Nunavut is taking positive steps to address poverty and will soon be joining the provinces and territories that have already implemented poverty-reduction plans.

On October 18, 2010 the Government of Nunavut announced the launch of a Nunavut-wide “public engagement process” that is to culminate in the territory’s first anti-poverty strategy.

The process, which began November 1, 2010, is expected to take a year and will be supported by a leadership team made up of representatives from government, Inuit organizations, non-profit organizations and the business community. The process is to engage each of Nunavut’s 25 communities and will involve three stages: a community dialogue in every community; regional roundtables; and, a final poverty summit in Iqaluit. The result will be the preparation and implementation of a poverty reduction strategy for Nunavut.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is now taking steps to address poverty in the territory through the development of an anti-poverty strategy.

In response to calls from a growing number of social organizations in February 2010 the government passed a motion to develop a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy for the Northwest Territories. The government plans to produce a discussion paper and consult with residents on an anti-poverty strategy.

As part of this process, the No Place for Poverty Anti-Poverty workshop in October 2010 in Yellowknife brought together more than 80 social justice advocates, political leaders and people living in poverty to offer broad, community-based input to guide the design of a Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Strategy. They have called on government, business, communities and non-government organizations to work in partnership from the community level to create a strategy based in legislation, to ensure long-term effort and accountability.

For updates on the development of the Northwest Territories Anti-poverty Strategy and to learn more about the No Place for Poverty Anti-Poverty workshop visit the Alternatives North website

The Yukon has no plan yet but is taking concrete steps to address poverty. On October 14, 2009 the Yukon Government announced its commitment to create a Yukon Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy with the goal of creating “a better Yukon for all Yukoners.”

The strategy is currently in the process of development. The Department of Health and Social Services is leading the work on the strategy, collaborating with partner departments and non-government organizations to create a strategy that will provide evidence-based research and measured social indicators on which to base decisions within government.

The Department of Health and Social Services established the Office of Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction to guide the development, implementation and on- going management of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy. You can view updates and progress on the Yukon Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy at www.abetteryukon.ca.

Prince Edward Island is the most recent province to announce its commitment to creating a poverty reduction strategy for the province but the plan is still in development.

On November 12, 2010 in its Speech from the Throne, the Government of Prince Edward Island announced its intent to address poverty, stating that “My government recognizes the need to put priority on addressing the needs of those Islanders facing the greatest challenges” and that “Early in the new year, my government will release a Poverty Reduction discussion paper that will begin the process, in consultation with Islanders, of examining further options to improve the well-being of Islanders who are vulnerable and in need.”

The plan is still in development.

On December 13, 2007, An Act to Establish a Poverty Reduction Working Group was passed unanimously by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. A Poverty Reduction Working Group was then created to provide recommendations to the Government of Nova Scotia on the creation of a poverty reduction strategy. The Nova Scotia government released its Poverty Reduction Strategy on April 3, 2009, Preventing Poverty. Promoting Prosperity. Nova Scotia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.

The Plan

“The vision for 2020: to break the cycle of poverty by creating opportunities for all Nova Scotians to participate in the prosperity of the province and enjoy a better standard of living.” The four main goals of the strategy are:

1. Enable and reward work
2. Improve supports for those in need
3. Focus on our children
4. Collaborate and coordinate

To achieve these goals the plan includes the creation of a poverty reduction committee and coordinator to enhance collaboration and coordination, investments in training opportunities and housing, increases to income assistance, expansion of the Nova Scotia child benefit and the creation of more subsidized child-care spaces. To ensure accountability the Poverty Reduction Working Group is responsible for establishing benchmarks and measures and periodically reporting on the progress of the poverty-reduction strategy. The adoption of a poverty reduction strategy by the Nova Scotia government represents a step in the right direction. However, the plan needs targets to measure meaningful progress.

In 2009, New Brunswick became the sixth province to adopt a poverty-reduction strategy, Overcoming Poverty Together: The New Brunswick Economic and Social Inclusion Plan. New Brunswick adopted the Economic and Social Inclusion Act, in 2010, to serve as the legislative framework to implement the plan and they established a new crown corporation, the Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation, to set targets and timelines and monitor progress. The corporation is governed by representatives of government, community, business and low-income persons and oversees the formation of community-level networks to create local poverty reduction plans.

