Poverty

Friday April 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 7, 2017

Council shifts $50M anti-poverty plan into an affordable housing initiative

Hamilton’s $50-million anti-poverty plan has transformed into an affordable housing plan.

September 18, 2013

City council approved Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s motion almost a year ago to set aside $30 million for a decade of unspecified measures to combat poverty and $20 million to fix or grow Hamilton’s social housing stock.

The money will come from future hydro utility dividends as well as Hamilton’s Future Fund.

City health and social services staff consulted local advocacy groups and experts on how best to spend the cash and presented a wide-ranging set of proposals to councillors Wednesday, including “wraparound” support for poverty-stricken single parents, “portable” rents for those seeking affordable housing and special funding for the urban aboriginal community.

November 25, 2009

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who initially pitched reserving $30 million for a menu of poverty-fighting measures, said he understands councillors want to see a “cleaner, simpler” direction on how to spend the “historic” investment over a decade.

He seconded Collins’ motion, calling the focused housing approach a “fantastic step forward for this community.”

Coun. Matthew Green said he would only support the radical shift in strategy if the original unique plan to allocate $10 million for indigenous-led poverty-fighting initiatives was maintained in some way. “This is a top priority for me,” he said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Thursday December 15, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday December 15, 2016 ÒI failed my kidsÓ: An Ontario momÕs story on soaring hydro When Cambridge mother Adele Benoit sees an electricity bill in her mailbox it is a reminder of the constant sacrifices her family must make. Fearing the worst, she will often open the envelope slowly, unfold the bill and hold her breath. "Then you see the amount due on the bill," she said. That statement's final tally has been skyrocketing steadily, she explained, rising to amounts of more than $600 every two months. Not so long ago her hydro bills were half that amount. It's a tough haul for a mother of three boys, aged 16, nine and seven, who takes care of her family in a modest Cambridge Housing Authority affordable unit. With little choice but to pay that bill, Benoit is forced to ask her children to accept less than she knows they deserve. At this time of year that means fewer Christmas gifts and even limiting the time the family's tree is lit. "Our Christmas tree gets lit up for an hour and a half or two hours, and then I shut it off.Ó Though she is employed, her paycheques are no match against rising household costs like electricity. She has even borrowed money to buy winter coats and hats for her sons. The struggle is not an easy one to share. "It makes me feel like I failed my kids," she said. Though in tears at times when describing her family's financial troubles, Benoit shared her story with Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath while sitting together at her kitchen table Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 13). Horwath is on a tour meeting with residents about the rising costs of electricity as part of a bid to force the provincial Liberal government to make hydro more affordable and to "humanize" public policy around energy. Horwath is also aiming to generate more support to block Premier Kathleen Wynne and the government from further privatizing Hydro One. Using Quebec and Manitoba as examples, Horwath said

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 15, 2016

“I failed my kids”: An Ontario mom’s story on soaring hydro

When Cambridge mother Adele Benoit sees an electricity bill in her mailbox it is a reminder of the constant sacrifices her family must make.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday November 22, 2016 Wynne calls high electricity prices her ÔmistakeÕ Premier Kathleen Wynne is calling high electricity prices her "mistake," sounding a note of contrition on one of the major issues threatening the Liberals' re-election bid in 2018. Amid the usual rallying of the troops at the Ontario Liberals' annual general meeting Saturday, Wynne addressed her poor popularity numbers, which she called the "elephant in the room.Ó "I think that people look at me and many of them think, 'She's not who we thought she was. She's become a typical politician. She'll do anything to win,'" Wynne said. "Frankly, I may have and I think I sometimes have given them reason to think that.Ó Wynne said part of convincing Ontarians that she wants to do what is in their best interests is admitting when she has made a mistake. "People have told me that they've had to choose between paying the electricity bill and buying food or paying rent," Wynne said. "That is unacceptable to me. It is unacceptable that people in Ontario are facing that choice. Our government made a mistake. It was my mistake.Ó An eight-per-cent rebate on electricity bills comes into effect Jan. 1, but Wynne said she will find more ways to lower rates and reduce the burden on consumers. After her speech, Wynne wouldn't point to any specific decision on the electricity file that she deems a mistake, but said her focus was on the big issues facing the system and she hasn't always paid enough attention to how costs were accumulating on people's bills. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)Êhttp://www.thespec.com/news-story/6975602-wynne-calls-high-electricity-prices-her-mistake-/ Kathleen Wynne, Ontario, Hydro, Cap and Trade, politics, honesty, taxpayer, rocket, launch

