Edmonton Social Planning Council

Category: **ESPC News and Announcements

  • Opinion: Budget is a setback for lower-income Albertans

    Opinion: Budget is a setback for lower-income Albertans

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    Read the full version here: https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-budget-is-a-setback-for-lower-income-albertans

    Download the Fact Sheet here: 2019 Alberta Budget fACTsheet

    Excerpt from the Edmonton Journal:

    With the UCP tabling their first budget, there is a lot of talk of what this means. Depending on who you ask, this budget is either an attempt to get Alberta’s fiscal house in order or a ruthless act of austerity.

    The Edmonton Social Planning Council took a deep dive and produced a fact sheet to inform the public on what this latest budget means for social services and what some of the most vulnerable Albertans living in poverty can expect from our provincial government.

    First, the good news. It is heartening to see the Government of Alberta continue to support investments in affordable public transportation with $9.5 million per year in funding for a low-income transit pass. In 2018, this pass was purchased by over 100,000 Albertans in Edmonton and Calgary, many of whom reported better access to education, jobs, and other opportunities. Staying the course will improve the quality of life for low-income Albertans and enable their further economic and social participation.

    For school-age children, a 20-per-cent funding increase to the existing school nutrition program is welcome. Research has shown that students enrolled in schools with a universal breakfast program had fewer discipline problems, better attendance, and improved psychosocial well-being. Investing in our children’s welfare is simply the right thing to do and strengthens our communities.

    Also commendable is the additional funding going toward a mental health and addiction strategy, an opioid response, palliative care, and a new sexual assault hotline. This shows a commitment to support the most vulnerable and we applaud that.

    Nevertheless, there are a number of other areas in the budget that are deeply concerning and could threaten to set people back, especially after all the progress that has been made in alleviating poverty over the past few years.

    The Alberta Child Benefit and the Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit, two programs designed to support lower- and middle-income working families, have shown themselves to be important tools for poverty reduction. However, they will now be rolled into a single program, the Alberta Child and Family Benefit, starting in July 2020.

    While benefits for the lowest-income families will increase by 15 per cent, the benefit will be phased out more quickly as incomes rise. As a result, $40 million less will be delivered to Alberta families. While it’s encouraging to see the lowest incomes receive more supports, it still leaves out many other working families in need and struggling to make ends meet.

    We are alarmed to see a 24-per-cent reduction in the Rental Assistance Program. These programs help households find affordable rental accommodations by providing rent subsidies in eligible rental projects. According to the 2016 census, more than 164,000 households in Alberta are living in unsafe, crowded, and unaffordable housing. Approximately 6,000 households in Edmonton alone are currently on the Capital Region Housing rent-subsidy program wait list, many of whom have been waiting for years.

    Finally, the de-indexing of Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), the Alberta Seniors Benefit, Income Support, and Special Needs Assistance programs from the consumer price index (CPI) is perhaps cause for the greatest concern.

    While current levels for these income assistance programs remain the same, the fact that they will not increase with the rising cost of living places many of our most vulnerable citizens with the burden of having to choose between purchasing nutritious food or heating their homes.

    Despite additional investments in some key areas, the overall impact of the budget puts many low- and modest-income Albertans at greater risk. The four-year strategy outlined in the budget fails to account for either inflation or population growth.

    This means that Albertans will face real and growing cuts to health, education, and social programs. As was pointed out in their fiscal plan, households and businesses would pay at least $13.4 billion more in taxes if Alberta had the same tax system as any other province. There is ample room to address this revenue shortfall without sacrificing the vital services on which Albertans rely.

    We are hopeful that finding common ground and working towards a prosperous future for all will result in the desired outcomes that benefit all Albertans.

    Susan Morrissey is executive director of the Edmonton Social Planning Council.

