As recently as 40 years ago, old age meant living in poverty for more than a third of Canadian seniors. Thankfully, public programs like the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement changed this, cutting BC’s seniors’ poverty rate to a low of 2.2% in the mid-1990s, among the lowest in the western world.
Inequality and poverty
They are young and highly educated, but many “sharing economy” workers in the GTA are selling their services under precarious working conditions.
Read the first comprehensive look at workers who sell “sharing economy” type services and the consumers who buy them in this new report.
BC seniors are anything but a homogenous group. Large income and wealth inequalities exist among both seniors and working-age British Columbians—the defining problem we face isn’t about intergenerational inequality, but rather the growing gap between rich and poor across generations.
This study uses Statistics Canada data to study the economic well-being of BC seniors, and takes a close look at indicators of economic insecurity including core housing need, the costs and accessibility of essential care and prescription medications, and food insecurity.
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Our photo essay, Economic insecurity touches seniors’ lives in profound ways (published alongside the study, Poverty and Inequality Among British Columbia’s Seniors) describes the lived experiences of three senior women living in economic insecurity in BC.
BC seniors are anything but a homogenous group. Large income and wealth inequalities exist among both seniors and working-age British Columbians—the defining problem we face isn’t about intergenerational inequality, but rather the growing gap between rich and poor across generations. Learn more: policyalternatives.ca/SeniorsInequality
(Vancouver) Poverty and economic insecurity among BC seniors is growing, according to a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. After rapid declines over the 1970s, 80s and 90s, seniors’ poverty rose from a low of 2.2% in 1996 to 12.7% in 2014 (the most recent year data is available)—and many more seniors have incomes just above the poverty line.
TORONTO – They are young and highly educated, but many “sharing economy” workers in the GTA are selling their services under precarious working conditions, according to a new survey released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
While most workers in this survey say they like what they do, the work has downsides: more than a third of survey respondents say the hours are unpredictable, it’s hard to get enough work, they don’t make enough money providing these services, and if they get sick they don’t get paid.
Several small non-profit organizations (NPOs) are nervously awaiting Manitoba’s 2017 budget. Funding sources they’ve come to rely on have been ‘on pause’ for months and its beginning to affect the services they provide. Many organizations have been unable to confirm that multi-year agreements signed through the government’s Non-Profit Organization (NPO) Strategy will remain in place—they are told they must wait until the budget is released.
In this issue:
BC’s new (affordable?) housing policies
A bleak jobs picture outside BC’s big cities
The great log export drain
The biggest source of waste in Canadian health care? The private, for-profit sector.
BC’s Jobs Plan doesn’t equal a comprehensive poverty reduction plan
Joining our CCPA–BC community
This winter, a 53 year-old woman died overnight in minus 32-degree temperatures, frozen to death on the streets of downtown Winnipeg. This tragic and preventable loss serves as a reminder of how Winnipeg is failing to support people who need it the most and that the homelessness crisis affects women. A new study released today renews calls to action to deal with this tremendously unjust situation.