Poverty Policy

This paper discusses ten major policy areas that comprise the core of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy:

• affordable housing which involves the creation of new units, property retrofit and/or rent supplementation
• early childhood development, including sufficient affordable high-quality child care
• high school completion and improved literacy proficiency
• demand-driven customized training that engages the private sector, training institutions and employment programs, and the removal of employment barriers, particularly for foreign-trained workers
• improved minimum wages and enhanced supplementation of low earnings through the federal Working Income Tax Benefit and provincial earnings supplements, and of income through federal and provincial/territorial child benefits
• appropriate replacement of employment earnings through a restored and improved unemployment insurance system
• adequate income and appropriate supports for persons with disabilities
• assistance with the creation of assets for low-  and modest-income households and support for the social economy
• strong social infrastructure in the form of community spaces and associated recreation and cultural programs
• place-based initiatives that fashion integrated approaches to intervention and that create effective responses to tackling poverty through creative combinations of resources and approaches.

ISBN – 1-55382-317-6