Poverty trap

The system designed to help Canadians in need is trapping them in poverty and needs to be fixed, says a senator during a local visit Tuesday.

The senate’s subcommittee on cities released a report in December that looked at poverty in Canada.

After two years and 200 interviews, committee chair Senator Art Eggleton said the report highlights a broken system that costs every Canadian on an economic and moral level.

"We have found that in spite of the fact that we’re spending $150 billion a year in federal and provincial money in this country, not including health and education programs, we’re not helping people," said Eggleton during his speech at Oliver Road Community Centre. "We’re not helping people get out of poverty, we’re trapping them in poverty and the system that is broke needs fixing."

When he asked what Canadians get for that money, he answered – not enough.

An estimated 3.4 million Canadians are in poverty including 800,000 children. This face comes despite parliament’s 1989 commitment to alleviate child poverty by 2000. Eggleton said the issue isn’t about more money but how the money is spent.

The report, titled In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness, makes 74 recommendations on how the country’s poverty concerns can be addressed. From national early childhood education strategies to affordable housing initiatives, Eggleton said there are methods that could be put in place to start raising people out of poverty.

He added that the "hodgepodge" systems in place at the provincial and federal level need to be overhauled. A child born in poverty is more likely to have poor nutrition, which can lead to more missed school days, which leads to less education, which leads to poor employment, which could lead to an earlier death or more burden on the health-care system.
Eggleton said poverty affects every person in the country.

"Poverty is everybody’s business and we all need to work together to overcome it," said Eggleton. "We need the will. We need the commitment, the will from government and society to be able to lift people out of poverty. It won’t come with anything less than the full commitment of government."

Coun. Iain Angus, who also chairs The Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board, was an MP when parliament made the commitment to eliminate child poverty. He said as TBDSSAB sees an ever-increasing client base, he’s impressed with the direction taken by Eggleton’s report.

Angus wanted to know what the report can do to make sure the province, the primary delivery agent of poverty alleviation, addresses the recommendations.

"The Ontario government only throws nickels at their welfare recipients when they need dollars, so we’ve got a long way to go," Angus said. "I’m hoping that the senator’s committee… will raise the pressure on the governments of the day to actually take this matter seriously and actually do something about it."

While Angus agreed with most of the recommendations he looked at, he disagrees that more money is not an issue. If clients of the Ontario Works program received more money, Angus said all of that money would be spent in a given community and that could be one of the best ways to invest in a city.

Regional Food Distribution Association chair Larry Brigham said he’s been hearing reports on poverty for almost 40 years. When Senator David Crowe tabled a similar report in 1971, Brigham said he attended meetings.

Decades later, nothing has been implemented.

"We’re very good in this country at putting together reports but sadly not very good at implementing them," Brigham said during a question and answer period with Eggleton. He asked the senator why this time should be any different.

Eggleton said this time everyone from the Prime Minister’s Office to average citizens need to make eliminating poverty a priority.

"I don’t know (what makes this report different) except I want it to be different," said Eggleton. "If we could just get some of these in place it would make a huge difference."