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VISION TO ACTION: A FAITH-BASED MOVEMENT
FOR A CANADA WITHOUT
POVERTY
May 30, 2007
Dear Party Leader,
As faith-based organizations cooperating in working to reduce
poverty in Canada, we are writing to request a meeting with you
to encourage your Party to commit to the development and implementation
of a poverty reduction strategy in your platform for the next federal
election.
In November 2006, we organized together a two-day Forum entitled “From
Vision to Action”. At the Forum, 75 people from across Canada – including
people of faith, low-income people, and parliamentarians – explored
ways to work together to achieve a Canada without poverty.
We are deeply concerned about the continued presence of poverty
in Canada today – and the lack of a federal plan to reduce
poverty.
Statistics Canada reports indicate that:
- 788,000 children in Canada live in poverty (2005 data), the
same percentage (11.7%) as in 1989, when Parliament resolved
to end child poverty by the year 2000
- one in six Canadians is inadequately housed (2001 data)
- 42% of urban Aboriginal people live in poverty (2001 data)
- 65% of new immigrants experience poverty sometime during their
first ten years in Canada (40% experience poverty in their
first year)
- the gap between richest and poorest Canadians is increasing
(between 1989 and 2004, the gap increased 35%)
Something can be done and something must be done to reduce poverty
in Canada.
Now is an opportune time for your Party to make a commitment to
develop and implement a poverty reduction strategy with specific
targets and timelines for reducing poverty in Canada.
European Union countries and three provinces in Canada have already
done so – with some success. Ireland developed a poverty
reduction strategy in the mid-1990s, and has reduced its poverty
rate from 15% to 6.8%. Quebec implemented a poverty reduction law
in 2002 – and has achieved a 40% reduction in its child poverty
rate since 2000.
When Canada signed the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development
in 1995, it made a commitment to implement a strategy “geared
to substantially reducing overall poverty in the shortest possible
time.” While the European Union has moved forward on this
commitment, Canada has yet to formulate a national strategy to
reduce poverty in Canada.
The economic, political, environmental and moral reasons to take
action are clear:
- Poverty is a root cause of violence, crime, unemployment,
social exclusion, and ill health – all of which undermine
the economic and social well-being of our communities.
- Canada has the resources available to take action on poverty.
- Canadians are deeply concerned about the growing gap between
rich and poor; and many Canadians feel they are only a missed
paycheck or two away from poverty themselves.
- Poverty and inequality contribute to resource waste and environmental
degradation, for example, through the lack of access to quality
housing and other sustainable technologies and products.
- Canada has a political obligation to take action to reduce
poverty, as underlined in recent reports by the Standing Senate
Committee on Human Rights and the United Nations Committee
on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights.
- Finally, Canada has a moral duty to address poverty because,
quite simply, we have a responsibility to our neighbours in
need; a commitment that is deeply rooted in the diverse faith
communities in Canada, and in the basic values of all Canadians.
In summary, we urge your Party to commit to developing and implementing
a poverty reduction strategy for Canada in consultation with a
wide spectrum of citizens (particularly those who live in poverty),
with specific targets and timelines, and mechanisms of accountability
to the people of Canada.
In doing so, you will appeal to the best of Canada and its people:
our desire to grow healthy families and communities, to show compassion
to and seek justice for those in need, and to steward and protect
our natural environment.
Thank you for considering this letter. We will follow up with
you by phone in the hope of scheduling a meeting with you to further
discuss the process for developing a poverty reduction strategy
for Canada.
For more information, please contact Michael Polanyi, Program
Coordinator at KAIROS, mpolanyi@kairoscanada.org or
416.463.5312 x237.
Sincerely,
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