A good deal of attention has been paid to the question of what these high rates of inflation in housing and food costs mean for Canadians. Much of the concern has focused on the implications for middle-income Canadians hoping to purchase a home, while squeezing their household budgets. But what do...

A considerable momentum has developed around the perceived need for a national affordable housing strategy. The design of any such strategy should recognize who is in need, the size of the need, and where that need is greatest. This report presents facts on the affordability of housing for those...

When the government establishes a social program whose primary purpose is to help provide support to low-income people with disabilities, its success should be measured on how well it achieves that purpose. Unfortunately, there are reasons to seriously question the usefulness of Canada’s...

This paper discusses how complex is the seemingly simple task of identifying the middle class and determining whether its condition is improving or deteriorating. This is because many variables determine middle-class status, ranging from income and wealth to consumption, with often contradictory...

Increasingly, the notion of “Housing First” has been promulgated internationally as the turnkey solution to homelessness. In Canada, government investment in Housing First has become de rigueur from coast to coast. This paper proposes the extension of Housing First as a guiding philosophy...

Between 1994 and 2008, social-assistance usage rates across Canada fell at a remarkable rate, with the fraction of the non-elderly population drawing social assistance dropping by half over the 14-year period. Because social assistance can be considered the final layer of the public social safety...

Disability supports should be designed to provide benefit and not burdens to eligible recipients. Unfortunately, this is not a reality when it comes to one of the main benefits open to Canadians with disability: the federal Disability Tax Credit (DTC). Designed to recognize some of the higher...