Welfare incomes have so deteriorated through cuts, freezes and inflation that they are well below the poverty line across the country, a report said Wednesday.
"Rates across Canada are so low they can only be described as punitive and cruel," said the National Council of Welfare in a statement accompanying its report on Canadian welfare incomes.
"The poorest of the poor fell further behind, and the gap between the haves and have nots widened in a country often regarded as the best place to live in the world," the council said.
The report looks at four typical households in each Canadian province and territory: a single, employable person, a single-parent family with a two-year-old, a two-parent family with two children aged 10 and 15 and a single person with a disability.
At no point between 1986 and 2003 did any provinces or territories provide welfare benefits to these groups that allowed them to reach the poverty line, the report says.
The clawback of the National Child Benefit drew especially heavy fire.
The benefit program was introduced in 1998 to combat child poverty by giving modest-income families a basic subsidy for children, while giving an added supplement to the lowest-income families.
The clawback, however, allows provincial and territorial governments to reduce these payments to parents on welfare.
Newfoundland and New Brunswick opted out of the clawback at the outset, while Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta have decided to limit it more recently.
Still, four provinces and three territories were taking part in the clawback in December 2003. And all of them indicated that they would continue to do so, with the exception of Ontario, which reduced its clawback this month.
"Despite years of promoting the idea that we should move people from welfare into the work force, Canadian welfare programs continue to throw up barriers," said John Murphy, the council's chairman.
"How do we expect people to go to job interviews and training programs when they can't afford a bus ticket? How can we expect them to put their energy into finding work when they struggle everyday to find food and housing for themselves and their families?"
Other highlights of the report:
- Single, employable people experienced the biggest drop in their incomes in 2003, ranging from a high of 44 per cent of the poverty line in Newfoundland and Labrador to a low of 20 per cent in New Brunswick, where a single employable person in Saint John received $3,383.
- Single-parent families in Alberta maintained an all-time low in 2003 for the second year in a row at 48 per cent of the poverty line — the lowest standard of living for a single parent in the country. A single parent with one child on welfare in Edmonton had to manage on $11,897 for the year.
- The lowest standard of living in Canada for couples with two children was found in Quebec, where welfare incomes were at 48 per cent of the poverty line. Even in the large urban centre of Montreal, a couple with two children had to make do with $18,063.
- Welfare incomes of people with disabilities eroded steadily from 1989 to 2003 in every province except Quebec. They ranged from 39 per cent of the poverty line in Alberta to 59 per cent in Ontario. In Saint John, a single person with a disability received $6,911.
The National Council of Welfare is a citizens' advisory body to the minister of Social Development Canada.
