Federal Budget Fails to Address Poverty

An increase in the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors of up to $600 a year for single seniors and $840 for couples is about the only measure in the federal budget that does anything to reduce poverty. It is only about a third of what is needed to bring all seniors out of poverty. And because it is targeted only to those receiving the maximum GIS amount, it will actually help a relatively small number of people.  

There was nothing in this budget to address growing rates of poverty among Aboriginal people, youth and recent immigrants - groups where poverty rates are much higher than among seniors. There was nothing for the one in ten children still living in poverty.

There was nothing to address the crisis in affordable housing, or child care, nor was there a pharmacare program to ensure the working poor can get access to the medications they need.

There was no commitment to developing a national poverty reduction plan to complement and support what a majority of provincial governments are now trying to do.

And the budget reiterated the government’s plan to freeze the aid budget at the 2010/11 level that was announced in last year’s federal budget. This is being done at a time when a redoubling of efforts is needed to help poor countries cope with climate change and the impacts of the economic crisis, which have reversed progress being made globally on reducing poverty. 

This budget is more about what it didn't contain than about what is included. 

Although the budget documents do not really make it clear, the Conservative government has made choices to spend billions on corporate tax cuts, fighter jets and building more prisons rather than doing anything to make poverty history either in Canada or globally.

Although this budget does not spell out where cuts in government spending will be made, it says the government will balance the budget by 2014-15, which will require it to find $11 billion in savings.

This is not a small amount. With the government already committed to continued annual increases in health transfers, it is almost certain that many government programs and civil service jobs involved in delivering services to the public will be hit hard. This will not only impact the poorest citizens who are more dependent on government services, but it also jeopardizes the increasingly precarious economic recovery, which will be seriously undermined by massive government job and spending cuts.