A Detailed Analysis of the Economic Effects of Raising the Minimum Wage   

 1.3% of hourly employees were making the minimum wage or less in 2022, the lowest percentage before agencies started collecting this data in 1979. A minimum wage worker, who is making the hourly minimum of $7.25 for 40 hours a week, would only make around $15,000 a year. What’s more,

The short game and the long game of COVID-19

 By Simon Sutcliffe The COVID-19 pandemic has captured the attention of Canadians with an urgency and a level of grudging acceptance unlike any other medical or natural disaster in our lifetime. We have complied with imposed restrictions and privations that would have been thought impossible and unacceptable under normal circumstances

Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) 2020 edition

 The 2020 edition of Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) takes place on Saturday, February 22nd.  It’s a great opportunity to have fun with friends and family, and make a difference in the lives of people who need the programs and services of The Ottawa Mission. This is the sixth

Ottawa needs a poverty reduction strategy

 by Michael Maidment, Chief Executive Officer Ottawa Food Bank Food is arguably the most important item to people. Most obviously, we need to eat to live, to survive, so why is the issue of food missing from the political conversation in Canada? Food is all around us. We work to

Madonna: Tragic epitome of homelessness

 She was soaking her swollen feet in the small outdoor hot tub at a Motel Six hotel located on Highway 101 about an hour south of San Francisco, in the summer of 2019. The person appeared to be a senior female with a weathered, well lined, tanned visage, and a slightly

Social assistance programs in Canada falling behind

 By: Arjumand Siddiqi and Odmaa Sod-Erdene Public health researchers have long known that poverty and poor health are linked, but new evidence suggests that social assistance – the government system designed to provide those in poverty with income support – is not succeeding at protecting health. Using data from national government

It’s time Canada had an official poverty line

 Poverty is hard to measure. There are many aspects besides living on low income, including having disabilities or costly health problems, not being able to find decent housing, not being able to understand and communicate in an environment with increasing technological and legal complexity and being unable to find nutritious

Reduce the poverty-to-prison pipeline for women

 Over the last decade, the number of women in Canada’s jails has spiked 30 per cent. Even more troubling, after a 60 per cent increase over the same period, Indigenous female prisoners now account for 37 per cent of all incarcerated women, and 50 per cent of women in maximum

Healthcare, Poverty, and Education are Closely Linked – How Do We Move Forward?

 By David Wine According to Dr. Charles (Chuck) Basch, author of Healthier Students Are Better Learners, health issues, which disproportionately plague low-income urban minority youth, play a major role in limiting students motivation and ability to learn. It is estimated that 800 million people are spending at least 10 percent of their household

Film Review: The Glass Castle

 Synopsis: A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads with a mother who's an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stir the children's imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty. Stars: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Why it’s Never too Late for Low Income Canadians to File Their Taxes

 Those earning $40,000 a year or less may be eligible for a range of benefits. Most Canadians would like to see an end to poverty.  What if we told you that one organization, using the existing social benefits system, found a way to get $21 million into the pockets of

Ottawa’s Heart Grows Three Sizes With New St. Vincent de Paul Locations

 James Strate has to be getting tired of grand openings. Less than four months after Strate's organization, Ottawa's branch of the St.Vincent de Paul Society, opened a temporary pop-up store on Metcalfe Street, it announced that it was opening a new location in the building evacuated by the recently closed

It’s Time to Test a Basic Income

 Recently I tabled a motion in the Senate calling on the government to create a pilot project that would test a basic income in Canada, also known as a guaranteed annual income. Canadians face immense challenges. Many families struggle to pay the rent, and some can’t afford their children’s school

Black in America

 Between the World and Me By: Ta-Nehisi Coates Reviewed by Don MacLean In the October 6, 2014 issue of the New Yorker Jennifer Gonnerman tells the remarkably tragic story of Kalief Browder, a Black 16 year old male living in the Bronx. On a Saturday evening in May 2010 Kalief

Five Things We Know about Economic Inequality – and Why We Need to Act

 Certain segments of society encounter persistent disadvantages and lack of opportunity across the country.  This can affect everything from health outcomes of individuals and entire communities to social cohesion. It can also impact the economic growth of the country and the social mobility of Canadians. However, the extent of inequality

How Doctors Can Tackle the Their Patients’ Poverty Without Leaving the Office

 Can a question asked in a doctor’s office contribute to ending poverty for patients and their families?  This is what we asked ourselves 10 years ago, as we set out to convince health providers to tackle poverty. There were two factors that pushed us into this work: first, the evidence

Pharmacare is for Kids Too

 Written by Avram Denburg and Steve Morgan You are the parent of a sick child. You have a limited budget and you must decide to buy the medicine the doctor prescribed for your child or provide food and shelter for your family instead. What do you do? Sadly this dilemma is one too

Saskatoon’s housing crisis is a health emergency

 Recently, a disturbing photo of five people sleeping in a Saskatoon bank lobby became headline news and filled social media feeds. An earlier photo had contrasted the lush yards on the east side of the riverbank with tents in the bushes on the west side. A few days later, homelessness

What I didn’t learn in medical school

 Sometimes doctors can’t fix what makes their patients sick in the first place. I began medical school optimistic about what becoming a physician meant I could do for my future patients. Naively, I presumed my career would involve treating patients’ illnesses so they could return to lead full and fulfilling

Why We Need to Think Twice About Adopting an Australian Model of Pension Reform

 In a recent nation-wide commentary, authors Charles Lammam and Stephen Kirchner of the Fraser Institute urge the Province of Ontario to adopt an Australian model of pension provision instead of expanding the Canada Pension Plan as proposed in the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan. This creates an interesting debate as it

What I Learned as a Medical Student Working with Low-Income Families in Toronto

 Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. As a medical student taking part in a Social Paediatrics course at The Hospital for Sick Children, I was recently immersed in the lives and healthcare needs of low-income families in Toronto. This experience reshaped the lens through which I now view healthcare and helped

Take a stroll in Moss Park

 Photo: Mark Halliday Any play by Canadian playwright George F. Walker is a satisfying theatre experience. Sometimes disturbing, funny, moving or sad—sometimes all at the same time. Walker’s work is always thought provoking and entertaining. Last year, the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s season included the hilariously brilliant moral-questioning Walker comedy,

Health in all Policies Approach Gaining Traction Across Political Spectrum in Canada

 By Danyaal Raza and Ryan Meili When counselling patients on health, physicians often focus on lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise or smoking. This kind of advice can be important for the individual, but does little to change underlying drivers of health like income, education and employment. These factors are

huff at the NAC: It will blow you away

 Photo Credit -  Cliff Cardinal It is poignant, powerful, funny, touching and deeply disturbing.  huff, currently at the NAC , written by and starring Cliff Cardinal, movingly tells the heartbreaking story of Wind and his brothers , (Huff who is younger and Charles is their older brother who is a

Inequality hurting social inclusion in Canada

 Widening gap between the rich and the rest a looming crisis by Senator Art Eggleton Recently, I tabled a study in the Senate from the Social Affairs Committee about social inclusion. We wanted to know how significant poverty, homelessness, a lack of affordable housing and income inequality in Canada have