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Making Progress on Poverty Reduction in British Columbia

So far, 2018 is turning out to be an important year for poverty reduction in BC. Currently, 557,000 people are living below the poverty line in Canada’s most western province – the second highest provincial poverty rate in the country. Against this sobering backdrop, the BC government has just completed a broad range of consultations with a variety of citizens, including people with lived experience. In June 2018, the government will release a “What We Heard” report summarizing feedback from the consultations, with plans to introduce poverty reduction legislation this fall. The intended result is the development and implementation of a poverty reduction strategy.

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Calgary's Enough for All: Canada's First Financial Empowerment Model

Financial vulnerability affects many people in Calgary. Wages are not keeping up with the rapidly increasing cost of living, and most people living below the poverty line belong to households in which at least one person is working. Many people are living above the poverty line, yet still experience financial vulnerability due to low levels of savings and high levels of debt.

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Community Benefits Summit Highlights Opportunity for More Inclusive Prosperity

Two types of social wealth building initiatives are on the rise: Community Benefit Agreements (CBA) and Social Procurement. Scotland, Los Angeles, the Vancouver Olympics, and even the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games/Parapan Am Games were amongst the first to adopt CBA's and social procurement adoption. In fact, Ontario is the first Canadian jurisdiction to pass legislation on CBAs. Ontario’s Bill 6, the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, received Royal Ascent in 2015 and the regulations to support this policy are currently in development.

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Lessons from Toronto Foundation's Vital Signs Report: Towards a More Just City

The Toronto Foundation, a community foundation focused on pooling philanthropic resources to maximize community impact, released their 2017/18 vital signs report this month. This year’s report, Towards a More Just City, uses an equity lens to reveal the ways that quality of life can be impacted by neighbourhood, income, race, immigration status, gender, sexual identity and age in Toronto. The Toronto Foundation hopes that the equity lens, and the concerns that it highlights, provide a useful roadmap for government, the philanthropic sector, private sector and individual citizens to remove systemic barriers facing some populations in Toronto from full participation in the city.

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A Matchmaking Website for Volunteers and Non-Profits

Have you ever thought of giving back to the community – volunteering somehow – but aren’t sure of where to start?

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PEI Working to Develop a Poverty Reduction Action Plan

The Province of Prince Edward Island (PEI) appointed twelve members to its new Poverty Reduction Advisory Council in February of 2018. The council is now getting to work to deliver a poverty reduction plan to the government for October.

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