     

     

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  • 2019 Alberta Provincial Budget Fact Sheet

    2019 Alberta Provincial Budget Fact Sheet

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    Download: 2019 Alberta Budget fACTsheet

    Introduction

    The 2019 budget, which runs until March 31, 2020, is titled A Plan for Jobs and the Economy. The main priorities it identifies is creating jobs and reducing the deficit. We are now almost 7 months into the 2019-20 budget year, so many of the big changes announced will not take effect until next spring’s budget covering the 2020-21 fiscal year which starts on April 1, 2020. The government fiscal plan will see a 2.8 per cent reduction in spending over the next four years or $1.3 billion lower than 2018-19 levels. Since Alberta’s inflation and population growth is going up about 3.5 per cent per year, in real per capita terms this represents a spending reduction of 17 per cent. To address this spending reduction, the size of the public service is expected to shrink by 7.7 per cent. The reductions will be achieved largely through attrition, although some layoffs will also occur.

    Revenue Measures

    Revenue is forecast to remain flat at $50 billion in 2019-20 and $50.1 billion in 2020-21 and will increase to $57.5 billion in 2022-23. A modest but realistic oil price outlook, along with market access issues, impede revenue growth over the next two years. In addition, the carbon levy from the previous NDP government was repealed as of May 30, 2019. The corporate tax rate will decrease from 12 per cent to eight per cent over a period of two and a half years. Conversely, personal income taxes will be going up due to exemptions and tax brackets no longer being indexed for inflation.

    Child Benefits

    The Alberta Child Benefit and the Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit, two programs designed to support lower- and middle-income working families will be replaced with a new Alberta Child and Family Benefit program starting in July 2020. While the base benefit for the lowest income families is being increased by 15 per cent, the benefit will be phased out more quickly as income rises so fewer families will receive the benefit. That’s why the new single benefit will deliver about $40 million less to Alberta families than the two benefits delivered by the previous government.

    Affordable Housing and Homelessness

    Funding for affordable housing and homelessness is being maintained for the balance of the 2019-20 fiscal year. Starting next year there will be a 24 per cent reduction to the Rental Assistance Program and a 3.5 per cent reduction in operating budgets for housing management bodies like Capital Region Housing. Partnerships will be pursued with housing management bodies and private sector to reduce the public costs of affordable housing. Eight million dollars is also being made available to the Hope Mission to build a new emergency shelter in Edmonton.

    Childcare and Child Intervention

    Funding for early intervention programs will be reduced to $91 million in the 2020-21 compared to $104 million this year.  Child intervention funding is being kept at the same level as this year’s funding for the following three years without adjustments for caseload growth or inflation.

    The Early Learning and Child Care centres (aka $25 per day child care) pilot project will continue until the end of their three-year terms and thereafter reviewed with no assurance that they will be continued or expanded.

    Employment and Income Support

    Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), the Alberta Seniors Benefit, Income Support, and Special Needs Assistance programs are being kept at their current levels, however they are being de-indexed from the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This means they will not be kept up with the rising cost of living.

    A full program review will be undertaken to address the rapid growth of costs for AISH, Persons with Developmental Disabilities, and Family Support for Children with Disabilities. A $193 million reduction in funding for Employment and Income Support (social assistance) is expected between now and fiscal year 2022-23 due to expected reductions in caseloads due to an improving economy.

    The Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP), which provides funding to employers to hire high school or post-secondary students for summer jobs, will be eliminated after the 2019 program year. This will have a detrimental impact on students seeking to build their job-related experiences and skillsets when pursuing careers in their field of study.

    Addiction and Mental Health

    Over the next four years, an additional $100 million will go towards a mental health and addiction strategy, $40 million for an opioid response, $20 million for palliative care, and $6 million for a new sexual assault hotline.

    Seniors Drug Coverage

    Coverage for non-senior dependents including spouses under seniors’ prescription drug coverage is being ended. Income testing may be introduced for seniors’ drug coverage.

    Community Supports and Family Safety (CSFC)

    There is $125 million budgeted for CSFC for fiscal year 2019-20 which will increase to $134 million in the next three years. The Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) budget has been maintained at the same level during this time.

    K-12 Education

    School nutrition programs will see a 20 per cent increase after earlier facing the threat of elimination. However, the school fee reduction program is instead being eliminated.

