The Latest

Why We Need Cities to Fully Realize the Right to Housing in Canada

On April 8, the federal government introduced Bill C-97, the Budget Implementation Act, 2019, which included the National Housing Strategy Act.

This is a significant milestone as we work towards enshrining the right to housing in Canada. While amendments are needed to see the National Housing Strategy Act fully deliver on the promise of recognizing the right to housing, for the first time we have the opportunity of seeing housing recognized as a human right in Canadian legislation.

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Dispelling Poverty Myths in New Westminster

The City of New Westminster’s Poverty Mythbusters report dispels stereotypes around the demographics of people living in poverty, pathways into poverty, working poverty, and child poverty. It was created by the New Westminster Community Poverty Reduction Initiative, a diverse group of non-profit organizations and government agencies involved in fighting poverty in New Westminster.

In 2015, a survey and focus group with people living in poverty identified stigma and a lack of community understanding of what it’s like to live in poverty as a major issue.

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Will Alberta Win the War on Poverty?

If you’ve been paying attention to the news from Alberta recently, you’ll know that some significant changes have taken place with regards to poverty in the Wild Rose province.

On February 26, Statistics Canada released the results of the Canadian Income Survey and announced that Alberta's child poverty rate was cut in half between 2015 and 2017, falling from 10 per cent to five per cent. This means that 44,000 fewer children are living in poverty. Over the same two-year period, poverty rates for children of single mothers dropped from 36 to 17.6 per cent.

The significant drop in child poverty occurred largely because of federal and provincial tax benefits, including the Canada Child and the Alberta Child Benefit — a policy proposal introduced by former PC premier Jim Prentice and later enacted under Rachel Notley’s NDP government.

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Cities Reducing Poverty Policy Digest: May 2019

This is the May 2019 edition of the Cities Reducing Poverty Policy Digest, which aims to provide you with timely poverty-related policy updates and resources from across Canada.

Key highlights include the release of the Federal Government’s Homelessness Strategy, release of the 2019 Federal and Ontario budgets, and new Living Wage calculations for several Canadian cities.

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Darwin Said Collaborate

For those of you who have read my book Deepening Community – Finding Joy together in Chaotic Times you might love to know you can sign up for a weekly inspiration at www.deepeningcommunity.org

Last week I got this fascinating gem which is a total rethinking of survival of the fittest thinking. Charles Darwin is known for his “survival of the fittest” theory. The common description is that the most able animals will continue to evolve, while weaker species will be eliminated over time. This interpretation has been used to justify what some call a “dog eat dog” world.

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Why You Should Always Share Your Results

The part of the community change process that gets dropped most often is all that comes after the work is done. We host an event and then don’t do the debrief. We coordinate a year-long community of practice but don’t capture the way the meetings have impacted people. We convene neighbours for a community gathering and work day but don’t share how we did it and why people came.

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