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Canada is seeing a “glimmer of hope” for reducing poverty in the country, but Food Banks Canada says their latest report cards show if governments don’t continue their efforts, the progress made could be lost quickly.
The organization released its poverty reduction report cards on Monday, outlining how the country as a whole and each province and territory is doing and makes recommendations on what can be improved.
“There’s some deep, structural issues and some big problems for the country to solve, but we’re starting to see legislative momentum,” said Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada. “There’s a bit of a glimmer of hope, but it’s a very precarious good story, right? So if we don’t continue this legislative momentum, we risk those grades slipping even further.”
Each report card ranked the provinces, territories and country overall on people’s experience of poverty, measures to tackle poverty and material deprivation by looking at standard of living and legislative progress.
The overall grade for Canada was a D+, but only Manitoba and Quebec hit above a D at C- and C, respectively.
New Brunswick received the only failing grade, with 70 per cent of residents on government support saying it’s not enough, almost 30 per cent living in food insecure households, and 36 per cent saying they had an inadequate standard of living.
Fredericton’s Greener Village food bank says it’s seen a six per cent increase in the past two months compared to a year ago, so the grade is not a surprise.
“It’s a bit of a hang-your-head moment because we want to see fewer people need the support we provide,” said Alex Boyd, CEO of the food bank. “We wanted to diversify programming so we can provide different kinds of support for different things. So it smarts, but it’s not shocking.”
Boyd said it’s not only government that’s facing the issue, telling Global News it needs to be a “cohesive” move with government, charities, academia and other organizations working together.
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New Brunswick Minister of Social Development Cindy Miles said the province acknowledges there’s “more work to do,” and said they’re working to improve affordability including lowering electricity bills and putting a three per cent rent cap in place.
“We hear from individuals and families who are doing their best to manage increasing expenses, and we know these pressures can be overwhelming,”
Ontario saw minimal change in its grading, receiving a D- once again, and the North York Harvest Food Bank said it’s in line with what they’re seeing.
“What is pushing folks to our programs right now in these record numbers is an affordability crisis in the city,” said Sarah Watson, director of community engagement for the food bank. “Rents are too high, food prices are too high, incomes aren’t high enough.”
The province’s report card showed 43 per cent of Ontarians are paying more than 30 per cent of their income on housing. It also found 56.5 per cent of income being spent on fixed costs beyond housing.
Advocates urge change to EI, social assistance programs
Food Banks Canada’s report cards all highlighted another issue that multiple organizations said needs to change: improvements to government assistance and changing employment insurance (EI).
With a change from the usual 40-hour work week at a company for decades, some Canadians are turning to gig work, part-time jobs and other forms of work, the report points out.
“Changing the accessibility criteria for employment insurance would make a big difference,” said FeedNB executive director Stephane Sirois. “A lot of people are working multiple part-time jobs, variable hours, contract work, gig work … It makes it challenging to access EI if they need it because they’re not in that traditional, that full-time employment work, which is becoming out of touch.”
EI is a federal program that bridges the financial gap for workers who are between jobs, paying 55 per cent of the average insurable weekly earnings. Someone with an annual income of $68,900, for example, would receive a maximum of $729 in EI per week.
To receive EI regular benefits, Canadians must show they were employed with insurable earnings prior to their claim and lost that position through no fault of their own.
But the government of Canada notes eligibility for part-time or contract workers can depend if they worked a total of 420 to 700 hours in the previous 52 weeks prior to their claim.
Jobs with irregular hours, working multiple jobs, or being self-employed can make it more difficult to meet the government’s requirements.
But it’s not only EI that needs to change, with Food Banks Canada urging provinces like British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia to improve social and income assistance programs.
Manitoba may have received a C- grade, but it failed when it came to government support recipients, with 51 per cent saying the rates aren’t sufficient to keep up with the cost of living.
Catherine Scott, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said making changes to EI and social assistance would see that money reinvested into the community.
“Investing into delivery of benefits is actually a direct investment in our local communities,” Scott said. “Low-income families spend every dollar they’ve got in the local community. It’s not as if money is being squirreled away and shipped out of the country.”
Improving social assistance and EI could be a good first step, with Beardsley saying it would have a meaningful impact to start.
“There isn’t a silver bullet,” she said. “I think it’s going to be critically important to do this top-to-tail review of the Employment Insurance Program and then at the provincial level, as I said, there isn’t a single province that is offering an adequate social assistance.”
—with files from Global News’ Nate Dove and Heidi Petracek, and The Canadian Press
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