This introductory article by guest editor, Elizabeth McIsaac of Maytree, provides an overview of the strategies and policies for rights-based poverty reduction in Canada beginning with the need for common language and goals. Referring to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural...
This is a short brief on the RESP and Canada Learning bond. Education savings are an important first step in making a post-secondary education more attainable for a low income student. The Canada Learning Bond, a federal grant that can only be received into a Registered Education Savings Plan...
This paper focuses on proposed system transformation in Ontario Works, and explores the possibilities and limitations associated with the proposed changes in 2018. First, it looks at the broader context within which the government’s social assistance reforms are taking place. Second, it provides...
These reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory....
The federal government has indicated that it will expand WITB by approximately $250 million per year beginning in 2019 to “provide additional benefits that roughly offset incremental Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions for eligible low-income workers.”1 The changes to CPP will be phased in,...
The disability income system is an agglomeration of disparate programs that were designed for distinct purposes. That reality would not actually be a bad thing if at least all the pieces worked well together. A new Basic Income for persons with disabilities would enable the reform of both the...
Almost all poverty measures commonly used in Canada work by setting a dollar amount – a poverty line – below which a household is said to be in poverty, above which a household is not considered poor. But when we measure poverty only according to income, we may incorrectly assess whether or not...
This paper is the text of an address delivered by Sherri Torjman at the conference Welfare Re-form: The Future of Social Policy in Canada held on October 24 and 25, 2013, in Regina. The conference was sponsored by the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of...
Ideally, a proactive purposeful policy framework or national housing strategy will seek to minimize both market and administrative failure. In thinking about how to frame and shape a national housing strategy, we might start with the overall housing system and separately examine how well – or not...
The Policy Research Initiative of the federal government organized an extremely interesting and well-attended conference on “Asset-Based Social Policies” on December 8-9, 2003. There is quite a buzz around this broad theme in Canadian social policy circles these days, and some community-level...