Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Income Security Action Group, Media

Basic Income Pilot Consultations

The Ontario government is launching a pilot project to study how giving people a basic income might reduce poverty and improve health, housing and employment outcomes in Ontario.

The Ontario government released a Discussion Paper by Honourable Hugh Segal in June 2016 entitled Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income. The Ontario government has been holding public consultations, online surveys and welcomed feedback from the public and professionals working in social services.

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force have provided input on the Pilot at various consultations:

  • Members of the Poverty Task Force and Community Voices participated in the Hamilton Consultation hosted by the Ontario government on November 22nd, 2016.
  • Members of the Poverty Task Force participated in the OMSSA consultation.
  • Members of the Poverty Task Force, its Action Groups and Community Voices held their own stakeholder consultation on January 13th 2017. The Poverty Task Force has submitted the summary of this discussion as an Official Submission to the Ontario government.

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force works with over 34 agencies, networks and key community stakeholders in Bruce and Grey Counties – to enhance our common understanding of poverty-related issues through solution-based research, knowledge development and information sharing. We are informed by diverse voices of experience and support poverty reduction local action through our action groups and Community Voices.

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force supports the government’s initiative to investigate a Basic Income Guarantee as a strategy for reducing poverty and income insecurity.

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force (Poverty Task Force) envisions the revitalization of our rural communities where people are empowered to reach their goals, are able to afford to participate in our community, where a more robust economic development and local investment will reverse the rise of precarious work, loss of benefits to families and out-migration of youth/young families in our communities.

The Poverty Task Force recognizes the Basic Income Pilot as one component of a poverty reduction strategy but we recommend that the government continue to invest in new job opportunities, reduce precarious work and ensure sufficient income wages/benefits. We recognize that the government can’t afford to provide all income supports and that we will need the private sector paying a living income. We need to move away from “maintaining poverty”.

The Poverty Task Force believes that the stigmatization of people on social assistances needs to stop. Providing people with more resources and the choice in how they spend their money will provide a sense of community by leveling the playing field.

We advise the government to continue to build broad public support in the media and our rural communities for the Basic Income Pilot. The Pilot needs to be a concept easy enough to understand by all people. The government needs to build trust with those people who would transition from Ontario Works/ Ontario Disability Support Program to the Pilot and identify champions for the Pilot from middle-class/wealthy economic levels that will support the Pilot over the next 3 years.

QUICK FACTS:

20% of families in Owen Sound-Georgian Bluffs and 41% of lone-parent families earn a median income of only $15,590 – half of Statistic Canada’s Low Income Cut-off for a family of 4. (Stats Can)

Over the past 3 years, food bank usage across Grey and Bruce Counties has increased by 92%, compared to the Canadian average of 26% since 2008. (United Way Bruce Grey Hunger Report 2015)

55.3% of those seeking housing assistance in Bruce County are at risk of being homeless. (Bruce County Long Term Housing Strategy, 2013-23)

1 in 6 children under age 18 live in poverty in Ontario. That is 18.8% of children under the age of 18 living in poverty (LIM-AT) (Stats Can, July 2016)

1 in 5 children under 6 live in poverty in Ontario. (Stats Can, July 2016)

1 in 7 families with children live in poverty in Ontario. Poverty rates differ greatly amongst different types of families. Among couples with children, 9.2% live in poverty, while the rate of lone parent families living in poverty is at 30.4%. This stark difference can be partially attributed to the gender pay wage gap in Ontario. (CANSIM 111-0011 Family characteristics, by family type, family composition and characteristics of parents, annual CANSIM)

LEARN MORE:
For more details of the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force discussion see the full Official Submission from the January 13th meeting –  Poverty Task Force submission on Basic Income Pilot

To inform stakeholders and help guide the discussion, the Ontario government published the Discussion Paper Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Ontario.

The Ontario government opened a Public Survey to explore new ways to deliver income support across the province.

The Ontario government held a series of in-person consultations across Ontario and has summarized the feedback on its website.

