Description:
This paper is about the challenges facing citizens when presented with statistics on poverty, and emphasizes the need to question the implications and assumptions underlying various poverty measures. The authors look at how we measure poverty levels, the working poor, child benefits, unemployment and Employment Insurance. They provide some basic information about what measures are used and illustrate how different approaches to the data can colour social realities. As Stapleton and Shillington write, "... if we don't make sense of poverty measures, we will limit our ability as a society to make good decisions about poverty and related issues." The authors hope this short paper will stimulate thoughtful debate about poverty and its measurement among Canadians.
See page 12 for Benefits for children of the poor.
On June 1, 2010 the Metcalf Foundation will be holding a workshop for people in the non-profit sector to strengthen their understanding of public policy and how non-profits can work with government to influence change. This paper has been developed to begin this discussion. See CRRU EVENTS for more details.