Top Stories
Campaign 2000 calls for putting the spotlight on child poverty during the federal election campaign:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/07/21/use-the-federal-campaign-to-fight-child-poverty.html
UCCB increase and retroactive lump sum payment arrived July 20:
http://www.moneysense.ca/save/resp/extended-universal-child-care-benefit-in-effect/
- Who benefits from the UCCB: http://globalnews.ca/news/2107251/who-benefits-from-canadas-universal-child-care-benefit/
- Some Canadians’ responses to the UCCB increase: http://globalnews.ca/news/2107893/your-stories-readers-sound-off-on-universal-child-care-benefit/
- Another analysis of who benefits most: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/majority-of-conservative-child-care-benefit-payment-will-benefit-stable-federal-conservative-ridings-most-analysis
- Increase signals start of federal election campaign: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/conservatives-hand-out-child-benefit-cheques-as-campaign-ramps-up/article25588705/
- UCCB increase will replace the Child Tax Credit: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2014/qa12-eng.html
- Backlash over Minister’s UCCB tweets: http://www.citynews.ca/2015/07/20/backlash-after-conservative-child-care-tweet/
- What child care actually costs in Canada: http://globalnews.ca/news/2120861/what-does-child-care-actually-cost-in-canada/
- CCPA analysis shows no childcare spaces created by the equivalent of $7/day in federal spending and calls for a targeted approach: http://behindthenumbers.ca/2015/04/15/were-paying-for-7day-child-care-so-why-is-only-one-province-getting-it/#.Va0FJzcj9aE.twitter
- Three things to know about the impact of the UCCB: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/3-things-to-know-about-the-uccb-payments-impact-1.3161108
- Column: $3 billion fails to address the real child care issue:http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Daphne+Bramham+billion+transfer+fails+address+real/11229506/story.html
- Five reasons to not celebrate: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/karri-munnvenn/universal-child-care-benefit_b_7845580.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-politics
- What good child benefit policy can do: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/what-a-child-benefit-policy-can-and-should-do-beyond-buying-votes/
Put Food in the Budget investigates social assistance poverty in Whitefish River, Manitoulin Island:
http://www.putfoodinthebudget.ca/dispatches2015/food_budget_in_whitefish_river.html
- What people at the Soo’s Soup Kitchen would tell Premier Wynne about poverty: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153175822499811.1073741826.54489559810&type=3
Ontario’s enforcement on orders to pay owed wages a problem: Two years later, still waiting:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/21/two-years-after-winning-wage-battle-man-still-waiting-for-cash.html
Reports, Events, and Other Good Stuff
EI is failing Canadians, says new report:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/jobs/unbalanced-ei-system-is-failing-canadians-former-chief-actuary-says/article25638568/?click=sf_globefb
Around the Province
Thunder Bay New Directions Speakers School graduates are “powerful voices for social justice”:
http://www.netnewsledger.com/2014/12/16/new-directions-speakers-school-graduates-powerful-voices-for-social-justice/
Hundreds of anti-poverty protestors march against the Pan Am Games and for housing in Toronto:
http://leftvoice.org/Hundreds-of-anti-poverty-activists-march-for-housing-in-Toronto
The Niagara Furniture Bank is “getting busier and busier”:
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2015/07/20/a-bank-to-furnish-new-lives
Toronto Community Housing spends $240K to study payscale of non-union employees:
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/07/19/cash-strapped-tchc-spends-240000-on-salary-studies#.Va0AtzZh4_c.facebook
Across the Country
Nova Scotia Mik’maq leaders urge support for other parties over feds’ social assistance policy change:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1300839-n.s.-first-nations-group-suggests-voting-for-anyone-but-harper
Alberta EI rolls up 10% in May:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-ei-rolls-swell-10-in-may-1.3164672
National
Parliamentary Budget Officer says a $1 Billion federal deficit is inevitable:
- Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/22/ottawa-cannot-avoid-1-billion-deficit-budget-officer-says.html
- Globe: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/deficit-projected-for-federal-government-this-year-1.3163097
Federal government refuses to assist Ontario implement the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan:
http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/financing/feds-refuse-to-assist-with-ontario-pension-plan-151417/
- Globe coverage: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-wont-help-ontario-establish-provincial-pension-plan/article25538987/
- Fraser Institute study says ORPP or expanded CPP will cut into private voluntary savings:http://www.torontosun.com/2015/07/21/expanding-cpp-wont-work-study
UN Committee identifies “restrictions on charities in the Income Tax Act as a fundamental assault on the right to freedom of expression”:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2015/07/un-committee-challenges-canada/
A three-part series complicates the debate between cash transfers vs. food banks:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/jesse-bauman/2015/07/shut-and-take-my-money-or-why-cash-transfers-arent-silver-bullet
Green Party adopts Guaranteed Livable Income Plan:
http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2015/07/17-green-plan-sudbury.aspx
Canadian premiers call for more federal social and economic supports for Indigenous children:
http://www.timescolonist.com/premiers-say-too-many-aboriginal-kids-in-care-urge-ottawa-to-act-1.2004183
NUPGE: Pension coverage in Canada continues to drop:
http://nupge.ca/content/12396/pension-coverage-canada-continues-drop
International
When social benefits don’t reach those eligible, and why that’s a problem:
http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/07/benefits-reach-entitled/
Debunking 5 myths about food banks:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/debunking-5-common-myths-about-food-banks.html
Trump and Iran get the press while Republicans undertake major reforms to US TANF welfare program:
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/21/Major-Welfare-Reform-Effort-Flying-Under-Radar
How some welfare benefits are not subsidies to low-wage employers, but some are:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/07/18/mcdonalds-profits-are-not-subsidised-by-welfare-payments-to-mcdonalds-employees/
UK welfare reforms pass with divided Labour support:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/07/the-welfare-bill-has-passed-and-revealed-a-split-in-labour/
- But the cuts may not be as popular as thought: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21927
- The Biscuit Fund tries to help those struggling: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/jul/22/biscuit-fund-secret-group-cash-hope-poverty-manchester-mum
- And £20 Billion more cuts will come in November: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/20billion-more-tory-cuts-announced-6106113
China launches $50 million World Bank Trust Fund to help reduce poverty:
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/07/16/china-launches-first-world-bank-trust-fund-to-end-poverty-and-promote-development
The Vatican says ending poverty can’t be left to market forces alone:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/07/17/holy_see_solution_to_poverty_cannot_be_left_to_market_alone/1159032
New York State moves to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 / hour:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/nyregion/new-york-minimum-wage-fast-food-workers.html?_r=0
- Los Angeles County drafting a similar change because “poverty is very, very expensive”:http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/poverty-is-very-very-expensive-l-a-s-move-toward-15-minimum-wage-1.2481581
Report says growing up in poverty can slow brain growth and hamper educational achievement:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/child-brain-poverty-academic-achievement
Strawberry pickers strain to see fruits of their labor, even after strike:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/21/strawberry-pickers-strain-to-see-fruits-of-their-labor.html
Mexico’s poverty rate rose to 46.2% in 2014:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/23/uk-mexico-poverty-idUKKCN0PX2B220150723
