Globe and Mail

Friday, November 18, 2005

A long-overdue nod to the working poor

Civic task force calls for income security reform in Canada

Ontario welfare recipient face real tax rate of more than 50%

Thursday, September 8, 2005

By  Investment Executive Staff

A new report prepared by TD Economics on behalf of the Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults highlights the need for broad-based income security reform in Canada.
The task force, of which TD Bank Financial Group is a member, was launched last year by the Toronto City Summit Alliance and Toronto’s St. Christopher House to identify failings in the present income security system and recommend a road map for change. The Task Force is composed of leaders from the business, academic, government and non-profit sectors, including those with first-hand experience dealing with income security issues.

Investment Executive Story  - this link will take you their web page

Toronto Star - February 21,2005

Editorial: A promise for change

For the past decade social activists and anti-poverty groups have issued one warning after another about the worrisome effects of our frayed social safety nets. They have spoken out about counterproductive clawbacks in welfare benefits so onerous that they actually punish welfare recipients who take low-paying jobs.

New Directions for Welfare

Before every federal or provincial budget, business community leaders make the argument that top marginal tax rates need to be reduced. As long as the government takes 50 cents of every dollar of extra earnings, they say, growth suffers because Canadians are reluctant to make the extra effort to work harder or take basic investment risks.

Globe and Mail - By Joe Friesen

Friday, February 18, 2005

Ontario's social safety net is full of holes that make it difficult for the poor to get off welfare and back to work, say the co-chairs of an ambitious task force on income security that is being launched today.
David Pecaut, chairman of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, and Susan Pigott, CEO of St. Christopher House, are co-chairs of a group of more than 50 prominent economists, academics, business people and civic leaders.

Toronto Star - Feb. 18, 2005.  City aid crisis looms
ROYSON JAMES

Toronto is faced with the creation of a permanent underclass in the next recession, says a dream team task force bent on repairing the country's fraying social safety net.

Programs that paid out billions of dollars during the last recession in 1992 have been changed and amended to such a degree that thousands of people will be left without help if the hard times return, they warn.

Toronto Star - Oct. 25, 2004

Some of Toronto's most prominent citizens intend to build public support for a modern, sustainable income security system.  It will bring social assistance out of the shadows. It will shatter some of the myths that trap welfare recipients. It will show how existing policies punish those who try to work their way out of poverty. And it will put forward alternatives that encourage low-income individuals to become self-supporting.

Toronto City Summit Alliance - the link below wil take you to the In the News section of the City Summit web pages

Task Force on Income Security in the News