Legalese_08-10

Jeff Green | Mar 13, 2008

Back toHome

ISAC was established by Legal Aid Ontario in 2001. ISAC assists low income Ontarians by litigation of test cases relating to the rules and administration of provincial and federal income security programs, and by advocating and participating in law reform and community development activities. ISAC advocated for a Poverty Reduction Strategy during the last provincial election, and also participated in the drafting of Ontario Campaign 2000’s July 2007 discussion paper called “A Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario”. This discussion paper puts forth some ideas regarding how the Ontario government could make systemic change to reduce poverty levels. There are four key elements identified in the discussion paper’s example of a Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Poverty Measurement: To establish whether or not a reduction strategy is having a positive effect on the poverty rate in Ontario, there has to be some sort of measuring stick. One of the current measurement tools is the Statistics Canada Low Income Cut-Off After Tax annual measure of poverty. It was suggested in the paper that more than one measure be used to create a more accurate assessment of a range of incomes that would qualify as being a part of the “poverty zone”.

Targets and Timetables: The discussion paper suggested that suitable goals need to be established. The recommendation is the goal of reducing the child poverty rate by 25% in five years. It further recommends that the child poverty rate should be reduced by 50% within 10 years.

Components of an Action Plan: It was recommended in the discussion paper that in consultation with the community, the following steps should be taken to achieve the goals and targets identified:

Monitoring and Evaluation: It was recommended that there should be annual evaluations monitoring the progress, and that the necessary levels of responsibility and accountability would require a high-level political commitment on the part of the Ontario government.

The Ontario Campaign 2000’s discussion paper provides an example of what a Poverty Reduction Strategy could look like. Notice how the recommendations are based on a holistic approach which includes diverse seemingly unrelated fields such as affordable housing, child care, and tuition reform. A Poverty Reduction Strategy is a broad based approach, as opposed to patchwork remedies. It will be interesting to see how the newly formed Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction proceeds with developing and implementing its strategy.