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Income Security Advocacy Centre

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Media & Policy News: 12 August 2016

August 12, 2016

Top Stories

Heat wave baking people with low incomes in Niagara:
http://www.thepacket.ca/News/Local/2016-08-05/article-4607725/Former-plant-workers-have-appeal-heard/1

  • Climate change prompts Hamilton to modify its heat bylaw for apartments: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/heat-bylaw-climate-change-1.3713299
  • Sweltering Toronto tenants still wait for maximum heat law: http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/08/10/toronto-tenants-still-waiting-for-relief-from-the-heat.html?cq_ck=1470788980288

Poverty has a drastic impact on health, especially in rural Ontario:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/08/poverty-has-drastic-impact-on-health-especially-in-rural-ontari.html

August 9 was International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples:
http://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/

  • Three ways for aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians to work together toward reconciliation: http://www.hilltimes.com/2016/08/08/three-ways-for-aboriginal-and-non-aboriginal-canadians-to-work-together-towards-reconciliation/76270

The OEB must provide more information on the high hydro rate crisis:
http://globalnews.ca/news/2877618/hydro-ontario-energy-board-urged-to-provide-more-data-on-energy-crisis/

  • Rising hydro rates could cause serious harm to Ontario’s economy, says BMO: http://globalnews.ca/news/2866214/rising-hydro-rates-could-cause-serious-harm-to-ontarios-economy-bmo-chief-economist-says/

Don’t look now, Canada’s economy is getting ugly:
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/dont-look-now-canadas-economy-is-getting-ugly/

  • Opposition says Liberals not doing enough to boost the economy: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/opposition-says-liberals-not-doing-enough-to-boost-economy/article31297814/
  • Why 1000 people showed up for 250 positions at Toronto mall:
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/yorkdale-job-fair-why-1-000-young-people-showed-up-for-250-positions-1.3715618

Feds to “ease rules” for temporary foreign workers and “stress importance” of a path to permanency:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-expected-to-introduce-new-rules-for-temporary-foreign-worker-program/article31365448/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe

Father living off $3.32 / hour, as a misclassified employee, launches class action against energy giant:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/08/father-living-off-332-an-hour-launches-class-action-against-energy-giant.html

Cancer survivor says ex-employer’s erratic pay has left her on the brink:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/08/cancer-survivor-says-ex-employers-erratic-pay-has-left-her-on-the-brink.html

Block op-ed: Toronto’s TTC needs more revenue, not massive cuts:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/07/ttc-needs-more-revenue-not-massive-cuts.html

  • Tory threatens fiscal chaos at TTC, misrepresents Auditor General’s findings: https://stevemunro.ca/2016/08/04/tory-threatens-fiscal-chaos-at-ttc-misrepresents-auditor-generals-findings/
  • Star op-ed: It’s time to pay for the city we want: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/08/time-to-pay-for-the-city-we-want-editorial.html

People with disabilities in Saskatchewan face loss of provincial benefits:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-govt-cutting-disabled-income-benefits-aug-2016-1.3712884

  • Thousands to get reduced benefits: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/thousands-to-get-reduced-benefits-from-disability-program/ar-BBvp9mK?li=AAggFp5&ocid=mailsignout
  • Recipients don’t know how they will cope with the cuts: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-residents-disabilities-social-services-changes-aug10-1.3714586
  • “We think that this really is picking on some of the most vulnerable in the province”: http://regina.ctvnews.ca/social-assistance-cuts-worry-people-with-disabilities-poverty-advocates-in-sask-1.3020432
  • “My fridge is empty, all the time”: http://globalnews.ca/news/2876496/my-fridge-is-empty-all-the-time-sask-woman-responds-to-government-changes-to-income-benefits/
  • Social Services minister defends cuts as “simplifying a confusing system and eliminating duplication”: http://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/social-services-minister-donna-harpauer-defends-assistance-changes
  • Working group says clawbacks were never part of the social assistance plan: http://leaderpost.com/news/politics/province-slows-down-process-of-removing-benefits-for-those-on-social-assistance
  • org petition against the cuts: https://www.change.org/p/brad-wall-premier-of-saskatchewan-stop-reduced-benefits-sask-assured-income-for-disabilities-program

Employment for people with disabilities is dire:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/employment-for-people-with-disabilities-is-dire/

TD economist: New Canada Child Benefit cheques will boost 2016 job growth:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/new-canada-child-benefit-cheques-will-boost-2016-job-growth-says-td-economist-1.3016928

Angus Reid poll: Canadians support a basic income but think it’s unaffordable:
http://angusreid.org/guaranteed-income/

  • Basic Income is a neoliberal plot to make you poorer: http://www.furtherfield.org/features/articles/universal-basic-income-neoliberal-plot-make-you-poorer
  • What could be achieved with a basic income guarantee and how could one be put in place? https://politudes.com/2016/06/30/what-could-be-achieved-with-a-basic-income-guarantee-and-how-could-one-be-put-in-place/

