Shifting Gears on the Social Highway

This paper argues that we are stuck in the welfare lane on the social highway.  Public debate has focused primarily upon welfare dependence, workfare and welfare fraud. It is time to shift gears in order to address some of the critical issues facing the country; one of the most important is the health and well-being of children and families.  The paper calls for a cultural commitment to children and a set of actions that demonstrates this commitment.  These include employment-related policies that help balance work and family; services that promote child development such as school breakfast programs and preschool resource centres; affordable, high-quality child care; a stronger Child Tax Benefit for lower-income families and indexation of the benefit and its thresholds; tax relief for families to help offset the costs of raising children; and enforcement of child support orders.

ISBN – 1-895796-17-2