For more information, contact:
Jill Umbach
Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force (BGPTF)
Tel: 519-377-9406
Email: jill.umbach@gmail.com

Francesca Dobbyn,
United Way of Bruce Grey
519 376 1560
execdir@unitedwaybg.com

jillumbach Advocacy, Media, Resources

Ontario Election_June 12th_All Candidates Events Listing

Poverty Reduction is a key election issue. Our Ontario government is legislated to develop a poverty reduction strategy every 5 years regardless of which party is in power.

So it is important that candidates can speak and act on poverty issues.  Please find below a list of dates and locations for many of our local All-Candidate events. 

Please  find attached 2 flyers with information and questions to ask your candidates regarding Income Security and Affordable Housing.  Please feel free to use these flyers, photocopy them and circulate them.

Poverty Task Force_Election flyer_Housing questions

Poverty Task Force_Election flyer_Wage questions

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force shall be attending the below meetings and we encourage all members to ask questions!

Tuesday, May 27th, 7 pm, Keady Community Centre, Keady ON  The Bruce & Grey Federations of Agriculture, is having an All-Candidates event with a focus on Agricultural issues.

Thursday, May 29th, 7pm, On Roger Cable Network. Rogers Cable is holding a live All-Candidates event on TV for Bruce Grey Owen Sound riding.

They will take questions by phone from watchers, which will be moderated by Roger’s staff. Anyone watching can use our questions or their own and phone them in.

Tuesday, June 3rd, 6pm, Bayshore Community Centre, 900 3 Ave E, Owen Sound The Owen Sound Chamber of Commerce is holding an All-Candidates event with a focus on business issues.

The Chamber of Commerce shall be posing questions to the candidates prior to the event. The responses to the questions shall be published in the Make It Your Business newspaper on June 3rd.  The public shall be selected through a lottery to ask questions at this event.

Friday, June 6th, 7pm, St. George’s Anglican Church, Owen Sound The Women’s Centre, Grey and Bruce, is having an All-Candidates event with a focus on Social Justice issues.

The Community Action Committee of the Women’s Centre Board is organizing this event.  We are still confirming the process for asking questions at this event.

jillumbach Media

Hunger Awareness Week: Who Do You Think Uses the Food Bank?

May 5th-9th is Hunger Awareness Week in Canada

The 2008 recession may have hit six years ago, but Ontarians are still dealing with the aftermath. Full time jobs with benefits are merely a dream for thousands of Ontarians who are carrying the burden of a downtrodden economy. While salaries decrease, the cost of housing, hydro bills, childcare, and food are on the rise. The media and our governments may proclaim our economy is on the mend, but the people visiting food banks today paint a much different picture.

Food bank use in Ontario hit an all time high in March 2012, when 412,998 individuals relied on support from their local food bank during that month alone. Numbers have decreased slightly since, but food banks in this province are struggling to keep up with demand. Factory closures, company downsizing, and depletions of personal savings are leading many who once considered themselves middle-class Canadians, to turn to social support services to make ends meet.

2014-05-02-JobsFoodBanks.jpg

The traditional idea of who uses a food bank is a myth. There are no traditional food bank clients. In fact, the largest group of individuals accessing food banks are children. Close to 40 per cent of food bank clients in this province are boys and girls under the age of 18.

2014-05-02-ChildrenFoodBanks.jpg

Would you guess that two of the fastest growing groups of food bank users are senior citizens over the age of 65, and current post-secondary students and recent graduates? Did you know that there is a food bank or emergency food support program on almost every university and college campus in the province?

2014-05-02-SeniorsFoodBanks.jpg

Hunger is a symptom of poverty. Food banks in our provincial network understand this, and are working tirelessly every day to alleviate poverty in their communities. By planting and tending to community gardens, lobbying their MPPs for raises to social assistance, hosting a job fair and resume writing session, building a community kitchen, and running after school snack programs, food banks are proving day-in and day-out that they understand what hunger looks like, and why it is happening.

At the provincial level, the Ontario Association of Food Banks strongly believes that the provincial government can and should take a more active role in tackling the root causes of hunger. That is why we are asking Queen’s Park to create a housing benefit for low-income tenants, develop a provincial food policy that ultimately provides access to affordable, nutritious food, and complete a thorough review of Ontario’s social assistance programs, while focusing on an increase in secure, quality employment.

