Income Security Advocacy Centre

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

Media & Policy News: 31 May 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:

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:

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

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:

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