Ella Does Squamish

More on poverty in Canada -

Alberta a welfare skinflint in a miserly country
Social assistance income far below poverty line in all
provinces, report says

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=62a1a420-728f-479d-a251-074cb42d7389&k=97507&p=1

Norma Greenaway, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service
Thursday, August 24, 2006

OTTAWA - Oil-rich Alberta may be rolling in dough, but the cash is not finding its way into the pockets of welfare recipients
whose meagre incomes come nowhere near the poverty line, says a major national report on welfare incomes being released today.

Alberta is not, however, the only skinflint province, according to the report by the National Council on Welfare, which documents
what it describes as a "dismal" pattern of welfare relief across Canada for the 1.7 million people, including 500,000 children, living on
social assistance.

"Most Canadians would find it impossible to cope with the substantial income losses that welfare households have experienced," it
said.

The report said welfare incomes continued to decline in 2005, and none cameremotely close to the poverty lines, average incomes or
median incomes in any part of the country.

Some income losses were staggering, the report said, with one third of welfare households losing $3,000 or more — when adjusted
for inflation –from the incomes received during peak years. Most welfare incomes peaked in 1994 or earlier, it said.

The report suggested governments and the Canadian public have "turned their backs" on the poorest of the poor.

"Welfare incomes were never high, but the declines that have occurred demonstrate that governments are not interested in
providing help to people who need it the most," it said.

In a written statement, council chairman John Murphy called the situation "shameful and morally unsustainable in a rich country."

The council, a federal body charged with advising the government on issues of concern to low-income Canadians, said the findings
demonstrate anew the need to pursue a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy. The report has been delivered to Human Resources Minister Diane Finley.

It said that despite significant increases in such federal support as the National Child Benefit, cuts or freezes in the already
inadequate levels of provincial and territorial support have further eroded welfare incomes.

Welfare incomes for single employable people were by far the lowest in 2005 in all provinces. "Not one reached 50 per cent of the
poverty line," it said.

Alberta stood out on several fronts. Among other things, the report said, the income in real dollars of a single person on welfare in
Alberta has decreased by $4,800, or almost 50 per cent, since 1986, and that lone parents in Canada’s richest province received just $12,326 a year in 2005 — a figure which amounts to only 48 per cent of the poverty line, or thelow-income cutoff as defined by Statistics Canada for the province.

Alberta also shared with New Brunswick the dubious distinction of having the lowest incomes in 2005 in two of the four household
types studied.  In New Brunswick, a single person got $3,427 a year, and a couple with two children received $17,567. This compares to the highest rate of $8,198 for singles in Newfoundland and Labrador, and $21,218 paid by Prince Edward Island to couples with two children.

In Alberta, the welfare income of a single person with a disability was $7,851, compared with the high of $12,057 in Ontario. A
lone parent with one child received $12,326 in Alberta — substantially lower than the $16,181 worth of benefits received in Newfoundland and Labrador.

By contrast, Prince Edward Island paid the most generous benefits to couples with two children, Ontario’s payment of $12,057 a
year to persons with disabilities was No. 1 in that category, and Newfoundland and Labrador was the most generous to singles, as well as lone parents with one child.

Still, the report says Ontario has little to brag about, despite being most generous on the disability front.

"In Ontario, welfare incomes as a percentage of the poverty line have fallen a staggering 17 to 25 percentage points for all four
household types since the early 1990s," it said.

© The Edmonton Journal 2006








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