National Anti-Poverty Strategy

The National Council of Welfare is calling for a national anti-poverty strategy to ensure a successful future for Canada.

Canada in general is out of step with important developments in preventing and reducing poverty. Many other countries, and two Canadian provinces, have had the same debates about the same issues, including how to measure poverty, but they have found ways-remarkably similar ways-to move on to action and to achieve measurable progress. They are bringing poverty levels down, replacing human misery with opportunity and building stronger societies in the process. The NCW thinks it is necessary and possible for Canada to do the same.

Messages endorsing the need for an anti-poverty strategy

From the Canadian Association of Social Workers:
The information produced by the National Council of Welfare is invaluable and the CASW expects that the outcomes of the poverty and income-security questionnaire will be especially significant… [They] are essential if there is a real commitment in moving from an understanding of the prevalence and impacts of poverty to the solutions to poverty as seen by people living in Canada. The level of public participation will evidence the public’s commitment to ending poverty and provide essential information for the development of social policy at all levels of government. For the full statement.

From National Chief Phil Fontaine, Assembly of First Nations:
“First Nations poverty is the greatest social justice issue in Canada today. It must be addressed now.”

Thank you to the thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations who completed the anti-poverty and income security questionnaire.

Of the great number of grassroots, service, labour, corporate and other organizations that have contributed to making the questionnaire a success, many have agreed to be named, including:

AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County, Ontario / Association de défense de droits en culture et éducation des arts, Québec / B.C. Men's Resource Centre, British Columbia / BC Coalition for Health Promotion, British Columbia / Canadian Association of Social Workers, national / Centre d'action populaire de solidarité du Québec Inc, Quebec / Centre for Northern Families, Northwest Territories / First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, British Columbia / Jewish Family Service Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia / Jewish Family Services, Montréal, Quebec / Kids First Association, Nova Scotia / LiteracyWorks, Manitoba / Mt Waddington Harm Reduction Program, British Columbia / Northeast Avalon Community Action Network, Newfoundland and Labrador / Nova House, Manitoba / Pacific Health & Development Sciences Inc., British Columbia / PARO Centre for Women's Enterprise, Thunder Bay, Ontario / People Advocating for Change through Empowerment, Ontario / People in Transition (Alliston) Inc., "My Sister's Place", Ontario / Service Budgétaire Populaire des Sources, Québec / South Okanagan Women in Need Society, British Columbia / Southern & Central Alberta Food Bank Federation, Alberta / Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec, Québec / Temiskaming Native Women’s Support Group, Ontario / The AIDS Network, Ontario / Westlock Human Rights Education and Awareness Foundation, Alberta / Winnipeg Inner City Missions, Manitoba / Women’s Network PEI, Prince Edward Island / Yellowknife Women’s Society, Northwest Territories / Yukon Women’s Directorate, Yukon