    An estimated additional 60,000 children are expected to enter the K-12 education system during the next four years.  However, education funding is being kept at the same $8.2 billion level. Neither inflation nor enrolment growth is being funded.

    Affordable Transportation

    The low income transit support pilot program, first introduced in 2017 in Edmonton and Calgary, will be extended to support Albertans in need of public transportation at $9.5 million per year. This enables economic participation and improves the quality of life for low-income Albertans. The government fiscal plan will see a 2.8 per cent reduction in spending over the next four years or $1.3 billion lower than 2018-19 levels. Since Alberta’s inflation and population growth is going up about 3.5 per cent per year, in real per capita terms this represents a spending reduction of 17 per cent. The Edmonton Social Planning Council is an independent, non-profit, charitable organization focused on social research. This fACT Sheet, prepared by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Edmonton Social Planning Council #200, 10544 – 106 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 1C5 www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca @edmontonspc  [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
  • Public Engagement on Affordable Housing in Edmonton Report

    Public Engagement on Affordable Housing in Edmonton Report

    Access to stable and quality housing can produce positive outcomes to community health and education, and ultimately improve neighbourhood conditions and perceptions. Families that are in unstable housing are more likely to face intergenerational poverty. Living in unsafe neighbourhoods could have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Despite these benefits, there is still formidable public opposition to providing quality affordable and safe housing to vulnerable populations, as these projects are seen as posing a risk to the dynamic and safety of the neighbourhood. Reasons for this vary and include fear, racism, safety, or concerns around decreased property values.

    To alleviate these concerns, a robust public engagement strategy with communities is necessary. In order to explore the effects of current public engagement practices on the acceptance of affordable housing in Edmonton, the Edmonton Social Planning Council was tasked with conducting focus groups across the city with Community League members. This report details the findings and offers recommendations to Community League members, City administration, and affordable housing developers.

    To increase acceptance of affordable housing and to improve the public engagement process, the report’s recommendations include:

    • Create a campaign on what affordable housing is, using a human rights-based approach to housing and use unconventional messengers, such as religious leaders or conservative politicians, to speak to affordable housing issues.
    • Break down silos between members of the public, developers, and City administration. Ongoing dialogue where engagement begins early to allow for context-specific concerns to be fully explored with each engagement.
    • Restructure public engagement to have clear expectations where all stakeholders outline their desired outcomes of engagement and how it will be conducted.
    • Create a guiding set of principles to anchor public engagement processes in a human-rights based approach to housing.
    • Increase support for community building and integration between new housing tenants and pre-existing members of the community.
    • Employ non-traditional engagement formats, as preferences vary widely accordingly to the individual. Examples include walking tours of successful affordable housing developments, neighbourhood walkthroughs given to developers to allow for innovative ways of hearing community feedback.

    ESPC Documents/PUBLICATIONS/A.06.G REPORTS/EFCL – Public Engagement on Affordable Housing.pdf

  • A Profile of Poverty in Edmonton – May 2019 Update

    A Profile of Poverty in Edmonton – May 2019 Update

    Read the full report (click on the link):A Profile of Poverty in Edmonton – May 2019 Update

    Click to download: 2016 Federal Census Neighbourhood Summary

    Click to download: Map: Prevalence of Low Income After-Tax (All Ages)

    Click to download: Map: Prevalence of Low Income After-Tax (0 to 17)

    INTRODUCTION

    Poverty affects people from all walks of life – young, old, employed, unemployed, those who are new to Canada and those whose ancestors have lived here for hundreds of years. The structure of the economy traps people in bad situations and forces some into poverty by constraining choices and limiting options (Ghatak, 2015). Limited social housing, eroding benefits, and lack of access to stable, good-paying jobs, has created an economy that takes away many people’s choices and leads to poverty. People are increasingly forced into unstable jobs that don’t pay enough to satisfy needs, and some can’t find jobs at all. The cost of living has also gone up, which forces many people to focus on making ends meet and living day-to-day, rather than planning for the future or their children’s future. Because people in poverty lack the means to participate in their communities, they are often socially isolated (Mood & Jonsson, 2016; Stewart et al., 2009). The stress experienced from poverty can lead to negative impacts on mental and emotional health, the ability to make decisions, and even family and neighbourhood cohesion (Carvalho, Meier, & Wang, 2016).