Advice from the man on the street – literally:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/08/advice-from-the-man-on-the-street-literally-fiorito.html

 

Ontario

There will be no separate line for cap-and-trade on natural gas bills:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/natural-gas-bills-cap-and-trade-1.3700504

Ontario launching pilot project for rural health hubs:
https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2016/08/ontario-launching-pilot-project-for-rural-health-hubs.html

Ontario should strive for health equity:
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/tepper-ontario-should-strive-for-health-equity

 

Reports , Events, Campaigns and Other Good Things

IRPP report: Michael Prince – Inclusive employment for Canadians with disabilities:
http://irpp.org/research-studies/study-no60/?mc_cid=d505d1a935&mc_eid=93c40f0305

Consultations on Labour Market Transfer Agreements – deadline August 19:
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1091779

  • Caledon publication: The labour market agreements: What did they really do?: http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/1094ENG.pdf

Make It Fair: OFL survey on your experience with precarious work:
http://www.makeitfair.ca/precarious_work_survey

Homeless Hub: Family interventions for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness:
http://homelesshub.ca/resource/family-interventions-youth-experiencing-or-risk-homelessness

UNRISD working paper: Migrant nurses and care workers rights in Canada:
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/7EEBA6386981AC8FC125800B00295658?OpenDocument

Law Society of Upper Canada resources for Indigenous peoples:
http://www.lsuc.on.ca/indigenous-initiatives/

Reasonable doubt: Get to know your community legal clinic:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/reasonable-doubt-get-to-know-your-community-legal-clinic/

Prosper Canada survey for “individuals and organizations working with Canadians living on low incomes to improve their financial wellbeing” on take up of benefits through income tax filing:
http://fluidsurveys.com/s/benefits-and-tax-filing-survey/

StatsCan: New housing price index, June 2016:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160811/dq160811b-eng.htm

StatsCan: Job vacancy and wage survey, first quarter 2016:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160811/dq160811a-eng.htm

A guide to statistics on historical trends in US income inequality:
http://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality

 

Around the Province

Some local unemployment numbers from around the province, as Canada sheds jobs in July:
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/most-local-unemployment-rates-fall-as-canada-sheds-jobs-in-july-1.3016300

Sarnia social justice advocate spends a week at Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwig First Nation:
http://www.theobserver.ca/2016/08/10/sarnia-social-justice-advocate-spent-a-week-in-remote-first-nations-community

Province cool to picking up the tab for low-income transit pass in Ottawa:
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/province-cool-to-picking-up-tab-for-a-low-income-transit-pass

Funding announced for Poverty to Prosperity group in Huron:
http://blackburnnews.com/midwestern-ontario/2016/08/09/funding-announced-poverty-prosperity-group-huron/

Pilot project in Thunder Bay to help people on Ontario Works into post-secondary education:
https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/pilot-project-guiding-people-back-to-work-354079

Thunder Bay visit by finance minister highlights importance of Canada Child Benefit:
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/News/392292/Finance_Minister_lauds_child_benefit_as_middle_class_building_block

Migrant farm workers lose everything in Brampton fire:
http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20160805/farm-workers-lose-everything-canada-fire

  • Gofundme fundraiser needs $10,000 to support them: https://www.gofundme.com/farmworkers

Sudbury visit by finance minister addresses CPP changes:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/finance-minister-visits-sudbury-1.3714745

ODEN gives Champion’s League Award for breaking down barriers to employment for people with disabilities:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/cnw/release.html?rkey=20160603C8878&filter=5611

New rules for landlords sound good to tenant, but Toronto might be backing away:
http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/08/07/new-rules-for-landlords-sound-good-to-tenants.html

How riding the TTC has affected my mental health:
http://torontoist.com/2016/06/how-riding-the-ttc-has-affected-my-mental-health/

Group-A Strep outbreak at Toronto shelter not stopped by first efforts:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/07/first-effort-failed-to-stop-outbreak-at-toronto-shelter.html

Toronto’s Now Magazine in a position for work stoppage, threat to close publication:
http://business.financialpost.com/news/union-says-now-magazine-in-position-for-work-stoppage-management-threatened-to-close-publication

 

Across the Country

Late re-supply barges send food prices soaring in northern NWT communities:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/late-ntcl-barges-send-food-prices-soaring-nwt-1.3716118

Living Wage calculation for Whitehorse – $19.12 / hour:
http://yapc.ca/news/entry/159

Employees with defunct High Liner facility in Burin, NFLD battling EI Commission:
http://www.thepacket.ca/News/Local/2016-08-05/article-4607725/Former-plant-workers-have-appeal-heard/1

More PEI youth to gain work experience thanks to federal funding increase:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-skills-link-underemployed-youth-funding-1.3711441

