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Income Security Advocacy Centre

Income Security Advocacy Centre

ISAC works to address issues of income security and poverty in Ontario

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Media & Policy News: 31 May 2013

May 31, 2013

Top Stories

Quebec cuts benefits to try to move people receiving social assistance into jobs:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Quebec+proceed+with+plan+people+social+assistance+minister/8446685/story.html

MCSS Minister McMeekin says he will not move to resolve problems arising from the cap on discretionary benefits for people on social assistance:
http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news/mcmeekin-firm-in-keeping-discretionary-cuts/

We’re all paying for changes to retirement security – with poverty:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/paul-moist/canada-pension-plan_b_3342357.html

Even the wealthy can be impacted by the negative health effects of austerity:
http://diablogue.org/2013/05/28/even-the-wealthy-can-be-impacted-by-the-negative-health-effects-of-austerity/

Ontario

Given that people living in poverty have the worst health, patient creaming by doctors has disproportionate impacts:
http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/story.html?id=309fc048-8b96-4c21-8812-da393bdfb663

Right to Housing charter challenge:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2013/05/right-to-housing-charter-challenge-in-the-courts/

The Munk Debate on taxing the rich – video here:
http://new.livestream.com/Munk-Debates/taxing-the-rich

Around the Province

PFIB forum and high school program teaches students about hunger and poverty:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/05/28/toronto_high_school_students_get_lesson_in_the_politics_of_hunger.html

New free health clinic for refugees and new immigrants opens in Hamilton:
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/05/30/hamilton-refuge-clinic.html

Former Toronto Mayor David Miller on the insidious impact of income inequality:
http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-economic-and-democratic-harms-income-inequality

A living wage is the best way to tackle child poverty in Hamilton:
http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/3240645-living-wage-the-best-way-to-fight-child-poverty-in-hamilton/

More on Ontario’s new microloan program for social enterprise, from Toronto:
http://yongestreetmedia.ca/innovationnews/catapult20130529.aspx

Across the Country

Alberta’s Disability Minister faces outrage over cuts and changes to disability support services:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Disability+minister+faces+angry+crowd+arrested+meeting/8452138/story.html

More on Calgary’s “Half in Ten” poverty reduction strategy:

  • http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/strategy+aims+halve+poverty+2023/8384742/story.html
  • http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Council+approves+plan+poverty+half+2023/8441622/story.html
  • http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/05/28/calgary-poverty-reduction-initiative.html
  • http://www.povnet.org/node/5098

Commentary on poverty reduction strategies – why they are “wrong-headed”:
http://beaconnews.ca/blog/2012/10/why-poverty-reduction-strategies-are-wrong-headed/

National

Tom Walkom says the new federal EI tribunal will benefit those who sit on it, not those who must appeal to it – and that EI is becoming “a cruel joke”:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/05/29/new_ei_tribunal_promises_good_pay_for_conservatives_bad_wages_for_the_rest_of_us_walkom.html

Registered Disability Savings Plans called “a fiasco”:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/05/21/f-rdsp-open-account-grandson.html

More on the debate about expanding CPP:

  • http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/05/29/canada_pension_plan_boost_would_be_far_from_free.html
  • http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/28/business-should-consider-impact-of-tomorrows-pension-changes-today/
  • http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2013/05/28/not_your_parents_conservatives.html

Small- to medium-sized businesses say federal government’s job creation / training efforts will have no impact:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/canadian-smbs-shy-from-government-hiring-incentives/35284

Foreign workers – more than temporary:
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/05/understanding-foreign-worker-issues-intra-company-transfers-vs-temporary-foreign-

Who will represent the poor?
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/05/28/is_the_ndp_killing_canadian_progressivism_chapnick.html

Senator Vern White asks for an investigation of his colleague on tax haven use:
http://www.taxfairness.ca/news/its-about-time-senator-asks-ethics-investigation-tax-haven-use

International

Study shows top rate income tax cuts benefit the wealthy the most, causing more inequality rather than fuelling economic growth:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/income-inequality-study_n_3346073.html

  • Here’s the study: http://papers.nber.org/tmp/79822-w19075.pdf

WalMart workers in the US launch first-ever “prolonged” strikes:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174551/walmart-workers-launch-first-ever-prolonged-strikes-today#

And low-wage workers in Seattle join the movement:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/30-7

Texas to deny health coverage to 1.5 million low income people:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/27/2064061/texas-will-deny-health-coverage-to-15-million-low-income-residents/

From the UK, Guardian coverage of Freedom 90:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/may/28/poverty-50-ways-to-close-a-food-bank-uk

And, the UK government is forced to back off on its latest workfare program:
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/government-abandons-flagship-workfare-scheme/

Half a million people in the UK now regularly rely on foodbanks, due to welfare cuts, wage stagnation, and economic instability:

  • http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hungry-britain-welfare-cuts-leave-more-than-500000-people-forced-to-use-food-banks-warns-oxfam-8636743.html
  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/food-banks-half-million

New Zealand’s Child Poverty Action Group takes government to court over In-Work Tax Credit:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10887158

Fully one-quarter of youth in the Eurozone are now unemployed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/31/eurozone-unemployment-new-high-quarter-under-25s

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This site contains general legal information for people in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem. ISAC is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization. ISAC is funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). The funding for this website is also provided by LAO. The views expressed in any of ISAC’s publications (including written, oral, or visual) are the views of the clinic and do not necessarily reflect those of LAO.