 TORONTO - Election campaigns, with their promises, their rhetoric and their competing critiques, always invite the same question — what is the measure of a government?
“We’ve been told society is measured by how we treat the most vulnerable. That would be the poor. So I guess poverty reduction is a reasonable measure (of a government),” said Michael Fullan, Catholic Charities of the archdiocese of Toronto executive director.
Fullan’s office helps fund 28 Toronto agencies that serve the poor in a variety of ways — from parenting classes for young single mothers to job training and placement for the disabled. The Catholic Charities election guide, “Counting on Your Vote,” is in parishes now or can be downloaded from www.catholiccharitiestor.org
What the party's are promising
Going into the Oct. 10 election, none of the parties have set targets or a timetable for poverty reduction. Campaign 2000, the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition and other anti-poverty groups have asked for a 25-per-cent reduction over five years.
All the party platforms have addressed poverty in a variety of ways. There are poverty-reduction measures included in their health care, education, justice and social policies. From the platforms, here are some of the plans on offer:
New Democratic Party
- An immediate raise in the minimum wage to $10 per hour.
- $100 million for “Ontario Smiles,” a dental plan for poor families.
- $350 million for affordable housing.
- $250 million for at-risk, special needs and ESL students.
- $800 million for child care and full-time Junior and Senior Kindergarten.
- $55 million for violence against women programming.
Liberal Party
- Up to $1,100 per year per child to poor families through the Ontario Child Benefit program.
- Increase the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010.
- Restore funding for women’s shelters to pre-1995 levels.
- Full-day Junior and Senior Kindergarten.
- Mix of non-profit and co-operative housing to create new affordable housing.
- A social venture capital fund to finance research into poverty and social exclusion.
- Consultations with social agencies and community groups to create a poverty reduction strategy with targets, timetables and measures.
Progressive Conservative Party
- A focus on revitalizing vulnerable communities where drugs, crime and poverty are concentrated — particularly renewing the housing stock.
- More flexible financing of homelessness programs so money cities currently spend on homeless shelters could be used to create new affordable or supportive housing.
- Annual reviews of minimum wage, welfare and the Ontario Disability Support Program by independent commissions.
- Programs to help new immigrants get jobs that match their credentials.
- Increased spending on mental health and addiction programs.
- Free access to schools for community groups.
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Election or not, churches and anti-poverty groups have strained mightily to get political parties and news media to pay attention to the poor. For the first time in more than a decade all three major parties are talking regularly about what they would do to reduce poverty. From minimum wage to affordable housing, the issue is being covered in major media.
“There may have been more discussion of it than may have been the case in previous elections,” Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory ventured in an interview with The Catholic Register.
“In my riding it is getting some good attention. I’ve had a couple of all-candidates meetings that were very much focussed on it (poverty),” said Liberal London North Centre MPP Deb Matthews.
Campaign 2000 national co-ordinator Laurel Rothman claimed to be pleasantly surprised by how much attention poverty is getting in the provincial election campaign.
“If you had asked me a year ago whether we would be able to get poverty reduction on the serious public radar screen and parties’ agendas, I wouldn’t have been sure,” said Rothman. “I'm pleased it's on their radar screen.”
But not everybody is happy with the level of discussion about poverty. Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition secretary Brice Balmer claimed to be “very disappointed.” NDP MPP for Beaches-East York Michael Prue complained with some bitterness that the media never pay any attention to poverty.
“I've asked hundreds of questions (in the legislature) and I don’t ever remember once being quoted in the newspaper,” he said.
While all three parties include poverty reduction measures in their platforms, none do what Campaign 2000, Canada’s most influential anti-poverty lobby, has asked. Campaign 2000 wants the parties to propose poverty-reduction strategies that include timetables, targets and verifiable measures of poverty. They’ve even suggested a 25-per-cent reduction over five years in the number of people living below the Statistics Canada before tax low income cut-off.
The Liberals will produce just such a plan, but not until after they’re re-elected and have had a chance to consult widely with the poor and those who serve them, said Matthews, who has been parliamentary secretary to Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur.
“If we’re going to really tackle it we need to get everybody working together,” said Matthews. “This whole issue of measures and targets is not a simple thing.”
On poverty reduction the governing party is running on the showcase measure of its last budget, the Ontario Child Benefit. The OCB will eventually deliver up to $1,100 per child per year to low-income families regardless of whether they are working or on welfare. It’s a public spending measure that has the support of Opposition Leader Tory, who has promised to continue the plan if elected.
If you want to know whether Liberals are serious on poverty, look at their pre-election budget, said Matthews.
“The last budget was a poverty reduction budget. It was a pre-election budget. That’s the budget where traditionally political parties have really put in the most popular initiatives,” she said. “We chose to make it a poverty reduction budget.”
Poverty reduction isn’t just another page-and-a-half in the Progressive Conservative Party platform, said Tory.
“It's important enough that I've made it a personal priority and I won't be able to say that about everything. I won't be able to say everything is a personal priority of mine,” he said. “It's important to me, period.”
Tory's plans focus on housing and urban communities plagued with crime, drugs and social exclusion. He has spent a good part of the last four years visiting families who have lost sons and brothers to guns and gangs. He preaches equality of opportunity, and champions mentoring programs that level the playing field between kids growing up in Jamestown and Leaside.
“We just can't have huge numbers of people that are isolated and are left behind,” he said.
Prue invites voters to measure NDP proposals by the poverty reduction yardstick.
“I'm a boy from Regent Park,” he said. “That's where I grew up. I try to talk poverty issues all the time, particularly as they relate to children.”
Prue points out that his party's proposals are concrete, costed and targeted. They include the $100 million Ontario Smiles program to get poor kids in a dentist's chair, an immediate raise in the minimum wage to $10 an hour and $350 million for affordable housing.
The churches and organizations such as ISARC would have a seat at the table when it comes to an NDP poverty reduction strategy, said Prue.
Meanwhile at ISARC Brice Balmer doubts the politicians really get it, or that the voters understand the issue.
“We have been battling with a real change called neo-conservatism,” he said. “There are unbelievable stereotypes out there against the poor, and we're battling that every day.”
Poverty isn't just about the 15 per cent of Ontario households living below the poverty line, said Rothman.
“Poverty is bad for all of us, and less poverty is good for all of us.”
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