Poverty and legislation.

• Author: Mildon, Marsha

There are many ideas about the causes of poverty. However, we don't often look at our legislation to document the structures that -- although they don't necessarily cause poverty -- do provide a legal framework for it.

Wages

Think for example of minimum wage laws. These differ across the country, with the Yukon being highest at $7.20/hour and British Columbia being the next highest at $7.15/hour. Consider a person working 40 hours per week, 8 hours per day in Vancouver. This person will earn $286 per week or $14,872 per year. Yet according to Statistics Canada, a single person in a large urban centre of over 500,000 people needs to earn $17,571 to live above the poverty line; that same single person needs $13,924 to live above the poverty line in a small centre of less than 30,000 people.

Employment Insurance

While the minimum wage legislation leaves workers earning less than needed to break through the poverty line, the Employment Insurance Act has been amended by the federal government to reduce both payments and eligibility for payments. Part-time, non-permanent types of jobs are the ones that have been increasing fastest in the 1990s; and here is where the greatest cuts were made. Thus in 1990, 87% of the unemployed received UI benefits; by 1997, only 42% received EI benefits (The Growing Gap, Armine Yalnizyan).

At the same time, EI assistance for training, job creation, and assistance to those starting self-employment has dropped significantly. In 1995, there were 68,741 people receiving financial assistance for training; by 1995, there were only 32,618. In 1995, there were 6,698 people employed through job creation programs; by `97, there were 2,733. Similarly, in `95, there were 9214 people receiving assistance to start self-employment while by `97, there were 5,119 (Statistics Canada).

Social Assistance

In 1995, the federal government amended legislation regarding transfer payments to the provinces from payments with specific purposes -- e.g., payments earmarked for health care, social assistance, and education -- and created the Canadian Health and Social Transfer. At the same time, they cut the total of the transfer by $7 billion.

Provincial governments passed this cut on to the people by cutting funding for health care, allowing increases in tuition fees, and cutting social assistance. Only Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have not cut their social assistance payments.

On the other hand since the 1970s, the Old Age Security program...