Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’m co-author of a blog post titled “The Federal Role in Poverty Reduction.”
Points raised in the blog post include the following:
-Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development has been tasked to lead the development of a Canada Poverty Reduction Strategy.
-Total public social spending in Canada (as a % of GDP) is well below the OECD average.
-Our current federal government has already taken several important initiatives pertaining to poverty reduction.
-Measures our current federal government could take to further reduce poverty in Canada include bringing in a national early learning and child care framework/strategy, expanding the Working Income Tax Benefit, implementing universal pharmacare and providing more funding for affordable housing.
-Macroeconomic policies that could assist with these endeavours include deficit financing, increasing personal income taxes for high-income earners, increasing corporate income taxes, and addressing inequities in our tax-expenditure system.
-Any poverty reduction strategy should be undertaken in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
The link to the full blog post is here.
