ISAC’s Policy and Research Analyst Asif Khan is quoted in this important Trillium story on the failed Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy, and what could be done to improve the next one.
This article discusses the problems with the Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) targets, particularly the targets associated with moving social assistance recipients off of social assistance as a measure of poverty reduction.
Asif’s comments in the article focused on the major issues related how poverty is assessed in the report: “I think the core problem there is basically the province’s overreliance on employment alone to sort of reduce poverty,” Khan said. “So, getting a job is not going to simply fix poverty. And this strategy, the report is a testament of that.”
Asif noted other interrelated problems with using this measurement alongside rigid social assistance rules which can cause clients to return to the program after only a short time away: “On one hand, you’re pushing people into employment, but you’re not providing them with the adequate tools, and you’re starting to punish them once they start employment altogether.”
Read the full article here.