In September 2019 Lee entered Canada with her two children, where she claimed refugee protection a month later. With the help of some friends here and there she was able to get temporary shelter in Kitchener but soon had to move to Hamilton to find accommodation which fit within the very little amount of social assistance that she was able to access through Ontario Works.
The Federal legislation for a Canada Disability Benefit is exceptionally important news. This is a targeted benefit focused on improving income support for those with disabilities. Benefits delivered through the tax system are efficient and can be directed where they are needed most. We have seen the difference for families that receive the Canada Child Benefit which Ala Abdulkarem describes in the article, Helping New Canadians Access Income Supports. Ala leads our Money Matters project providing support to over 3000 individuals last year.
The decade of the 2020’s will be momentous for turning away from the endless growth economy by learning to walk more gently on the Earth. If we don’t, these coming decades will be characterized by attempts to hopelessly navigate around the climate and ecological barriers that are directly in our path.
Walking gently is a new priority. If we don’t start revising society’s relationship to the living world, the next generations will inherit a world that will not be recognizable – and eventually not habitable.
This week, Globe & Mail headed its new Climate Change section with the statement, “We knew this was coming.” Increasingly, people and institutions are getting the picture. It is not just the four major hurricanes that have recently made landfall in North America, nor that California is suffering under drought conditions in the midst of a heat wave producing extended 50° C temperatures. Nor is it the scale of dramatic wild fires, or the fear of the smoke filled toxic air that is filling cities up and down the North American west coast.
What is consumerism? It is a slippery term to define as it has been used in a variety of ways over the years. It is rare to hear anyone explicitly defend consumerism, and yet since it has become a meaningful political and economic reality every so often the mask slips and those holding leadership positions will make some revealing comment about the relationship between buying products and the stability of our entire social order.
Before Covid-19, we were already in a Social Recession. For example, each year mental health or addiction issues affect 20% of the population. We tolerate that 34% of Ontario high-school students deal with moderate-to-serious distress like anxiety and depression. Our culture has a radiating frustration that you see in those angry protests against the shutdown. The Social Recession is not new; it is the consequence of an increasing dependence on materialistic values as the foundational organizing principle for society.
No, in fact you may find that your grocery bill goes down as you eat more whole, plant-based foods. One reason your grocery bill may go down is that you will be buying much fewer processed foods. Processed foods are generally more expensive than whole foods.
The Ontario government is going forward with three pilot projects on Basic Income. It will study whether a basic income can support vulnerable workers by giving security and opportunity. Will it be simpler and more economically effective? The experiments will last 3 years and involve up to 4000 people. At this time, it is highly unlikely that a Basic Income scheme can be generalized to the wider population, because the costs would exponentially increase government expenditures. This article suggests a different approach to Basic Income by answering two questions.
The upcoming closing of the JM Schneiders plant on Courtland Avenue is a reminder of the continuing trend of workforce upheaval in the face of technological change and globalization. Schneiders has been vital to the Kitchener economy for over 100 years, yet it now joins other Kitchener based companies like Uniroyal, Electrohome, Goodrich, Deilcraft, Kaufman, Hoffmans, Grebs, Burns, Domtar, Kitchener Frame, and Ledco that have been shuttered.
How often do we think about wider implications when we purchase a cup of coffee, groceries, clothing, a book? These transactions are increasingly electronic – separated from the provider of the good or service. How often do we know the person, company or country where goods are made?
The Integrated Circle of Care is a fluid and collaborative approach followed by workers from different agencies weaving through St. John’s Kitchen. Within this approach, staff members from each agency are aware of their specific personal roles. However, the high level of collaboration between workers means that people can approach any worker, without knowing their agency association or specific role, and still receive support – either that worker will support the person directly, or they will introduce the person to another worker who can support the person more appropriately.
This approach makes relationships more natural and support more accessible. Workers from different agencies are easily approachable, meaning that people build relationships with multiple workers. Having relationships with different workers is important to a person’s support – it makes support from a trusted source easy to find, and means that people have a choice of worker to approach in any given situation.
In order to maintain a circle of care around a person, workers from different agencies ask for consent from the person for information to be shared between workers. Continuous communication between workers helps to ensure that people do not fall into gaps between services, and also that services are not duplicated.
