Poverty: Campaign Platforms

Oct 06, 2007 04:30 AM

POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY

Party positions

Liberals: Within the first year of a new mandate would work with community to develop indicators and targets to measure and address poverty.

Conservatives: Would reduce poverty through a strong economy, apprenticeships for newcomers and more support for troubled neighbourhoods. No pledge to develop an overall plan.

NDP: Would introduce various tax and income measures including increased welfare payments and minimum wages but no specific plan with goals and timetables.

Greens: Commitment to social equity but no specific plan to measure poverty and set goals to reduce it.

As it stands: About 1.3 million people in Ontario — including 345,000 kids — live in poverty. Campaign 2000, a national coalition that fights child poverty, uses Statistics Canada after-tax, low-income cutoffs to define poverty. By that measure, a family of four living in Toronto earning less than $32,556 a year after taxes in 2005 was considered low income.

Fast facts: Most European countries have comprehensive poverty reduction strategies with measurable goals and timetables. Ireland led the way and since 2005 has cut poverty to less than 5 per cent from 15 per cent. Britain pledged to cut child poverty by 25 per cent in five years and came close to meeting that target last year when rates dropped by 23 per cent. The country’s ultimate goal is to eliminate child poverty by 2020. In Canada, Parliament in 1989 committed to ending child poverty by 2000 but no strategy to meet that goal was ever developed. As a result, rates of child poverty across the country stand virtually unchanged at 11.7 per cent.

Ask a candidate:
Do you think fighting poverty should be a priority for Queen’s Park?

Do you think Ontario needs a poverty-reduction strategy with specific goals and timetables to measure progress?

If not, how should poverty be addressed?

MINIMUM WAGE

Party positions

Liberals: Increase current minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010

Conservatives: Review minimum wage annually with increases based on consultations with business and social experts

NDP: Increase minimum wage to $10 immediately with annual increases linked to inflation

Green: Increase minimum wage until a person working 40 hours a week earns more than the poverty line, then index the minimum wage to inflation.

As it stands: The minimum wage is currently $8 an hour, an increase from $6.85 when the Liberals were
elected in 2003. Minimum wages in Ontario were frozen from 1995 to 2005 at $6.85 an hour. A $10 minimum wage would have to be $11.25 an hour in 2012 to have the same value as $10 in 2007.

Fast facts: 1.2 million people in Ontario earn less than $10 an hour and 237,000 of them make the current minimum wage or less, if they are considered self-employed and their work expenses aren’t covered. A $10 minimum wage would enable a full-time, full-year worker to earn a maximum (depending on hours) of about $20,000 annually. Alberta has just linked annual minimum wage increases to inflation.
North American studies show raising the minimum wage pumps money into local economies.
Some business groups say Ontario’s economy can’t absorb an immediate $10 minimum wage and that students and unskilled workers would lose their jobs.

Ask a candidate:
Do you think it’s right that someone working full-time, full-year for minimum wage could still be living in poverty?

Do you believe Ontario needs a minimum wage of $10 an hour? If not, what should the minimum wage be?

How should minimum wages be set?


AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Party positions

Liberals: Create a long-term strategy, with a mix of non-profit and co-operative housing. Introduce a new asset-building plan for low-income Ontarians. Conservatives Give municipalities flexibility to use shelter funding for permanent housing for the homeless. Allow social housing operators to borrow up to $1 billion to pay for repairs and new construction over 10 years and provide utp to $65 million annually to cover the principal and interest costs.

NDP: Provide 10,000 new rent supplements at $4,450 a unit; build 7,000 affordable units annually, including at least 1,500 co-op units; build 750 supportive housing units and 500 units for seniors.
Greens No commitments on housing

As it stands:
Canada is one of the few countries in the world without a national housing policy. The federal Liberals in the early 1990s downloaded housing to the provinces. Then in 2001, the former provincial Conservative government handed housing to the municipalities. Ontario is the only province in the country where municipalities are financially responsible for social housing.

Fast facts:
Just 3,575 affordable housing units have been built in Ontario since 2003. More than 250,000 households (400,000 people) live in subsidized housing in Ontario. More than 120,000 families are on waiting lists for subsidized housing, including about 75,000 in Toronto.

The average two-bedroom apartment in Toronto rents for $1,100 per month. Average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in public housing is $350 per month. About half of Toronto’s 58,500 public housing units are more than 35 years old and in desperate need of repair. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation is facing a $300 million capital repair deficit.

Ask a candidate:
Should Ontario build affordable housing for low-income residents?

Who should pay for the backlog of repairs in Toronto public housing?

What measures should be in place to ensure low-income residents get adequate housing?

What role should rent supplements play?