Time for a Bold Review: Making Social Assistance Meet the Poverty Reduction Test will be held on June 23rd and will feature Angela Robertson, Judy Rebick, Crystal Chin and Marion Overholt.
The recession has exposed the fragility of the pension situation. About two-thirds of workers in Canada lack a workplace pension program and 1.6 million Canadian seniors at the low end of the wealth scale are trying to eke out an existence on less than $15,000 a year.
Some Ontario consumers could be caught in a never-ending cycle of borrowing from payday loan companies despite a new cap on loan fees and interest that came into effect Tuesday, warns an Ottawa-based public watchdog.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is aware of the problem. "Unwittingly, we have developed a policy that stomps you into the ground," he told Ontarians who rely on social assistance last spring.
Quebec has unveiled a new $60.5 million, three-year plan to fight homelessness, including measures to improve mid- and long-term housing options for people on the street.
Recession could push Ontario’s poverty rate up by four per cent in 2010 if the provincial government does not make key investments in this month’s stimulus budget, says a report released by the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB). [PDF format]