Poverty is beatable
OTTAWA, ON—Ending poverty in Canada is not some kind of pie-in-the-sky dream, says Karri Munn-Venn, a policy analyst for Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ).
"I think it can be done. I think it's an issue of political will," she says.
Together, CPJ and Canada Without Poverty (formerly the National Anti-Poverty Organization) are launching a major campaign to take a three-pronged kick at the poverty can.
The Dignity for All campaign urges government action on its three goals: a national plan of attack, an Act to eliminate poverty and federal cash for social services.
A comprehensive poverty elimination plan would complement existing provincial and territorial plans and would include provisions for income security, food security housing security, childcare, early childhood development and employment insurance.
Other countries, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, have put such strategies to use with marked results. The UK cut child poverty by 23 per cent between 1999 and 2004.
"There's absolutely no reason why anyone shouldn't have the resources they need to meet their basic needs, particularly in a country as wealthy as Canada," says Rob Ranier, executive director of Canada Without Poverty. "The only possible excuse is if some of us aren't willing to share what we have."
He says the campaign is also about helping Canadians realize that poverty affects everyone. "The more unequal we are in terms of income and wealth, the evidence seems to show we're more distrustful of each other. Many of us are less likely to engage in the public sphere because of how excluded we are.
"Part of the work we're going to be doing around this is raising the profile of the value of public services we receive," says Munn-Venn, "to get people out of thinking so much that we're overtaxed and taxes are bad, but to see the value of the services we receive and to look at whether our government is spending money in the most effective way."
The recession—which Munn-Venn says is hitting the most vulnerable Canadians the hardest—is also acting as a sort of catalyst to mobilize Canadians on poverty issues.
"More Canadians are beginning to see themselves in more precarious situations," says Munn-Venn. "People that used to think of poverty as someone else's issue are starting to realize their jobs at risk, that they might not qualify for EI, and if they do, it might not last long enough for them to find another job in the current context."
Forty-five organizations have signed the Dignity for All call to action, including the Assembly of First Nations, Development and Peace, Kairos Spirituality-for-Social Justice Centre and The United Church of Canada.
Two hundred people signed on to the campaign at its formal launch in Calgary in May, and hundreds more have added their signatures on the campaign website), including NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPs.
That's a good start, says Ranier, but it's going to take hundreds of thousands if not millions of Canadians to make it work.
See related article: Canada needs a poverty plan
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