    Edmontonians believe in helping and protecting one another, so we must work together to address poverty. For this reason, the Edmonton Social Planning Council has produced this Profile on Poverty – 2019 Update in partnership with EndPovertyEdmonton. EndPovertyEdmonton is a community initiative working towards prosperity for all through advancing reconciliation, the elimination of racism, livable incomes, affordable housing, accessible and affordable transit, affordable and quality child care, and access to mental health services and addiction supports (EndPovertyEdmonton, 2019). It uses a collaborative model, whereby governments, businesses, non-profits, and many other forms of organizations can come together to end poverty in Edmonton in a generation (30 years).

    We need to break the constraints of our current economy. Every Edmontonian deserves to have the freedom to pursue opportunities.

    It is our responsibility to ensure all people in our city have a decent standard of living.

    MEASURING POVERTY

    Before solutions to poverty can be considered, the prevalence of low income must be understood. One of the challenges of measuring poverty and low income is the variety of ways Statistics Canada collects data (Table 1). Their primary data source is the federal Census, which is conducted every five years through a national, mandatory, survey. The last Census was conducted in 2016 and uses income data from 2015. Due to its scope, it contains the greatest level of detail.

    In contrast, the T1 Family File (T1FF) is collected every year from tax-filers. Some information available in the Census is not collected through tax-filer data, although the T1FF includes First Nations reserves and collective dwellings (Pinard & Pagé, 2018). As a result, low income estimates tend to be higher when using the T1FF as compared to the Census.

    Another source of data is the Canadian Income Survey (CIS), a yearly cross-sectional survey that provides a portrait of income and income sources for Canadians.

    Due to differences between data sets, the data source for particular measures in this report have been chosen based on the aspect of poverty being explored. All data is taken at the Edmonton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) level, unless otherwise indicated. The Edmonton CMA includes the City of Edmonton, the City of St. Albert, Parkland County, Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, Leduc County, and all incorporated urban centres and First Nations located within the boundaries of those counties.

    Read the full report (click on the link): A Profile of Poverty in Edmonton – May 2019 Update

    One Page Infographic: Edmonton Poverty Profile Graphic

        

  • 2018 Vital Topics – The Arts

    Edmonton Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by Edmonton Community Foundation, in partnership with Edmonton Social Planning Council, to measure how the community is doing. This year we will also be focusing on individual issues, VITAL TOPICS, that are timely and important to Edmonton. 

    This edition focuses on The Arts.

    ARTS include a wide variety of creative disciplines including:

    • literature (including drama, poetry, and prose),
    • performing arts (including dance, music, and theatre),
    • and media and visual arts (including drawing, painting, filmmaking, architecture, ceramics, sculpting, and photography).

    Download

  • 2018 Vital Topics – Senior Women in Edmonton

    Edmonton Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by Edmonton Community Foundation, in partnership with Edmonton Social Planning Council, to measure how the community is doing. This year we will also be focusing on individual issues, VITAL TOPICS, that are timely and important to Edmonton. Watch for these in each issue of Legacy in Action, and in the full issue of Vital Signs that will be released in October of this year.

    This edition focuses on Senior Women in Edmonton.

    SENIOR OR “SENIOR CITIZEN” In Canada, there is no set age at which a person is considered a senior. Many government benefits begin at 60 or 65 years of age. However, senior discounts often start at 55.

    For the purposes of this report, 65+ will denote a senior, and an older adult will refer to those aged 55 to 64, octogenarian will refer to those 80+.

    AGEISM is the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against people on the basis of their age.

    ELDER ABUSE is any action or inaction by self or others that jeopardize the health and wellbeing of an older adult.

    Download (PDF)