Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre understandably seized on a brand new report card launched final week by Meals Banks Canada that highlighted the variety of Canadians who’re residing in poverty, struggling to pay their payments and turning to meals banks for assist.
“Mr. Speaker, after 9 years of the NDP-Liberal prime minister’s taxes, debt, inflation and guarantees, Canadians are actually hungry,” Poilievre stated within the Home of Commons on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau predictably responded by pointing to the assist applications his authorities is rolling out — together with funding for little one care, dental care and a brand new college meals program — and warned {that a} Conservative authorities would solely minimize such initiatives.
“These are investments that they’re against and that we’re there to assist Canadians with,” Trudeau stated.
Actually, the findings and suggestions specified by final week’s report current a problem for each Liberals and Conservatives.
Because the report notes, poverty in Canada declined markedly between 2015 and 2020 — the share of Canadians residing beneath the poverty line fell from 14.5 per cent to six.4 per cent. A report launched by UNICEF final December discovered that Canada skilled one of many largest proportional drops in little one poverty amongst developed international locations between 2012 and 2021.
A few of that discount in poverty will be attributed to insurance policies just like the Canada Youngster Profit, launched by the Trudeau authorities in 2016. The earnings assist applications launched on the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic really helped to drive poverty in Canada even decrease.
However that progress has eroded over the previous few years; in 2022, the poverty charge was again as much as 9.9 per cent. The report additionally factors out that 23 per cent of Canadians are experiencing “meals insecurity” and 44 per cent say they really feel worse off than they have been final yr.
A few of that erosion, the Meals Banks report notes, will be traced to the withdrawal of pandemic-era earnings helps. However the authors additionally level to 4 bigger components: speedy inhabitants progress with out the social infrastructure to assist it, a succession of rate of interest hikes alongside excessive inflation, a scarcity of housing and a slowdown in financial exercise accompanied by a barely increased unemployment charge.
The Trudeau Liberals would say they’re taking motion in response to these challenges. And the authors of the Meals Banks Canada report wouldn’t disagree fully, notably relating to the strikes the federal government has made on housing over the past yr.
However in addition they argue there’s extra the federal government could possibly be doing — or ought to have performed already.
Requires EI reform and an enhanced incapacity profit
Seven of the 27 federal coverage suggestions reviewed within the report relate to employment insurance coverage reform. All are listed as exhibiting “no progress.” Within the throne speech delivered in September 2020, the Liberals stated it was clear Canada wanted an “EI system for the twenty first century”; thus far they’ve didn’t comply with by. At this level, it appears unlikely EI will see complete reform earlier than the following election.
The Meals Banks Canada report commends the creation of the brand new Canada Incapacity Profit however laments, as others have, that it has not obtained extra funding. Advocates had hoped it might present about $1,000 monthly to recipients, however the profit is at the moment set to offer simply $200 monthly.
The report suggests all federal advantages ought to be listed to inflation and that efforts ought to be made to stop provinces from clawing again their very own applications in response to new federal applications (a probably related concern for the Canada Incapacity Profit). It additionally proposes the creation of a everlasting “groceries and necessities profit” — successfully an enhanced GST tax rebate, which was first proposed final yr by a panel of consultants convened by the Institute for Analysis on Public Coverage.
(Whereas the Meals Banks Canada report generated appreciable warmth in Ottawa this week, many of the report really offers with insurance policies and challenges on the provincial stage — and whereas they’re usually excused from the nationwide discourse, provincial governments live on and possess obligations.)
The Conservatives are wanting to wave the Meals Banks Canada report within the authorities’s face. Would they be prepared to implement any of its suggestions?
What would a Conservative authorities do?
The Liberals can level to current and proposed federal applications and might cite actions on housing that would go a great distance towards assuaging the present issues. However the Meals Banks Canada report suggests they could possibly be doing far more.
The Conservatives are inclined to criticize the rollout of these social applications; within the case of the college meals program, they level out that it is not but working. However such criticisms do not inform us what a Conservative authorities would do with these applications and funding commitments — whether or not Conservatives would search to enhance such applications or just remove them.
(One of many issues the Conservatives have vowed to remove is the federal carbon tax — however as a result of that coverage features a rebate, some low-income households may very well find yourself worse off if the tax is repealed.)
The Conservatives additionally seized this week on a report from the parliamentary finances officer that famous homelessness has elevated over the past six years, regardless of new federal funding to scale back it. However whereas the federal program has failed to satisfy its objective of lowering power homelessness by 50 per cent, it additionally has offered steady or momentary housing to 23,000 individuals yearly.
The muse of Poilievre’s argument towards the Trudeau authorities is that it has elevated federal spending an excessive amount of — and that by doing so, it has pushed up inflation, the value of housing and the price of residing. That argument may now be operating up towards the truth that inflation continues to say no.
However within the context of this week’s debate about poverty, Poilievre’s view of federal spending raises at the least two questions. Would his spending cuts contact any of the social helps that decrease the price of residing for some Canadians? If that’s the case, would any advantages derived from decrease ranges of federal spending — and maybe decrease taxes — one way or the other offset the lack of these helps?
Conservatives may be comforted by the truth that a robust plurality of Canadians appears inclined to suppose it is time for a Conservative authorities. However whereas Abacus Knowledge not too long ago discovered a 16-point lead for the Conservatives, it additionally did not discover an incredible want to see social applications rolled again — simply 28 per cent of respondents stated a Poilievre authorities positively or in all probability ought to finish funding for little one care or dental care.
If the Conservatives have a plan to sharply scale back federal spending with out touching such applications, they don’t seem to be explaining it but.
For now, the Meals Banks Canada report focuses helpful political consideration on individuals who badly want it — these dealing with poverty and earnings insecurity. That challenges the Liberal authorities’s present response, nevertheless it additionally challenges the Conservatives to elucidate precisely what they might do otherwise.
