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Poverty In Canada Case Study

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In response to the Great Depression, the government very slowly began, although without success at first, to develop policies that would help to alleviate the problem of poverty. The first universal social welfare program they came up with was the Family Allowance program, which was introduced by the federal government in 1944. The small unemployment insurance program, introduced during World War II, was expanded after the war. These were the foundations of Canada’s social security system or welfare state. The problem of poverty was not solved, however, and relative poverty (meaning wide gaps between low-income earners and others) persisted. Nevertheless, the social security system succeeded in reducing the impact of poverty for many families. …show more content…

A year later, the federal Privy Council Office formed a group of specialists to study and encourage greater federal-provincial co-operation in combating poverty. In the same year, the Company of Young Canadians was created to help co-ordinate and stimulate local self-help efforts. Although the CYC was later disbanded, it was a precursor of federal government programs such as Opportunities for Youth, the Local Initiatives Program and Canada Works, which attempted to provide employment and reduce poverty through local initiative efforts in the 1970s to 1980s. Another influential commission created during this period, headed by Claude Castonguay, also advocated – among many recommendations concerning health care, income security, employment and social services – a guaranteed annual income.
The concern during the 1960s also led to several new pieces of anti-poverty legislation. Negotiations between the provinces and the federal government, which began in 1964, resulted in the introduction of the Canada and Québec pension plans, which were based on the recognition that the private pension system did not provide adequate coverage to low-income retired workers and their families. In conjunction with these new pension plans, the Guaranteed Income Supplement Program was implemented, which assured a basic income support level to all low-income …show more content…

The Unemployment Insurance Act was amended in 1971 to provide more extensive coverage to the unemployed and to the sick. The Child Tax Credit of 1978 extended federal benefits to families with children in a manner that was most beneficial to low-income families. Several provinces instituted income-tested payments to the aged, while Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Québec introduced programs that provided assistance to the families of the working poor. But the comprehensive federal-provincial review of Canada's social-security system, conducted in the mid-1970s, failed in its central purpose to establish a guaranteed annual income. The 1980s, meanwhile, were marked by budget cuts on income provision and social services directed towards the poor. These cuts were accelerated in the

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