Press Release: Precarity in Canada Requires Comprehensive Poverty Plan
A new infographic series shows how people in Canada are struggling to make ends meet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa, ON: February 8, 2018 — A new report from the Dignity for All Campaign highlights the precarious lives of people across Canada and the need for a comprehensive national, anti-poverty plan.
Living in the Gap: A Snapshot of Precarity in Canada is a series of infographics that profiles six fictitious households and illustrates how precarity affects people’s lives on a daily basis. They represent what it’s like for typical families living in the gap between what they have and what they need. The profiles include monthly incomes and expenses for each family and illustrate how households on both sides of the poverty line are struggling to meet even their most basic needs.
“People’s lives are complex. When a family is struggling with prohibitively high costs of childcare and housing, for example, they need more than one simple program like the Canada Child Benefit.” says Sarah DelVillano of Citizens for Public Justice, who authored the report. “Canada’s upcoming anti-poverty plan needs to recognize the intersecting root causes of poverty. We need a strategy that tackles precarity and poverty in a targeted and comprehensive way.”
“Many families living above the poverty line still experience precarious situations and struggle to make ends meet,” says Liz Majic, Legal Education and Outreach Coordinator at Canada Without Poverty. “All people in Canada have the right to an adequate standard of living and our federal policy must reflect that.”
The Dignity for All Campaign has been calling for a National Anti-Poverty Plan since 2009. In 2015, the campaign released its own model anti-poverty plan. The government of Canada is set to release its first Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy sometime this year.
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Contact:
Brad Wassink, Citizens for Public Justice, at 613-232-0275 x. 225 or [email protected].
Laura Neidhart, Canada Without Poverty, at 613-293-2446 or [email protected].
Dignity for All: the campaign for a poverty-free Canada, headed by Canada Without Poverty and Citizens for Public Justice, is a multi-year, non-partisan campaign supported by over 11,000 individuals and 700 local and national organizations calling for a comprehensive federal plan to eliminate poverty.
