Category: Blog

Public opinion has it that CERB eligibility criteria were easy to understand. That would mean that people who applied for CERB and were subsequently found ineligible were either careless or possibly trying to get away with what many saw as ‘loose’ rules. Is that true or false? That is, even though we know that it was easy to obtain CERB, were the CERB rules easy to understand? 10 questions about CERB eligibility Here are 10 questions about  CERB eligibility. Readers are encouraged to see how many they answer correctly and then think about whether the CERB rules were easy to understand. Answers follow the questions after question 10: The $5,000 eligibility threshold only applied to earnings. True or False? People receiving social assistance (often called income assistance or welfare) were…

I recently commented in an email exchange that the Liberal government in Ottawa had taken a hard tack to the political right. I was asked what I meant by that. My rejoinder was to do a thought experiment and think of the Conservative Party releasing its own social policy agenda aimed at the next election with the following promises: 1. We will not implement the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) beyond the June 2025 legislation already in place or soon to be in regulations. 2. We will annul the government's poverty reduction strategy 3. We will continue the First past the post system of deciding elections 4. We will continue current housing policies and we will not pursue policies that would enshrine housing as a right 5. We will not pursue…

What this is not about: The broken promises, etc. To me, it's not that the federal government is implementing nothing close to what they promised nor that they have the wrong definition and delivery mechanism for the CDB.  It's not that they gamed the disability advocacy community. It's also not that they will mount the CDB on top of social assistance which differs from OAS in that OAS has no low-income clawbacks and is almost a universal bedrock program.   It's also not that they removed a key Minister to an unrelated portfolio. It's not that they dropped the tidbit that the CDB will have a household income definition nor is it their aspiration in writing that disability incomes should somehow rise to OAS GIS levels through social assistance or through…

Watching the ‘Communications State’ in a policy-free Canada The Hill Times – Canada’s Politics and Government Newspaper - has an ongoing special series called Hillclimbers that chronicles new additions to federal Ministerial political staff along with staff who leave to go elsewhere. Since I first began reading this series, I must admit to my surprise on a number of scores. First, Hillclimbers often have a history of joining government from various government relations (GR) outfits, pollsters, other departments and from various ‘institutes’ and ‘shops’ that do business with government. When they leave, they also appear to return to all these same places within an overall ecosystem – you can call it a bubble - of government roles and advisory functions. Musical chairs or so it seems. Indeed they seem to…

The postage stamps that will be issued in 2024 were announced on December 20, 2023. I wrote a proposal with some help from my friends almost two years ago in an attempt to have Northern Dancer honoured in his Jubilee year, 60 years following his win in the Kentucky Derby and the Queen’s Plate, the only horse ever to accomplish this feat. I followed the rules, answered all the questions and sent it to the correct people at Canada Post using their headings. It did not make the cut. But I want everyone to know that we did write a credible proposal and want to start off 2024 with what we said. The text of the proposal follows: Proposal for a commemorative Canadian Stamp to honour Northern Dancer in 2024 written…

Newfoundland and Labrador to launch basic income program for residents aged 60-64 How different things are in Ontario.  Just over 30 years ago in June 1993, Bob Rae raised rates for 60-64 year olds to $930 a month which in today's terms adjusted to inflation would now be $1,720.01. But Mike Harris dropped welfare rates by 21.6% in October 1995 and followed that by moving all (new) non-disabled 60-64 year olds to $520 a month allowing existing recipients to age out from 1995 to 2000 at the $930 rate.  Subsequent governments raised the $520 rate to $733 a month which is what it is today. Had the $520 rate been raised with inflation since 1995, it would now be $939, more than $200 more than it is today but just $9.00 above what it was…

As we move into the ‘mid-twenties’, I believe the public and perhaps the media will begin to tire of the ever-increasing enormity of the problems of food insecurity and deeply affordable housing for low-income people. Climate change, affordable transit and digital resources suffer from the same 'enormity' problem yet a significant swath of public opinion now favours axing carbon taxes and almost everyone thinks the affordable housing problem applies equally to everyone.  The myth of OW as a work disincentive We need to pay attention and be more precise. We also have to think about the work disincentive effect that many believe accompanies more adequate income security. In response to the Premier Ford's infamous comments at the Empire Club - Premier Ford delivers remarks in Toronto | June 19  - I think…

Premier Doug Ford noted in a recent speech that he is being driven crazy by people on Ontario Works who are healthy. It further bothers him that they are (apparently) sitting at home. Here is what he said[1]: I always say, if someone's on ODSP, I'll support them for life.... What drives me crazy is people on Ontario Works — probably three, 400,000 — that are healthy. The province has "never seen more jobs" available, Ford said. It really bothers me that we have healthy people sitting at home, collecting your hard-earned dollars. We need to encourage them to contribute back to the province and find gainful employment[3]"  The Barrie Today article is actually very good - providing good rebuttals by caseworkers - who explained the realities of living on $733 a…

“Why does Canada have child benefits for modest income families and a child care deduction that favours the well-to-do?” Many of us fantasize what it would be like to brief an intelligent Martian on an earthbound topic. Recently a colleague and I got the chance. A spaceship landed in Scarborough Ontario and a female Martian (pronouns pho and dei) indicated through a telepathic translation machine that she wanted to understand our income security and personal tax systems in Canada. We set up a convenient time and began our conversation in Rouge Park. It proved too difficult to explain what coffee is, so we decided to get refreshments later. We started to explain to her (she has ten ears) that we have a tax and benefit system with key components:  Entitlements…

Pandemic hardship is still a daily event for low-income workers who received pandemic benefits and must now repay those benefits. They must repay even though significant numbers of people were ordered to apply for them by governments that deducted them from other benefits. The CERB and CRB programs although cancelled in 2022, are still with us in the form of their cruel alter ego – the collection agency. A true Jekyll and Hyde story. The media reported that up to 65% of recipients were ineligible[1] for the programs. And high ineligibility is likely accurate because what CRA is enforcing now looks nothing like what they communicated and implemented back in May 2020. Stricter rules for enforcement than implementation The federal government is enforcing much stricter rules than those they used…