This Hunger Awareness Week, ask yourself: who do you think uses food banks, and more importantly, why? Together, we can take a stand against hunger and poverty.

The hashtag for Hunger Awareness Week is #HungerWeek
For more information, please visit: OntarioHunger.ca or oafb.ca

 Follow Ontario Association of Food Banks on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OAFB

 

jillumbach Advocacy, Media

Poverty reduction key to fairer, more prosperous Ontario

By: Sarah Blackstock Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Published on Wed Dec 04 20

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Five years ago this week, the Ontario government embarked on a bold and historic challenge to reduce child and family poverty across our province by 25 per cent by 2013. While it appears Ontario will fall short of its “25 in 5” target, the province has made some progress and laid three critical building blocks that should provide the foundation for its next five-year strategy, expected in early 2014.

The first building block was forged in understanding the connection between fairness and economic prosperity. Ontario should take a page from the response to the most recent economic downturn, where a rising consensus emerged – including World Bank economists and finance ministers of all political stripes – that fighting poverty is required to grow our economy.

Ontario’s 2008 maxim that “we need all hands on deck” to drive our province’s recovery rings as true today as it did then. In an increasingly competitive global economy, it is crucial that we maximize the potential of every Ontarian to both participate in and benefit from economic activity. In a time of fiscal challenges, governments must invest in pathways to opportunity or be saddled with rising costs in health care and social services borne of persistent poverty.

Ontario’s second building block against poverty comes from knowing that good intentions alone cannot sustain a long-term commitment to poverty. Clear goals backed up with a comprehensive strategy must be part of the roadmap to progress.

The government’s willingness to set a clear “25 in 5” target in 2008 came with political risk and took courage. While Ontario’s performance was far from perfect, it has led to tangible gains. Ontario’s child poverty rate of 13.8 per cent in 2011, the latest year for which Statistics Canada figures are available, was down from 15.2 per cent in 2008. This means 41,000 fewer children were living in poverty, a reduction of just over 9 per cent in three, economically challenging years.

Different choices would have undoubtedly led to better outcomes, especially for households without children. But substantial early investments in policies like the new Ontario Child Benefit, refundable tax credits for low income people, and minimum wage hikes show that smart social policy works. Or at least as much as you are willing to invest in it.

The next plan must raise the bar. It should seek to cut poverty among all Ontarians in half by 2018, achieving a reduction in the overall poverty rate in Ontario to below 6 per cent and the child poverty rate to below 7.5 per cent.

The third building block for Ontario’s next poverty reduction strategy is building momentum by starting strong.

Five years ago, Ontario did not flinch in the face of a recession. The government immediately accelerated investments in the Ontario Child Benefit. It increased minimum wages when workers needed them most. It moved quickly to entrench poverty reduction into legislation. It invested in community services in priority neighbourhoods. And it revised legislation on worker protections and predatory lending practices within the first year of the plan.

These down payments were critical in achieving initial gains against poverty. They also put real money in the hands of real people to spend in their communities, providing stimulus to a battered economy.

But Ontario has not always carried through with as much vigour as the challenge of poverty requires. Case in point was the 2012 decision to eliminate the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB), a modest fund intended to provide a life-line to Ontarians at risk of homelessness.

As the next five-year blueprint is set to be unveiled early in 2014, it is time for Ontario to raise the bar on poverty reduction, starting with a substantial down payment as a building block for success.

Such a down payment should increase social assistance, the Ontario Child Benefit and the minimum wage, to build on gains from the initial strategy.

Addressing the need for affordable housing is key. As municipalities struggle with the repercussions of the CSUMB cut, Ontario should shore up its commitment to the most vulnerable by making transitional housing and homelessness funding permanent. And the government should also match federal housing funding commitments.

Action to resolve the growing precariousness of jobs is another urgent step to take to achieve fairness while helping to drive the economy.

But so much more needs to be done. The 2008 Poverty Reduction Strategy opened the door for substantive action. It’s now time to act boldly toward eradicating poverty in our province by investing in a prosperity agenda that benefits us all.

Sarah Blackstock of YWCA-Toronto and Greg deGroot-Maggetti of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario represent the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction.