The 2030 Project

In this episode…we get to the chicken and egg dilemma in the efforts to reduce poverty in this country. We’ve already talked about the current programs that have been successful at raising the more vulnerable Canadians out of poverty. So, there are best practices we can build upon. But there are two chronic issues that stagger the mission. One is a growing income gap and a diminishing middle class. The other is the increasingly urgent need for affordable housing – and not just in major urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver. Addressing both with some urgency is critical if we’re going to develop resiliency in our social services and for those in need of those supports. And today, our guests say the greatest obstacle has been a lack of political leadership and commitment David Hardy is an urban planner. President and CEO of Hardy Stevenson and Associates and the Executive Director of the Institute for New Suburbanism. Sean Meagher is the Coordinator at Convene Toronto And Magda Barrera is a Housing and Economics Policy Analyst at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.

In this episode, we explore the need to address social infrastructure, which includes everything from universal daycare to high-speed internet access; from food nutrition to Peppa Pig. The argument is, it’s necessary to broaden our definition in order to create a foundation for a future that provides resilience, not just for the system, but for the citizens who are struggling with poverty. And we're going to find that one of the biggest challenges in creating solutions is our own cultural and institutional misunderstanding or mis-statement of what it means to live in poverty. We're joined by Ujwal Arkalgud - a cultural anthropologist and founder of Motivbase. And Leila Sarangi, director of social action with Family Service Toronto. And she serves as the National Director for Campaign 2000 aimed at ending child and family poverty in Canada.

Over the past number of episodes, we’ve heard from front line workers and social assistance recipients who will tell you there are programs in place right now that are successfully reducing poverty rates in some demographics across Canada. But they have universally told us, it’s not enough. If we’re going to have any hope of tackling poverty, there needs to be a “floor” that provides income stability. It leads us to the main question in this episode of the 2030 Project. What role can a basic, guaranteed income play in the ongoing mission to reduce, if not eliminate poverty? Our guests for this session are John Wright, SVP at Maru Public Opinion. Sheila Regehr chairs the Basic Income Canada Network And Evelyn Forget is an economist and professor in community health sciences at the University of Manitoba.

In this episode of the 2030 Project, we’re going to find out more about the FORGOTTEN POOR – they are Working age singles who are three time more likely to live in poverty as the
average Canadian. To discuss it… We’re joined by Sherri Torjman. Sherri is a social policy consultant and the former Vice President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy and is currently the Vice-chair of the Disability Advisory Committee reporting to Canada’s Minster of National Revenue. And Colin Busby is the Research Director at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Among other things he oversees a program focussed on the social safety net renewal for working aged adults.

In the last episode, Garima Talwar Kapoor at Maytree talked about the WELFARE WALL. It refers to the unintended consequence of social support programs that effectively discourages people from supplementing their pension, their welfare or social assistance cheques with a part time job. Thousands of individuals with serious disabilities end up on welfare. And many of them inadvertently become trapped behind that welfare wall because it is their chief source of income and often the only route to disability supports and benefits. In this episode we get a first-hand perspective from Trevor Manson and Andrea Hatala, Chairs of Ontario Disability Support Program Action Coalition. We’re also joined by Devorah Kobluk, Chair of Defend Disability. During the pandemic, the federal government spent $200 million dollars supporting food banks, indigenous organizations and related agencies. As urgent as that funding was at the time, Devorah says it only addressed a symptom rather than a solution.

In this episode, we reassemble our Round Table of Avengers Talia Bronstein - VP Research & Advocacy at Daily Bread Food Bank, Gareema Talwar Kapoor – Director of Policy and Research with Maytree, Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, Director of Advocacy & Communications at YWCA Toronto. We harken back to something we heard in the last episode when talked to Kate. She relies on food banks and social assistance to make ends meet. And based on her lived experience, she holds little if any hope that poverty can be significantly reduced. How do we evolve a system that can't keep up with need and demand?

In this episode, we introduce you to two women in different stages of their lives who both rely on the kindness of others to make ends meet. That includes regular use of their neighbourhood food bank. They each live in poverty in Canada’s largest city. And they each tell a remarkable story of resilience, of self-care, of personal and professional development. And above all I was struck by their unvarnished hope for their future while drawing on their lived experience in assessing the prospects of reducing poverty. Both Kate and Kenya are models of dignity in spite of the physical and psychological constraints of poverty.

