Thank you.
I appreciate this opportunity to put forward some of our ideas.
The Face of Poverty Consultation is a group of representatives from various communities in the Halifax regional municipality who have been working together for some four years doing advocacy and education around poverty issues that are causing so much suffering in our community and our country. People knocking on doors and asking for help are familiar to all of us. Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, and it ranks 18th among 23 industrialized countries in terms of child poverty. Approximately 112,000 Canadians died in three wars and peacekeeping missions. Now, ten times that number, over one million children, are engaged in a war on poverty here in Canada. Over 1.7 million Canadians live in substandard or unaffordable housing, and at least 14,000 Canadians are homeless. If nothing else, these are very shocking statistics, and they represent people who live right here in Canada.
A fundamental tenet of each of the face groups represented in the Face of Poverty Consultation is “love thy neighbour”. One of the ways we do this is to attempt to ensure that all our neighbours have shelter, food, income, health services, access to education, and employment--the very things we desire for ourselves. In our years of study and experience together, we have recognized again and again that persons living in poverty do not have these basic necessities.
Poverty goes far beyond the lack of daily needs. It forecloses choices and options that many take for granted. It deprives people of experiences that contribute to meaning and human development. We have only to look at recent situations in France, Australia, and in some communities here in Canada to realize the damage that poverty can do to a society. It is our contention that something needs to be done about poverty, right now.
The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights states that all citizens have a right to adequate shelter, food, income, health, and employment. Canada is a signatory to this and other UN documents of a like nature. We know that in May of this year, a United Nations report expressed concern about the high poverty rates in Canada. It recommended that Canada take all possible measures, to the maximum of available resources, to ensure the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights for all. In fact, it did say that issues of hunger and homelessness should be termed a “national emergency”.
Reports and studies from other sources, as diverse as the Toronto Dominion Bank, the National Council of Welfare, and the national child poverty report card, come to the same conclusions.
People are poor. People do not have enough money. This was one of the first comments made by a young mother we spoke to in a family resource centre. If people cannot earn enough money for themselves, then they are dependent upon others to help them with the necessities of life. Governments are agents who can make changes in this situation. Churches and other community agencies have supplied band-aids for citizens, when what is required is bold innovation by governments. We believe it is a human right to be free of poverty. Polls consistently indicate that Canadians value their safety net and that they want to help their fellow citizens to have a good life.
Politicians have often told us that they need to hear from citizens before they try to bring about changes to the system. Volunteers from all walks of life, old and young, give countless hours of their time, energy, money, and goods to help those in need. This seems to indicate that citizens do support any and all efforts to balance the inequalities in our society.
We are not asking for a shrinking of the federal government. We are asking for better government, government with accountability to and for all its citizens. We are asking for cooperation and negotiation among the various levels of government.
More specifically, we find ourselves able to support the recommendations made by the Citizens for Public Justice. They are calling for a poverty reduction strategy for Canada that would include, among other things, raising the child tax benefits—