Dignity for All Income Security Recommendations

A key goal of Dignity for All: the campaign for a poverty free Canada (DfA) is to bring together diverse stakeholders –social policy organizations, national anti-poverty and public interest groups, professional associations, labour organizations, faith communities, front-line service agencies, and people with lived experience of poverty – to find consensus and further develop recommendations for the essential components of a national poverty elimination strategy (building on the excellent groundwork laid by the Senate’s 2009 In from the Margins report and the House of Common’s 2010 Federal Poverty Reduction Plan report). By early 2013, our plan is to have a comprehensive framework that has the broad support of these groups to present to the various political parties for their endorsement in the 2014 federal election.

Last year we met to develop recommendations on (i) housing and (ii) early childhood education and care. This April, several DfA national partner organizations, along with leading public policy experts, gathered to discuss and establish policy recommendations for federal income security programs for children, working adults, and seniors.

After extensive consultation with issue-area experts and colleague organizations over the past several months, our income security recommendations are now available online . A series of background documents, including copies of the presentations made at April’s policy summit, and previous sets of recommendations are also available.

While not exhaustive, these income security recommendations represent a broad consensus amongst DfA members. Further work needs to be done, including a full costing of these and other recommendations. These are intended to be living, changing documents; we invite you to take a look at the recommendations and submit your thoughts, questions, and comments to dignity [at] dignityforall [dot] ca.

Together, we can develop and promote innovative, progressive policy solutions to reduce, and eventually eliminate, poverty in Canada!