Recent Actions
Support the Poverty Elimination Act
November 24th is a special day in the fight against poverty.
On November 24th 1989, Canada's House of Commons passed a unanimous all-party resolution to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000.
On November 24th 2009, the House passed another unanimous motion to "develop an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada for all".
And last November the House's Human Resources Committee called for a federal poverty reduction plan with measurable targets and timelines.
The sad part is that nothing's been implemented to date.
Twenty-two years, two unanimous House resolutions, and several reports calling for action, yet nearly 3,200,000 Canadians continue to live in poverty.
Take Action to Eliminate Poverty in Canada
More than three million people in Canada live in poverty, including more than 630,000 children – one in every ten. And that does not include the shameful situation in First Nations communities where one in four children lives in poverty. This has significant impact on the health of First Nations children and future generations.
In 2009, MPs unanimously voted to “develop an immediate plan to end poverty in Canada for all”. Now there is a new bill to make that happen.
Send a message to Ontario party leaders: make Ontario poverty free
Your action in support of Make Poverty History during the last Ontario election put poverty on the provincial government agenda. In 2009 all parties voted unanimously for the Poverty Reduction Act.
This election, you can help make sure that poverty remains a key issue. Send a message to the leaders of the Ontario political parties urging them to commit to take action on eliminating poverty.
Action for a Robin Hood Tax
Right now, we have an amazing opportunity to put in place a way of raising the money needed to end global poverty and help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change. This is because the French government has proposed adopting a global Financial Transaction Tax, also known as the Robin Hood Tax, at the G20 Summit they will be hosting in November 2011.
Help unfreeze the aid budget
Last year the federal government announced their plan to freeze the aid budget for 2011 at 2010 levels. But after 8 years of 8% annual increases, our aid spending amounts to only 0.3% of our national income – less than half of the 0.7% that Canada has promised to give. If we freeze aid at 2010 levels, we will start moving backwards – away from the 0.7% aid target. We can't let this happen.
It's Time To Take Action On Poverty And Climate Change
A billion dollar Canadian bill? Take a closer look and you will notice that although it bears a slight resemblance to our $5 bill, this $1 Billion Climate Cash bill illustrates what could happen to our iconic Canadian winter scenes if we don’t take action on climate change. It also draws attention to the $1 Billion that is now being wasted on subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as well as the $1 Billion that is needed to help poor countries cope with climate change.
Support the Report - Help make a break-through on poverty in Canada
An all party committee of parliament has put forward a report that could change the face of poverty in Canada.
The report calls for the federal government to immediately commit to a federal action plan to reduce poverty in Canada. Make Poverty History has contributed and pushed for this report, now we must make its recommendations a reality.
Canada needs secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing, write your MP to pass Bill C-304
In every major city in Canada it is hard to avoid the shocking reality of homelessness even though we live in one of the richest countries in the world. Homeless people on the streets are only the tip of the housing crisis iceberg. Many more poor people are forced to couch surf or live in inadequate housing.
You can help to do something about Canada’s affordable housing crisis by sending a message now to your Member of Parliament asking him/her to vote yes on Bill C-304, the National Housing Strategy Act.
Bill C-304, an Act to ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing, is a private member’s bill introduced by Libby Davies, NDP MP for the riding of Vancouver East.
Tell Harper to honour Canada's promise on poverty.
A very important meeting of world leaders will take place next week at the UN in New York to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to reduce extreme poverty by half by the year 2015.
Action update: Because of your support in recent actions, PM Stephen Harper is now going to attend the summit. This is our chance to urge him to fulfill Canada's commitments to end poverty.
Canada needs to keep its global commitments: let's send Harper to the MDG Summit.
Prime Minister Harper responded positively to calls from Make Poverty History supporters for a maternal and child health initiative at the recently concluded G8 Summit. The Canadian government pledged $1.1 Billion over 5 years that together with funds pledged by other countries will help to save over million women and children’s lives. That is a big achievement and it helps to build momentum for renewed efforts to achieve all the 8 Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015.
We need Canada to get to the point - 0.7 percent of national income in foreign aid.
Canadians like to think we are a generous and compassionate people. But we rank only 16th of 22 aid donor countries. We are giving only 0.32% of our national income in development aid. That's less than half of the point seven per cent (0.7%) we keep promising to give and then failing to deliver. Donor nations and the UN all agree that 0.7% is the amount necessary to make serious progress towards alleviating extreme poverty in the world.