November 22, 2016

Fearing the worst, she will often open the envelope slowly, unfold the bill and hold her breath.

“Then you see the amount due on the bill,” she said.

That statement’s final tally has been skyrocketing steadily, she explained, rising to amounts of more than $600 every two months. Not so long ago her hydro bills were half that amount.

It’s a tough haul for a mother of three boys, aged 16, nine and seven, who takes care of her family in a modest Cambridge Housing Authority affordable unit.

With little choice but to pay that bill, Benoit is forced to ask her children to accept less than she knows they deserve. At this time of year that means fewer Christmas gifts and even limiting the time the family’s tree is lit.

“Our Christmas tree gets lit up for an hour and a half or two hours, and then I shut it off.”

Though she is employed, her paycheques are no match against rising household costs like electricity. She has even borrowed money to buy winter coats and hats for her sons. The struggle is not an easy one to share.

“It makes me feel like I failed my kids,” she said.

Though in tears at times when describing her family’s financial troubles, Benoit shared her story with Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath while sitting together at her kitchen table Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 13).

Horwath is on a tour meeting with residents about the rising costs of electricity as part of a bid to force the provincial Liberal government to make hydro more affordable and to “humanize” public policy around energy.

Horwath is also aiming to generate more support to block Premier Kathleen Wynne and the government from further privatizing Hydro One.

Using Quebec and Manitoba as examples, Horwath said other provinces are keeping energy rates down and are not privatizing, ensuring their electricity systems are about people, not profit.

In Ontario, she said, it’s private companies that are reaping the benefits. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday April 13, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday April 13, 2016 Attawapiskat emergency debate to be held by MPs this evening The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening over "the gravity" of the many suicide attempts on the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat. Members of Parliament will address the crisis during the debate scheduled to begin at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET and expected to last until midnight. The request for an emergency debate comes as Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh fears more young people will try to harm themselves while the community tries to grapple with the crisis after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day. There are also reports of over 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September. On Monday, provincial and federal government officials sent a medical emergency assistance team and five additional mental health workers to the First Nation community of less than 2,000. Three mental health workers were already in the community, a spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News on Tuesday. The emergency debate was approved by House Speaker Geoff Regan Tuesday morning on a request from NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat. "The crisis in Attawapiskat has gathered world attention and people are looking to this Parliament to explain the lack of hope, that's not just in Attawapiskat but in so many indigenous communities. And they're looking to us, in this new Parliament, to offer change," Angus said in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning. Angus said the emergency debate would allow MPs to address "the lack of mental health services, police services, community supports" facing so many First Nations communities across the country. "In closing," Angus said, "the prime minister called the situation in Attawapiskat 'heartbreaking' but it is up to us as parliamentarians to turn this into a moment

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 13, 2016

Attawapiskat emergency debate to be held by MPs this evening

The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening over “the gravity” of the many suicide attempts on the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat.

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday June 3, 2015 CanadaÕs residential schools cultural genocide, Truth and Reconciliation commission says The residential schools that removed aboriginal children from their homes, subjecting many of them to substandard education, malnutrition, abuse, illness and even death was a key part of a government-led policy that amounted to cultural genocide, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concludes. ÒThese measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will,Ó says the 381-page summary of its final report released Tuesday in Ottawa. ÒThe Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources,Ó says the report. The heart-wrenching and damning report is the culmination of a six-year examination of the history and legacy of residential schools Ñ largely operated by churches and funded by the Canadian government Ñ that saw 150,000 First Nations, MŽtis and Inuit children come through their doors for more than a century. The exercise has been Òa difficult, inspiring and very painful journey for all of us,Ó said Justice Murray Sinclair, Canada's first aboriginal justice and the commission's chairman. ÒThe residential school experience is clearly one of the darkest most troubling chapters in our collective history,Ó Sinclair told a packed news conference Tuesday in Ottawa. ÒIn the period from Confederation until the decision to close residential schools was taken in this country in 1969, Canada clearly participated in a period of cultural genocide.Ó Through the testimony of residential school survivors, former staff, church and government officials and archival documents, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission pieced together a horrifying histor

