OTTAWA – A national poverty plan that would help people and communities remove barriers to reach their full potential and productivity moved closer to reality today as the NDP won parliamentary hearings on a poverty-reduction strategy.
NDP Poverty critic Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie), who has been fighting over a year for the hearings, said the study could lay the groundwork for a truly national plan where governments set firm targets, create timelines, and report annually so everyone can see the progress being made against poverty.
"As The National Council on Welfare and other groups have said, if there is no vision, no plan, no leadership, no resources assigned, and no accepted measure of results, we will be mired in the consequences of poverty for generations to come,” said Mr. Martin.
National social policy, labour, and faith communities have called on the government of Canada to adopt a poverty-reduction strategy.
The Human Resources and Social Development Committee will conduct the hearings beginning in May after the latest reports indicate one in six Canadians, which includes nearly 1.2 million children, still live in poverty.
Martin has asked that the study include consultations with Canadians living under the poverty line and a review of federal programs.
Ireland has had a national poverty plan since the mid-1990s, which has reduced poverty levels from 15 per cent to 6.8 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador also has an anti-poverty strategy committed to becoming the province with the lowest poverty rate by 2016.
“Our goal is nothing short of a comprehensive national plan to reduce poverty in this land of plenty,” said Mr. Martin. “These hearings are an important step to that goal: in Canada, no one should be left behind.”