Creating opportunity for all in battle against poverty
Living in want is much more than just a lack of money, Derek Cook writes.
“Poverty is often hidden in the name of pride.” So said one of the many voices consulted over the past two years as the government of Canada put together a national poverty strategy. That strategy, unveiled on Tuesday, puts dignity at the heart of a comprehensive plan to cut poverty in half by 2030.
For the first time, Canada has a vision and plan to reduce poverty in arguably the richest country in the world. With Canada’s tremendous wealth, it’s clear that a healthy economy is not sufficient to lift people out of poverty, as more than three million Canadians continue to struggle below the poverty line. In Calgary, historically one of the richest cities in Canada, the number of people living in poverty has never fallen below 100,000 even during the boom years.
For these reasons the United Nations recently called on Canada to create a national anti-poverty strategy. The new strategy, called Opportunity for All, defines poverty as “the condition of a person who is deprived of the resources, means, choices and power to acquire and maintain a basic level of living standards and to facilitate integration and participation in society.” This recognizes that poverty is about more than a lack of money; it is equally about choice, power and being part of community life.
While our picture of poverty is often shaped by encounters with people who are homeless, they are a small fraction of those experiencing poverty. Most often poverty is hidden right among us. People struggling with poverty may be single parents, seniors living on their own, working families, people living with a disability, newcomers to Canada or our Indigenous neighbours. These are people we live, work and interact with at our schools, work, places of worship and community halls.
A recent Calgary survey found that about one-third of Calgarians have experienced poverty in their lifetime. Many more live paycheque to paycheque. Perhaps our reluctance to discuss poverty is not that we’re unfamiliar with it, but that we all know it far too well.
For everyone who has experienced poverty, poverty is not a choice. Poverty often arrives unexpectedly from things beyond our control. An illness, job loss, or family breakdown can all lead to poverty. So, too, can systems that fail us or prevent people from working their way out of poverty. Sometimes discrimination keeps people trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. And sometimes children are born into it and never manage to escape.
Poverty also carries with it a great degree of stigma and shame. This is why the other dark reality of poverty is isolation. Those living in poverty often withdraw either by choice or the inability to join the life of the community because of the constraints poverty imposes. And those who are isolated are more likely to fall into poverty as they lack the support of friends, family and neighbours when things go wrong.
Understanding that poverty is more than a lack of money, the route out of poverty is also much more complex. Canada’s new poverty strategy, Opportunity for All, is based on three core principles: dignity, inclusion and resilience. Dignity affirms that everyone has a right to a life that honours their inherent dignity as human beings. Inclusion acknowledges that being a part of society is both the best defence against and surest route out of poverty and necessary for a life of dignity. Resilience recognizes that we are all vulnerable to poverty and a strong Canada requires a resilient community.
While we all may be vulnerable to poverty, we are also all equally important in creating a community where poverty cannot take root. Not just governments, but equally businesses, churches, community organizations and each of us individuals all have an important role to play.
When we affirm the dignity of people and work to make sure they are included in the life of our community we build the resilience of every one of us. This is how we create Opportunity for All.