Income Security Consultation

Introduction Letter from ISAC

WHY DO WE NEED A NEW INCOME SECURITY SYSTEM?

The last decade has brought massive changes to our economy and totally altered our income security systems. Poverty has deepened, homelessness has become a crisis, and the number of working poor has increased. Among low-income people, more and more are unable to meet even their most basic needs.

Canada has a far worse poverty problem than most people would believe. The reality is that a large proportion of the population is at risk of falling into poverty at some point in their lives. With jobs increasingly temporary, part-time and "non-standard", people cycle in and out of employment, finding no security in the labour market. More than ever, Canadians need a strong social safety net that provides the security that is so glaringly absent in the work world. The opposite is the case: as employment has become less reliable as a means of making ends meet, governments have cut away at our income security programs, making them more marginal than ever. It seems obvious that if we must have a "flexible labour force" then we need a flexible income security system.

The current income security system, which is complex, disorganized, punitive and based on old social and economic structures, is clearly failing to keep people from falling into deep poverty. In fact, the system often traps vulnerable people in poverty, making it impossible to get ahead, even while the relative cost of administration and "fraud control" continues to increase. We are creating a social deficit that could take generations to overcome.

This is not only tragic, it is a serious violation of the basic human rights of Canadians. Our country has signed all major human rights treaties and has the resources to secure every person's basic human rights to food, shelter, clean water, livable wages, education, healthcare, and equality. There are more stable ways to run an economy, and many examples of effective income security systems in other countries. Canada could certainly do much better. The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) believes it is time for those most affected by income security issues to have a voice in how to make income security a reality for everyone.

ISAC is undertaking a major community consultation on income security to identify priority concerns for litigation (legal strategies) and to generate ideas on how to create an income security system that actually works for people. We will look at the problems with the current system and also temporary, stop-gap measures to improve it. More importantly, we will try to develop the fundamental principals and components of a new, modern system that respects the human rights of all Canadians. It will be a system developed by communities across Ontario and by the people most affected by income security programs. With Ontario heading into a provincial election and the federal government again talking about tackling child poverty, it is a very important time to start thinking and acting on these issues. We believe that your ideas will make a difference.

The Orientation package:

In this orientation package you will find a document that sets out the questions that will be asked during the focus group session to help you gather your thoughts before you meet. We have also included 5 appendices containing extra information we felt would be helpful to the process. These have been included to inform you of:

• the guiding principles of an earlier effort to reform social assistance based on human rights we are all entitled to;
  
  
• the UN's observations about Canada's performance in regard to these rights;
  
  
• some basic information about the current state if income security in Ontario;
  
  
• a variety of social program models found in Europe.

We hope you find these documents informative and helpful as you think through the questions and try to envision what is needed to ensure economic security for everyone in Ontario.

We encourage you to write down your thoughts before attending the focus group, and if you wish, please feel free to write to us at ISAC after the focus groups sessions if you have new ideas or suggestions to add to what you contributed during the session. We look forward to hearing from all of you and hope that this consultation will inform a growing movement towards the reform of income security policy in Canada. We also hope you will stay involved after the sessions to review the platform of demands for reform we will help to draft, and then to join us in the struggle for an adequate standard of living and economic security for all. Thank you very much for contributing time and effort to this project.


How to Participate:

Email: Barb Anello at DAWN Ontario

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Page last updated April 7, 2003