The Plan

“By 2015, New Brunswick will have reduced income poverty by 25% and deep income poverty by 50%, and will have made significant progress in achieving sustained economic and social inclusion.”

Areas for action include reforming social assistance and raising the minimum wage, introducing an Early Learning and Child Care Act, making training and education opportunities more accessible, and developing a comprehensive housing strategy.

New Brunswick’s plan is a step in the right direction but it will require continued pressure from the community to ensure that the government implements change and meets its commitments to make a real impact on reducing poverty in New Brunswick.

The Newfoundland government has also been proactive in implementing a poverty reduction strategy. In 2006, after extensive community consultation, the Progressive Conservative Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, Reducing Poverty: An Action Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador, was passed unanimously, making Newfoundland and Labrador the second province in Canada to adopt a poverty reduction strategy.

The Newfoundland case is particularly interesting from a BC perspective because BC and Newfoundland shared the unwelcome distinction of having the highest rates in Canada until the government of Newfoundland and Labrador chose to address it unlike the BC government.

The Plan

The central goal of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s commitment to poverty reduction is simple: to transform Newfoundland and Labrador from the Canadian province with the most poverty to the one with the least by 2014. Five specific goals were outlined in the 2006 Action Plan:

1. Improve access to services for people with low income
2. Develop a stronger social safety net?
3. Improve earned incomes?
4. Increase emphasis on the need for early childhood development
5. Work toward having a better educated population

Progress towards a stronger social safety net includes increased support for persons with disabilities, enhanced accessibility to the justice system, and further development of social housing. Newfoundland now provides among the highest social assistance benefit rates in the country and, in 2007, became the first province in Canada to index welfare rates to inflation.

The province has demonstrated its commitment to reducing poverty by making significant investments in its poverty reduction strategy. Altogether, over 100 million was invested between 2006 and 2008.

It Works!

The incidence of low-income in the province decreased from 12% in 2004 to 7% in 2009, the latest date for which data are available. The depth of poverty, or average low-income gap, decreased from $5,500 in 2003 to $4,900 in 2007 and is now the lowest in the country.

Newfoundland is now at the forefront for poverty reduction progress in Canada. Since implementing the strategy in 2006, Newfoundland has gone from being one of the provinces with the highest levels of poverty to one of those with the least.

Quebec has been one of the most progressive provinces so far taking action on poverty. It was the first province in the country to introduce a legislated poverty reduction strategy.

A broad based provincial coalition of individuals and community organizations, the Collective for a Poverty Free Quebec, was vital to getting the law passed as they created a massive petition to support the government’s proposed law, and held public consultations throughout the process. As part of its National Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion, in 2002, the Government of Quebec unanimously passed an Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. The law has been praised for its comprehensiveness and for defining poverty as more than just low income, including lack of “means, choices and power” as poverty indicators. In 2004, the Government of Quebec released its first 5-year action plan on poverty and in May 2010 released its second 2010-2015 action plan Quebec’s Combat Against Poverty.

The Plan

Quebec wants to reduce poverty in the province by half over 10 years, and achieve one of the lowest levels of poverty in the industrialized world by 2013. Quebec’s plan includes:

1. Maintaining the Child Assistance and the Work Premium
2. Introduction of a refundable Solidarity Tax Credit
3. Investing in training and supporting access to employment
4. Improving the disposable income of individuals on low incomes
5. Supporting local and regional social initiatives
6. Increasing access to social housing

This is not just talk from the Quebec government. To achieve its goals Quebec’s plan comes with a budget of close to $7 billion over five years, $1.3 billion of it in new investments. It offers accountability through an annual report on its progress from the Minister of Employments office, and it has established an advisory committee.

It Works!

The poverty reduction strategy in Quebec has been a success. The proportion of people living on low incomes in Quebec has dropped from 12% in 2004 to 9.4% in 2009. It will take a continued commitment from the government and pressure from the population to ensure Quebec’s poverty reduction strategy remains a success.

During the provincial election in 2007, Make Poverty History in collaboration with other groups in the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction mounted a very successful campaign to get all provincial party leaders to support a poverty reduction plan.

In December 2008, the Government of Ontario introduced the plan Breaking the Cycle: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. On May 6, 2009 the Ontario legislature unanimously passed The Poverty Reduction Act, which commits successive provincial governments to act on poverty and provides measures to track progress over time. The strategy was created with significant input and collaboration from community groups and those living in poverty.

