“This would not be the crisis that it will be for folks if we had adequate social assistance rates and support for people with disabilities, if we had enough affordable housing for people, if we had pharmacare in place,” Appleyard said. “We can’t blame this affordability crisis on climate change mitigation, or even just on…
Budget 2022 was announced in a moment of multiple overlapping crises. In Canada and across the world we are living with rising costs of living, social and political unrest, and an ever-accelerating climate crisis, all in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. Ahead of the budget, CPJ called for an approach that would reflect the…
Within the first few weeks of the pandemic, the federal government moved quickly to provide income support to people across the country. A new program, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), was created because it became quickly apparent that the existing system, Employment Insurance, was inadequate to deal with the scale of unemployment. However, the…
Creating a Just Canada 2021 Election Bulletin When the last federal election was called in 2019, no one could have imagined the events that would define the next two years: A global pandemic; over four million dead from COVID-19 (including 26,575 Canadians) exposing and exacerbating the pre-existing crises of poverty, homelessness, and inequity, as well…
Creating a Better, More Just Canada Dignity. Everyone living in Canada should have confidence that their human rights are respected and that they can live their life with dignity. Children must have the freedom to enjoy all the opportunities of a safe, healthy childhood with access to culturally appropriate education, health care, and homes. No…
We Can’t Settle for a Return to “Normal” Before the pandemic even started, 1 in 8 households in Canada were struggling to put food on the table. 5.9 million people were estimated to be living in poverty. While data for the most recent years is limited, we know that poverty and precarity have been exacerbated…
The Federal Government’s 2021 $30 billion budgetary commitment to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care services begins a hopeful chapter in the decades-long struggle for high-quality child care. The COVID-19 pandemic has called attention to the child care crisis that families across the country have faced for years. In short, there…
Despite very significant investments in social, economic, and environmental measures, Budget 2021 does not go the distance in bringing about a just recovery.
“Our system works well for the people it was designed for, but it’s not doing anything to improve the conditions for people who were already marginalized,” says Natalie Appleyard.
While the many “green” aspects of the budget are being applauded by organizations such as the faith-based Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ), an Ottawa-based spokesperson for CPJ said the government could and should have gone further down that road.