June 3, 2015

Members of Parliament will address the crisis during the debate scheduled to begin at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET and expected to last until midnight.

The request for an emergency debate comes as Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh fears more young people will try to harm themselves while the community tries to grapple with the crisis after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day. There are also reports of over 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September.

On Monday, provincial and federal government officials sent a medical emergency assistance team and five additional mental health workers to the First Nation community of less than 2,000. Three mental health workers were already in the community, a spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News on Tuesday.

January 25, 2012

The emergency debate was approved by House Speaker Geoff Regan Tuesday morning on a request from NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat.

“The crisis in Attawapiskat has gathered world attention and people are looking to this Parliament to explain the lack of hope, that’s not just in Attawapiskat but in so many indigenous communities. And they’re looking to us, in this new Parliament, to offer change,” Angus said in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning.

December 10, 2011

Angus said the emergency debate would allow MPs to address “the lack of mental health services, police services, community supports” facing so many First Nations communities across the country.

“In closing,” Angus said, “the prime minister called the situation in Attawapiskat ‘heartbreaking’ but it is up to us as parliamentarians to turn this into a moment of hope-making.”

October 28, 2005

“That’s why I’m asking my colleagues to work with me tonight, to work together, to discuss this issue tonight and start to lay a path forward to give the hope to the children of our northern and all other indigenous communities,” Angus said Tuesday morning.

Regan acknowledged “the gravity of this situation” before granting Angus’s request.

Other Ontario First Nations communities declared public health emergencies earlier this year.

At least four aboriginal leaders have been scheduled to appear before the Commons indigenous affairs committee on Thursday to discuss the health crises facing their communities. (Source: CBC News)

Federal Minister of Indigenous & Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was asked about former prime minister Jean Chretien’s suggestion this week that those living on remote reserves could consider moving.

“It is about people’s attachment to the land, people having a right to live a traditional life and but also with economic opportunities,” she said.

“There’s choice involved …. Some communities have chosen to change their location to no longer be flooded and be on higher ground. Some community members choose to go to town to get a job, but then be able to come back, but this is about us wanting to support the choices.” (Source: Globe & Mail)

 

Other media

Published in the Regina Leader-Post April 14, 2016

Published in the Regina Leader-Post April 14, 2016

Friday September 11, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday September 11, 2015 Hamilton looks to crack down on payday loan industry Hamilton councillors unanimously approved a motion seeking from the province the ability to limit the locations of payday loan and cheque cashing outlets, while also strengthening the Payday Loans Act. ÒThis is predatory economic violence,Ó said Ward 3 councillor Matthew Green, who introduced the motion at councilÕs Sept. 9 meeting. Ò(They) are targeting our most vulnerable, indebted people. ItÕs legalized loan sharking.Ó GreenÕs motion targeting the industry, which was revealed earlier this summer, includes forcing these businesses to post their rates on their walls, provide information about debt counselling, and having Hamilton staff identify all the payday loan businesses in the city. Also contained in the motion was a request to the province to toughen the Payday Loans Act. The act regulates the industry allowing outlets to charge $21 for every $100 people borrow. Green says desperate people use these businesses, and they end up having to go to another payday loans outlet to pay the loan of the first one. ÒThis is usury, this is criminal,Ó said Green. ÒIÕd love to see (the places) outlawed.Ó Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, says municipalities need the power to regulate a business that is taking advantage of vulnerable people. ÒWe deem the industry as predatory in nature because its practices and slick marketing campaigns lure vulnerable consumers into transactions where there is nowhere else to turn in a financial crisis,Ó said Cooper. Based on the payday industryÕs own information, for every new customer loan, 15 are repeats, said Cooper. Stan Keyes, president of the Canadian Payday Loan Association, headquartered in Hamilton, stated in an email letter sent to councillors Sept. 8 that Òcouncil should not pass bylaws to ban industries providing services that consumers d