Low income tenants in Edmonton hit with $300 increase:
http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/tenants-near-rogers-place-scrambling-after-being-hit-with-300-rent-increase

Alberta’s unemployment rate highest in over 20 years:
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-unemployment-rate-highest-in-over-20-years-1.3016352

Shut down of Victoria, BC’s tent city puts poverty into the spotlight:
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/07/shut-down-of-victorias-tent-city-pulls-poverty-into-spotlight-activist-says.html

Vancouver researcher says access to food is a human right:
http://m.metronews.ca/#/article/news/vancouver/2016/08/09/sfu-researcher-says-access-to-food-is-human-right.html

Swanson: Vancouver’s focus on home ownership neglects the plight of people who are homeless:
http://rabble.ca/news/2016/08/jean-swanson-vancouvers-focus-on-home-ownership-neglects-plight-homeless

Tours of the Downtown Eastside: Poverty pimping or compassion building?:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/tours-of-the-downtown-eastside-poverty-pimping-or-compassion-building-1.3025595

A homeless man in Victoria is being released post-surgery with nowhere to go, nowhere to heal:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/from-the-hospital-to-the-streets-how-are-you-supposed-to-heal-1.2317719

Families in Surrey, BC scrambling to find homes after abrupt eviction:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/families-scrambling-to-find-homes-after-abrupt-eviction-in-surrey-1.3017616

BC’s minimum wage for liquor servers reinforces sexism:
http://vancouversun.com/opinion/opinion-liquor-server-minimum-wage-reinforces-sexism

BC payday loan company ordered to pay back $40,000 in fees:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/payday-loan-cashco-1.3716103

 

National

One problem with Canada’s economy: Frankenstocks, not real companies:
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/public-companies-in-canada-are-going-the-way-of-the-dodo/

The risks – for employees and employers – that come with the move to defined contribution pension plans:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/retirement/retire-planning/employees-working-longer-after-shift-to-defined-contribution-pension-plans/article31303897/

 

International

The critical link between poverty and health:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/05/the-critical-link-between-poverty-and-health/

  • Social determinants matter most to a person’s health: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/08/social-determinants-matter-persons-health-heres-one-story.html

Australia says drop in sexual assaults and gambling means welfare card is “working”:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/ceduna-welfare-card-trial-sees-drop-in-sex-assaults-pokie-usage-but-state-goverment-queries-figures/news-story/b11d81ae8415903a41118e0c7d60a2d2

Author lives in trailer park and rooming house for a year “as a witness to poverty”:
http://triblive.com/aande/books/10869226-74/desmond-poverty-evicted

The millions of Americans Trump and Clinton barely mention: The poor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/us/politics/trump-clinton-poverty.html?_r=0

Inequality is a choice: Rewriting the rules of the American economy:
https://fordfoundcontent.azurewebsites.net/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/inequality-is-a-choice-rewriting-the-rules-of-the-american-economy/#disqus_thread

How US residents’ diets change after a neighbourhood supermarket opens:
http://journalistsresource.org/home/food-desert-diet-obesity-supermarket-research

Redlining in America: What’s happened since?:
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/6/11852640/cartoon-poor-neighborhoods

There’s a hunger problem in every county in America, and it’s solvable:
https://talkpoverty.org/2016/08/03/hunger-problem-every-county-america-solvable/

The racial wealth divide: It would take 228 years for black families in the US to amass the wealth of white families:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/08/09/it-would-take-228-years-for-black-families-to-amass-wealth-of-white-families-analysis-says/?mod=e2fb

Jesse Jackson: Poverty and desperation in Chicago:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/jesse-jackson-poverty-desperation-in-world-class-city/

Disabled people living in deprived areas more likely to lose benefits under UK’s assessment system:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/09/biased-fit-for-work-tests-poorer-disabled-people

Explaining my life to the stranger who will decide if I’m “disabled enough”:
http://themighty.com/2016/08/how-i-explain-my-illness-to-decide-if-ill-get-disability-benefits/

Half of people in poverty in the UK are disabled or live in a household with a disabled person:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/national/article/Half-of-people-living-in-poverty-in-UK-affected-by-disability-d890aa5f-2730-478d-90cf-669987e8c3f8-ds

Tories quietly shelve Supervised Jobsearch Scheme as it cost more money than it saved:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-quietly-scrap-one-iain-8595497

Government’s £1.3 billion fight against crime and poverty had “no discernible impact”:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bbc-poverty-crime-report-newsnight-government-failure-ministers-tried-to-bury-2011-riots-a7180796.html

Brexit may hamper the fight against child poverty:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-37049442

Scottish government reveals targets to reduce child poverty and deprivation by 2030:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-37010527

Rotterdam school to teach business skills to welfare recipients:
http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/08/11/rotterdam-school-teach-welfare-recipients-business-skills/

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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.