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Authors: Mel Hurtig
Tags: General, Political Science
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percent of the population — forced to rely on welfare. Nearly half a million of those on welfare were children.
New Brunswick and Alberta had the lowest welfare incomes in 2005 for the four household types we looked at in each province and territory.
In 2005, welfare incomes were at the lowest point since 1986 in 20 scenarios.
When the peak year welfare incomes were compared to 2005 welfare incomes, some of the losses were staggering. In Alberta, the income of a single person decreased by almost 50 percent. In Ontario, a lone parent’s income decreased by almost $6,600 and a couple with two children lost just over $8,700.
The income of a single person in Alberta with a disability was only 38 percent of the poverty line. And for a lone parent with one child, only 48 percent of the poverty line.
Across Canada, the council said, “No welfare incomes were remotely close to the poverty line, average incomes or median incomes.”
As of early 2005, only Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Manitoba had not clawed back any of the National Child Benefit Supplement.
In their 2005 report, the National Council of Welfare said,
Welfare incomes were woefully inadequate in 2005, as they have been every year since 1986, when the National Councilof Welfare started tracking them. Welfare recipients are among the poorest of the poor and have to subsist on incomes far below what most people consider reasonable. They are so poor that they cannot access the resources that many of us take for granted — resources such as adequate housing, employment and recreational opportunities.
Welfare incomes were never high, but the recent declines demonstrate that governments are not interested in providing help to people who need it the most.
People don’t turn to welfare because they want to; they turn to it because they have no other options. Who would choose to live on such a meagre income?
In 2005, for couples with two children, the gap between welfare incomes and the poverty line varied from an immense $19,553 in B.C. to $11,434 in P.E.I.
Commenting on the 2006 National Council Welfare Incomes report, the Toronto Star ’s Thomas Walkom writes that the plight of those on welfare in Canada
reflects the deliberate decisions of elected governments — presumably supported by the Canadian public at large — to purge roughly 1.7 million people consigned to welfare from our collective consciousness.
It is shameful. It is pretty much criminal. Successive governments have gutted or eliminated much of Canada’s vaunted social safety net.
And increasingly employers prefer part-time or contract workers who can be fired at will and who are owed neither benefits or pensions. 2
In March of 1995, there were some 3,070,900 men, women, and children on welfare in Canada. Since then, there has been a steady decline, down to 1,678,800 in March 2005. Pretty impressive, but certainly not allgood news. While some of the decline can be traced to low unemployment rates, some of it stems from much more strict eligibility requirements. And those still on welfare are being punished by deliberate government policies in an unprecedented manner.
Economist Lars Osberg of Dalhousie University writes:
Canadian society has become increasingly unequal in recent years, as incomes at the top have grown dramatically, while the least fortunate members of Canadian society have faced a substantially nastier economic reality. Although Canada’s GDP per capita grew by 36 percent from 1986 to 2004, social assistance recipients in all Canadian provinces now have, after inflation, lower real incomes than comparable individuals did 20 years ago.
Canadian society clearly does not care what happens to some of its citizens. Canada may have signed a series of international treaties on human rights that declare adequate housing to be a basic human right — but in reality we do not care.
Canada now has both more “monster homes” and more homeless, while in
New Brunswick and Alberta had the lowest welfare incomes in 2005 for the four household types we looked at in each province and territory.
In 2005, welfare incomes were at the lowest point since 1986 in 20 scenarios.
When the peak year welfare incomes were compared to 2005 welfare incomes, some of the losses were staggering. In Alberta, the income of a single person decreased by almost 50 percent. In Ontario, a lone parent’s income decreased by almost $6,600 and a couple with two children lost just over $8,700.
The income of a single person in Alberta with a disability was only 38 percent of the poverty line. And for a lone parent with one child, only 48 percent of the poverty line.
Across Canada, the council said, “No welfare incomes were remotely close to the poverty line, average incomes or median incomes.”
As of early 2005, only Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Manitoba had not clawed back any of the National Child Benefit Supplement.
In their 2005 report, the National Council of Welfare said,
Welfare incomes were woefully inadequate in 2005, as they have been every year since 1986, when the National Councilof Welfare started tracking them. Welfare recipients are among the poorest of the poor and have to subsist on incomes far below what most people consider reasonable. They are so poor that they cannot access the resources that many of us take for granted — resources such as adequate housing, employment and recreational opportunities.
Welfare incomes were never high, but the recent declines demonstrate that governments are not interested in providing help to people who need it the most.
People don’t turn to welfare because they want to; they turn to it because they have no other options. Who would choose to live on such a meagre income?
In 2005, for couples with two children, the gap between welfare incomes and the poverty line varied from an immense $19,553 in B.C. to $11,434 in P.E.I.
Commenting on the 2006 National Council Welfare Incomes report, the Toronto Star ’s Thomas Walkom writes that the plight of those on welfare in Canada
reflects the deliberate decisions of elected governments — presumably supported by the Canadian public at large — to purge roughly 1.7 million people consigned to welfare from our collective consciousness.
It is shameful. It is pretty much criminal. Successive governments have gutted or eliminated much of Canada’s vaunted social safety net.
And increasingly employers prefer part-time or contract workers who can be fired at will and who are owed neither benefits or pensions. 2
In March of 1995, there were some 3,070,900 men, women, and children on welfare in Canada. Since then, there has been a steady decline, down to 1,678,800 in March 2005. Pretty impressive, but certainly not allgood news. While some of the decline can be traced to low unemployment rates, some of it stems from much more strict eligibility requirements. And those still on welfare are being punished by deliberate government policies in an unprecedented manner.
Economist Lars Osberg of Dalhousie University writes:
Canadian society has become increasingly unequal in recent years, as incomes at the top have grown dramatically, while the least fortunate members of Canadian society have faced a substantially nastier economic reality. Although Canada’s GDP per capita grew by 36 percent from 1986 to 2004, social assistance recipients in all Canadian provinces now have, after inflation, lower real incomes than comparable individuals did 20 years ago.
Canadian society clearly does not care what happens to some of its citizens. Canada may have signed a series of international treaties on human rights that declare adequate housing to be a basic human right — but in reality we do not care.
Canada now has both more “monster homes” and more homeless, while in
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