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 11, 2015

Hamilton looks to crack down on payday loan industry

Hamilton councillors unanimously approved a motion seeking from the province the ability to limit the locations of payday loan and cheque cashing outlets, while also strengthening the Payday Loans Act.

Friday July 26, 2013“This is predatory economic violence,” said Ward 3 councillor Matthew Green, who introduced the motion at council’s Sept. 9 meeting. “(They) are targeting our most vulnerable, indebted people. It’s legalized loan sharking.”
Green’s motion targeting the industry, which was revealed earlier this summer, includes forcing these businesses to post their rates on their walls, provide information about debt counselling, and having Hamilton staff identify all the payday loan businesses in the city.

Also contained in the motion was a request to the province to toughen the Payday Loans Act.

The act regulates the industry allowing outlets to charge $21 for every $100 people borrow. Green says desperate people use these businesses, and they end up having to go to another payday loans outlet to pay the loan of the first one.

Saturday, December 6, 2014“This is usury, this is criminal,” said Green. “I’d love to see (the places) outlawed.”

Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, says municipalities need the power to regulate a business that is taking advantage of vulnerable people.

“We deem the industry as predatory in nature because its practices and slick marketing campaigns lure vulnerable consumers into transactions where there is nowhere else to turn in a financial crisis,” said Cooper.

Based on the payday industry’s own information, for every new customer loan, 15 are repeats, said Cooper.

Stan Keyes, president of the Canadian Payday Loan Association, headquartered in Hamilton, stated in an email letter sent to councillors Sept. 8 that “council should not pass bylaws to ban industries providing services that consumers demand.”

He said the province does enforce the existing regulations, including levying fines, and revoking licenses “which they have done with non-compliant lenders.”

Keyes, a former Liberal MP, stated the industry is already heavily regulated since 2009. In 2012 there were 42 outlets in Hamilton, now there are 34. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Saturday, December 6, 2014Payday loan company is exchanging gift cards for cash at half their value

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, December 6, 2014

Payday loan company Money Mart is preying on vulnerable people by exchanging gift cards for cash at half their face value, and the practice should be stopped, Ontario’s opposition parties said Thursday.

The New Democrats distributed copies of a sign posted in the window of a Money Mart in Hamilton, which promotes “a new way to get fast cash” by trading gift cards for 50 per cent of their cash value.

Friday July 26, 2013“Why does this government allow Grinches like Money Mart to steal Christmas from our most vulnerable people in Ontario?” asked NDP consumer critic Jagmeet Singh.

“Forcing individuals who are already under a great deal of stress during the holidays to pay this extraordinarily high rate for an exchange is simply disgusting.”

Money Mart officials and the Canadian Payday Loans Association did not respond to requests for comment, but an employee answering the phone at a central Hamilton Money Mart confirmed the 50 per cent fee.

“It’s been pretty successful,” the employee said. The practice is being tested at Money Marts in Hamilton and Niagara.

Singh said Money Mart’s “predatory” scheme takes advantage of the fact many charitable organizations give out gift cards to clients to help them buy gifts and food for the Christmas holidays.

Tom Cooper, executive director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, wrote in an email that providing gift cards is “often a much more dignified approach than requiring people to line up at food banks or for Christmas hamper programs.”

“Unfortunately, it seems that Money Mart is piloting a project locally that seems to take advantage of this very vulnerable group.”

Cooper noted that others may get a gift card from a family member and want to exchange it, but that those people “may be having greater challenges paying rent or utilities during the holidays,” and, he said, Money Mart is taking advantage of “desperation.”

He said the issue needs to be fixed with legislation. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)