In this episode, we confront the monumental challenges and the complications that need to be wrestled to the ground, if we're really going to put a serious dent in poverty rates in this country. To provide some perspective and context, we are joined today by Talia Bronstein, VP of Research and Advocacy at Daily Bread Food Bank; Garima Talwar Kapoor Director of Policy and Research with Maytree; and Jasmine Ramze, Rezaee, Director of Advocacy and Communications at YWCA Toronto. Now there is a national strategy in place and, in fact, it's being implemented right now. Garima Talwar Kapoor says it's based on some goals that are necessarily lofty and ambitious. [00:01:20] Garima: When the liberal government came in in 2015, they set out an ambitious path to develop Canada's first poverty reduction strategy. And as part of that, they aligned three different pillars. Dignity, opportunity and inclusion and resilience and security. And I think what the government wanted to do is sort of talk about, the issues that people living in deep poverty experience, to ensure that people can move from low income into the middle incomes and help protect people from falling from middle incomes into low income. If we were to add to a new element that is going to enhance the plan, what should that priority be? [00:19:05] Jasmine: I would say improvement. Labor standards and ensuring that all workers, regardless of immigration status or employment industry have access to minimum working conditions…. to live decently or at least pay for housing to some degree and live with some dignity. [00:20:50] Talia: Well, I'll just start by saying the dignity piece is absolutely both. You can't have dignity on below poverty incomes and you can't have dignity when you're being forced to jump through all sorts of hoops, to just have a basic standard of living where you can afford a roof over head and food on your plate. So, I think dignity really has both sides of that coin. So, the policy issues are fairly clear. The pillars of the plan are reasonably well defined. But what happens when we lift the policy off the page and look at how it plays out in the lives of those who try to navigate the system. Can they do so with dignity? Can they do so with any hope of rising above the physical and psychological constraints of poverty? We’ll get a glimpse of that lived experience coming up in the next episode of the 2030 Project.

The 2030 Project is a podcast series that will explore why poverty persists and what we can do about it. We endeavour to uncover what has been successful with Canada's poverty reduction strategy, and then what needs to come next? The 2030 project will tackle some of the biggest and the most pressing social issues facing Canada today. But why now? Why launch this series in 2021? [00:00:38] Neil Hetherington: "Well, there's a number of reasons. First is because of the need. The pandemic has exacerbated the divide and it's shown all of us that too many in our country. We're living too close to having to make use of a food bank. And we've gone through a really difficult time." Neil Hetherington is the CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank. Now besides providing food basics for those most in need daily bread food bank is a Toronto based charity whose mission is to collaborate with all to eliminate food insecurity and advocate for solutions to. [00:01:16] Neil: "We've had this shared experience of the pandemic and it seen food bank usage rise dramatically almost by double. There are solid solutions across the country. There is a poverty reduction strategy at each level of government that needs the leadership to be implemented. And we want to tell the individuals who are listening to this about what can be done and just how important it is. And the enough is enough. We need to do something about it." But is simply talking about the problem, enough? [00:01:55] Talia Bronstein: "Poverty is an issue that can't be outsourced to charities. It's a public policy issue." Talia Bronstein is the vice president of research and advocacy at daily bread. [00:02:07] Talia: "Having these discussions and looking to see what are the policy leavers that can actually happen. These root causes, the income inequality, the lack of affordable housing, uh, the lack of decent work. Um, these are the true issues that are producing food insecurity, and these are what we need to tackle. If we want to actually make sure that people don't need to come to a food." Dave Trafford sits down with Neil and Tahlia to explore some of the ideas and solutions offered, intended to cut poverty rates in half before the end of this decade.

The 2030 project is a podcast that will explore why poverty persists and what we can do about it. We will endeavour to uncover what has been successful with Canada's poverty reduction strategy, and then what needs to come next? The 2030 project we'll tackle some of the biggest and most pressing social issues facing Canada today, including universal basic income, digital access, disability rights, and the future of work. This podcast is sponsored by Daily Bread Food Bank, a Toronto based charity, whose mission is to collaborate with all to eliminate food insecurity and advocate for solutions to end poverty.