spend money on necessities within their own communities. They are able to buy more and better groceries, warm clothes for their children and keep up with bills.

What’s the downside? 

We have heard from people with low-incomes, as well as from service providers that work closely with marginalized populations that they are concerned about possible negative impacts. They are anticipating lay-offs, increases in ‘under the table’ hiring, and fewer jobs overall.  Some employers have already reduced hours, raised prices or eliminated other non-mandated perks previously offered to employees.

While those for, against, and ambivalent to these changes can all cite evidence that supports their perspective, the Poverty Task Force is of the view that these changes will be beneficial overall. We also believe it will be important to measure actual outcomes closely.  We shall continue to monitor the impacts locally and will always advocate with and for lower income, precarious workers.

 

 

 

Losing Ground – Income Inequality in Ontario

A new analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) – Losing Ground Income Inequality in Ontario, 2000-15  describes an increasingly “polarized” Ontario labour market that is shifting away from stable manufacturing jobs to more precarious service sector work and rewarding higher-earning families while punishing poorer ones.

The report  examines 15 years of income inequality for families raising
children in Ontario (2000 to 2015), comparing it with national data for context,
and finds several disturbing trends.

The data reveal that the top half of Ontario families take home 81 per
cent of earnings; the bottom half of families take home only 19 per cent.
What’s more, the richest families in Ontario earned almost 200 per cent of
the average family’s earnings in 2013–15.

It is a story of sustained labour market income inequality that is being
driven by slow economic growth and increases in precarious work. Simply
put, lower–middle class and working poor families are losing ground.
The Ontario data show a drop in the share of earnings for families in the
bottom half, falling from 22 per cent in 2000–02 to 19 per cent in 2013–15.
That income shifted from the bottom half to the top half of the income distribution:
the top half’s share of earnings rose from 78 per cent in 2000–02
to 81 per cent in 2013–15.

On a national level, the story of income inequality among Canadian families
hasn’t changed much since 2000. The lion’s share of earnings goes to
the richest families, at the expense of the rest. Nationally, families in the
bottom half of the earnings distribution saw their share of earnings flatline
at 21 per cent between 2000–02 and 2013–15.

Dynamics within the labour market are at issue. The experience since the turn of the century clearly indicates that Ontario needs a raise. And that proposed changes to labour market rules in the province’s Bill 148 (Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017)—which among other crucial reforms would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 2019—are long overdue.

It’s about fairness. It’s about changing labour laws to reflect a seismic
shift in Ontario’s labour market. It’s about requiring employers to do their
part to reduce labour market inequality.

 

 

A Rise in Living Wage in 2017

The United Way of Bruce Grey updated its Living Wage Rate 2017. It found that in 2017, a family of three consisting of a single parent, a 15-year-old and an eight-year-old would need the sole earner to work 40 hours a week making $21.01 an hour to get by.

The rate was last updated in 2015, using 2014 data. Housing costs have significantly increased total household costs. The average rent across Ontario is now $1,115 and the United Way has found that many rental units in Bruce Grey are priced over the $1,000 threshold.

The rate has been updated by the United Way Bruce Grey at a time when the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force and partners are engaged in discussions about Ontario’s minimum wage being raised to $15 an hour.

In May 2017, Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government announced its plans to raise the minimum wage from its current $11.40 to $14 on Jan. 1, 2018 and $15 on Jan. 1, 2019.  The change has been welcome by some economists and the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force who say it can help the economy by increasing people’s ability to get by and be better consumers in local economies.

The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017   (Bill 148) proposes important changes to address Ontario’s outdated labour laws and seeks to reduce precarious work.  The proposed legislation, which also includes equal pay for part-time workers, increased vacation entitlements and expanded personal emergency leave, started committee hearings on July 17th that are traveling across the province.

On July 17th, the City of Owen Sound Council approved a motion to request the government carry out an economic impact study of the increase in minimum wage within 2 years. On July 21st,  the Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce held a town hall meeting on the issue, held in conjunction with the Keep Ontario Working Coalition.  The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force and its partners were at both discussions.  David McLaren shared  ON Labour Reform Facts on Need  for a $15/hr minimum wage which references 7 decades of economic impact studies of raising the minimum wage.

With the increase in a living wage, this educates people on why the United Way Bruce Grey and other organizations are in favour of the wage increase.  The FairWorkplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 goes beyond cathcing up with the rising costs of living in Ontario and address practices of precarious work that are the new norm in the workplace.

Living Wage Rate 2017