The Plan

Ontario’s poverty reduction plan has set out a goal of reducing the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over 5 years, lifting an estimated 90,000 children out of poverty by 2014.

Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy focuses on four key areas:

1. Investing in the Ontario Child Benefit – increasing it to up to $1,310 annually per child per year, to provide support to 1.3 million children in low-income families
2. Investing in education and early learning
3. Strengthening communities by fostering positive local initiatives
4. Reviewing social assistance with the goal of removing barriers and increasing opportunity

A key part of Ontario’s plan is that it includes a budget and a plan to measure its progress. The plan includes a commitment to investing $2.5 billion over five years, with a total annual investment of over $1.4 billion when the strategy is at full implementation. The government also established indicators that will be reported on annually to measure the province’s progress.

It Works!

The success of Ontario’s poverty reduction plan is clear. While in most other places, poverty rose in the worst global recession in recent history, child poverty in Ontario actually fell between 2008 and 2009, inching down from 15.2 per cent to 14.6 per cent. That means 19,000 Ontario children and their families were moved out of poverty, despite very tough times, because Ontario took concrete action to reduce child poverty. More needs to be done for single adults, especially men, but the lesson to be learned is that a government commitment matched by good policy can make a big difference in people’s lives.

In 2009, Manitoba’s government launched their Poverty Reduction Plan: All Aboard: Manitoba’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. In June 2011, the Manitoba legislature passed important legislation that gives some authority to this strategy. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Act will create the means to define, monitor and enforce what the government does to deal with poverty and social exclusion.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Act establishes in law what the government will do to reduce poverty. In particular, it creates a monitoring committee of government ministers and community members to review and advise on the strategy. While this is an important administrative mechanism for government, it does not have the power to actually define programs or to hold government accountable if it does not implement programs. Also, there is still a need for external monitoring of government progress, which could be more comprehensive and critical.

The Act requires government to take poverty reduction into account when preparing annual budgets, to prepare a yearly statement, and to develop indicators to measure progress of the strategy. These are also important to strengthening what government does to reduce poverty.

The government must still develop programs, plans, timelines and budgets for relevant action that will reduce poverty and increase social inclusion. It will be in these programmatic developments that the real strength of the strategy will be seen.

Why does Saskatchewan need a plan? Despite experiencing an economic boom over the past decade, poverty still remains a reality for many people and communities in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan’s economic growth has not benefitted everyone equally as it has brought with it rising costs making it more difficult for families on low-incomes to meet their basic necessities. Saskatchewan’s child poverty rate is the third highest provincial rate in all of Canada.

A new network of individuals and organizations has come together from across the province to form Poverty Free Saskatchewan (PFS). PFS is calling on individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments to work together to create an effective and detailed poverty elimination strategy for Saskatchewan.

PFS is working to create a “Made-in Saskatchewan” action plan for eliminating poverty. To learn more read their report Let’s Do Something About Poverty, which outlines the current situation in Saskatchewan regarding poverty and offers proposals and solutions for what can be done to reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty in Saskatchewan.

Why does Alberta need a plan? Despite being one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada:

1. 73,000 children in Alberta live in poverty.
2. Low income children in Alberta live in deeper poverty than children in other provinces.
3. A job is no longer a ticket out of poverty – 47% of children living in poverty have one or more parents working full-time, full-year.
4. Aboriginal children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty
5. Recent immigrant and visible minority families experience higher unemployment rates placing them at greater risk of living in low income.
6. Alberta’s living costs, especially for housing, are amongst the highest in Canada, placing additional burden on low income children and their families.

Alberta has the resources to eliminate poverty, but what it requires is a plan. A growing number of people and organizations across the province are calling on the provincial, federal and municipal governments to work together with community organizations and others to develop a poverty elimination strategy for Alberta.

A report released by Public Interest Alberta, Alberta College of Social Workers and the Edmonton Social Planning Council entitled, In This Together: Ending Poverty in Alberta, reveals concerns about growing poverty in Alberta. But it also shows that with the implementation of a strong comprehensive plan that invests in proven solutions, poverty in Alberta can be reduced, prevented and ultimately eliminated.

Good news! Alberta’s new Premier heard the call from the community and promised to implement a poverty reduction strategy during her leadership campaign. Watch this space for updates.