Time to address our social evil

The numbers are bad enough, but when you realize they represent living, breathing human beings you want to shout “for God's sake do something.”

Living with an insufficient income means stress, malnutrition, isolation, insufficient job skill and constant worry. Double that list if you are a parent. Our own John Murphy, social worker, former politician and poverty advocate, said recently in Ottawa that a workable solution to poverty is within our reach. There have been successful remedies, in some provinces and in other countries, if the choice is made not to ignore the poor. The National Council of Welfare (NCW) has advised all Canadian governments that a workable solution to poverty is possible.

Murphy, who chairs the council, stresses that “this is not a partisan issue but it is definitely political; we have the capacity and what we need now is the will to do it.”

The report, “Solving Poverty: Four cornerstones of a workable national strategy for Canada,” highlights the fact that Canada in general is out of step with important developments in preventing and reducing poverty.

Murphy recently told the Wolfville Rotary Club that we must create a national anti-poverty strategy with targets and timelines. Since welfare incomes nationally peaked more than 10 years ago, over one-third of poor households are living on $3,000 less than they were in the early 1990s. And while Newfoundland is acting, Quebec is the only province thus far to build a strategy to fight this epidemic.

The council also found that governments are likely underestimating the level of outrage. Canadians have both concern and knowledge about poverty. Who staff the food banks afterall? Over 5,000 individual Canadians and some 400 organizations responded to the NCW’s questionnaire on poverty and income security.

The council determined more than a year ago that our tattered patchwork of social welfare programs is not working. The risk of poverty among children and working-age adults has remained stubbornly high over the last quarter century.

Five million Canadians live in poverty, more than a million children; over 750,000 Canadians rely on food banks.

What will make the difference? A higher minimum wage. Skills upgrading. Pharmacare. Universal child care. Increased social assistance payments.

With some political will, Murphy says, all of the above would help. He simply emphasizes familiar and neglected concepts like a guaranteed annual income and affordable housing.

Ironically Canada's economy has been bulldozing ahead in many sectors. Workers with skills are hard to find, yet the working poor are falling significantly behind. Last fall this country's food banks association released its HungerCount 2006 report, in which it noted that a major segment of its clientele work, but complain of not being able to obtain more than 25 hours of employment per week from any given employer.

In this fine land of ours 100 of the highest-paid corporate CEOs are paid an average of $9 million a year.

As Murphy keeps saying that this is not social justice.