Ottawa — Welfare rates in Canada are so low they can only be described as punitive and cruel, the National Council of Welfare says.
With few exceptions, welfare incomes across the country deteriorated in 2003 through cuts, freezes and inflation, the council says in a report particularly critical of the clawback of the national child benefit.
“Despite years of promoting the idea that we should move people from welfare into the workforce, Canadian welfare programs continue to throw up barriers,” council chairman John Murphy of Canning, N.S., said Wednesday in a statement.
“Welfare incomes are so low that people are forced to spend all their energy on daily survival. This completely undermines a person's chance to get back on his or her feet.
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“How do we expect people to go to job interviews and training programs when they can't even afford a bus ticket?” Mr. Murphy asked.
The council came down hard on the clawback of the national child benefit, a mechanism that allows provinces and territories to reduce payments to parents on welfare.
Newfoundland and New Brunswick opted out of the clawback from the outset, and more recently, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario decided to limit their clawback.
“Some would argue that clawing back part of the national child benefit from parents on welfare creates an incentive to work,” Mr. Murphy said.
“At the National Council of Welfare, we simply have no patience for that argument. Of course, it makes sense to provide incentives to work. But taking money away from people on welfare, with incomes already horrifyingly low, makes no sense at all.”
The council is a citizens' advisory body to the minister of Social Development Canada.
It says a single parent with one child on welfare in Edmonton received $11,897 for the entire year. A couple with two children in Saint John, N.B., survived on $16,852.
Couples with two children in larger centres had to make do with $18,063 in Montreal, $18,471 in Toronto, and $18,086 in Vancouver.
The situation was worse for single people, the council says.
A single person with a disability received $6,911 a year in Saint John. A single employable person received $3,383 in Saint John. In Vancouver that sum was $6,445.