Canadian Tax Dollars At Work: Tories take a pass on poverty report

[trouble]

Sadly, it seems the original version of this is no longer available online.

Tories take a pass on poverty report

Heather Scoffield
The Toronto Star , Mar. 8, 2011

The federal government has no plans to act on an exhaustive House of Commons
plan to fight poverty.

The Commons human resources committee took three years to compile 58
recommendations that would have given Ottawa a key role in efforts to help
the poor.

The report calls for a new federal transfer payment to complement provincial
anti-poverty programs. It also pushes for a national housing strategy.

But in her formal response to the report, Human Resources Minister Diane
Finley says Ottawa is already doing what it takes to fight poverty.

She says the government has bolstered the labour market and invested in
housing through its Economic Action Plan.

"Our Conservative government believes that the best way to fight poverty is
to grow our economy and get Canadians working," Finley's spokesman summed
up.

Ottawa's role in fighting poverty is focused on giving Canadians the skills
they need to be self-sufficient and then using tightly defined government
programs to target barriers they can't overcome on their own, Finley's
response says.

Her reply did not specifically address any of the 58 recommendations from
the MPs.

"I think it's an abdication of responsibility," said Mike Savage, the
Liberal human resources critic.

I know I feel better knowing that a lot of resources were put into creating this report and now they've decided to ignore it. And I'm sure that the Canadians living in poverty right now appreciate their government's support.

siiiiiigh.

Comments

[silveradept]

At least Canada is producing reports on the issue. Stateside, we're provind day-in and day-out we don't even want to talk about it, except to say hurtful things to poor people and make it so that they continue to stay poor.

[the_future_modernes]

Can I ask you to tag this please?