Conseil national du bien-être social

             The federal, provincial and territorial governments should
          stop putting the squeeze on the children, women and men on welfare,
          the National Council of Welfare said in a report on welfare reform
          published today.

             "The National Council of Welfare cannot see how making poor
          people poorer is good public policy, and it is absolutely
          impossible for us to understand in the case of poor families with
          children," says the report, Another Look at Welfare Reform.

             The report reviews and analyzes changes in welfare policies
          during the 1990s.  Many of the changes involved cuts or freezes
          in provincial and territorial welfare benefits.  The report also
          criticizes the sharp cuts made by the federal government in its
          financial support for welfare and other social programs.

             The Council notes the importance of giving children a good
          start in life and the value of prevention - spending modest sums of
          money now to avoid spending huge sums down the road.  It also notes
          that many governments and social agencies are talking more and more
          about poverty and other "risk factors" that make it difficult for
          poor children to thrive.

             "Given all this, we simply do not see how policies which
          deprive children in welfare families can enjoy widespread public
          support," the report says.

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             The Council recommends that welfare rates should be based on the cost
          of a "market basket" of essential goods and services.  Once set in
          this manner, rates should not be changed arbitrarily.
 
             Welfare caseloads rise and fall with unemployment, and the
          high caseloads of recent years are largely the result of high
          unemployment rates.  The report urges governments to step up their
          efforts to create better jobs for all Canadians rather than
          limiting their efforts to make-work jobs for welfare recipients.

             "Government efforts over the years to substitute welfare
          reform for job creation have been largely unsuccessful," the report
          says.  "Rather than spending the bulk of their efforts on labour
          market policies which would lead to more jobs and better jobs for
          more people in the population at large, most governments confine
          themselves to trying to get able-bodied people on welfare into
          jobs that do not exist.  When all else fails, they come up with
          euphemisms for welfare programs built around words like
          "opportunity" and "independence" or call out the fraud squads
          to exaggerate the surprisingly small amount of cheating in the
          system."

             "The stark reality is that welfare reform without job creation
          simply does not work."

             For the future, the National Council of Welfare is encouraged
          by recent changes in federal policy that open the door to increased
          support for social programs.  The most encouraging is the promise
          that Ottawa will make cash payments to the provinces and
          territories of at least $12.5 billion a year under the Canada
          Health and Social Transfer to support medicare, post-secondary
          education, welfare and social services.

             The Council recommends that the federal, provincial and
          territorial governments use this change in policy as a spur to
          developing brand-new financial arrangements for these four areas
          of social policy.

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             The National Council of Welfare is a citizens' advisory group
          to the federal Minister of Human Resources Development.

             1.  The federal, provincial and territorial governments should
          agree to new package of financial arrangements for social programs
          with the following four features:

                -  abolition of the Canada Health and Social Transfer at the
                   earliest possible date;

                -  four new "cash-only" deals to allow the federal government to
                   defray the cost of medicare, post-secondary education, welfare
                   and social services;

                -  legislation to prevent the federal government from making
                   arbitrary and unilateral changes in any of the four cash-only
                   deals; and

                -  firm guarantees by provincial and territorial governments to
                   respect minimum national standards for welfare.

             2.  Welfare rates should be high enough to cover the cost of the
          necessities of life, as measured by a "market basket" of goods and
          services.  Once set in this manner, rates should not be changed
          arbitrarily.

             3.  Provincial and territorial governments should not be allowed to
          disentitle entire groups of people from welfare.  Alternatives to
          welfare should be pursued, but no one should be denied welfare
          simply because of their age, marital or family status, or state
          of health.

             4.  As a matter of right, all applicants and recipients should
          be able to appeal the decisions of welfare and social service
          officials.  Appeal tribunals should operate in a non-bureaucratic,
          non-legalistic manner and render their decisions speedily.
                                           
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             5.  Every provincial and territorial government should insist on
          comparable welfare benefits everywhere within its own jurisdiction
          and should cover 100 percent of the cost of welfare.  Municipal
          governments should not pay for welfare, because they do not have
          the variety of taxing powers needed to cover increased welfare
          costs during a long or severe recession.

             6.  All provinces and territories should allow applicants for
          welfare and welfare recipients to retain a modest amount of savings
          for emergencies or special needs.  People should not have to be
          utterly penniless before they are able to apply for welfare.

             7.  All governments should take a stand against welfare bashing.
          They should avoid stereotypes in all their public statements about
          welfare fraud and the lifestyles of welfare recipients.

             8.  Provincial and territorial governments should accept reasonable
          limits in the pursuit of welfare fraud.  Measures such as
          fingerprinting which are not routinely applied to other groups of
          Canadians should not be imposed on welfare recipients.  Governments
          should take pains to distinguish between fraud and administrative
          errors in their public statements about welfare.

             9.  Provinces and territories should provide the general public
          with complete and up-to-date information about welfare and social
          service programs and policies.  At least once a year, governments
          should publish comprehensive welfare and social service manuals
          written in everyday language.

            10.  The federal, provincial and territorial governments should
          work together to produce a national welfare information database
          that is timely and readily available to the public.  The database
          should include provincial and territorial welfare caseload
          statistics, rates and benefits, and detailed information about
          day care and other subsidized social services.

            11.  Governments should make the creation of more and better jobs
          their top priority.  Job creation is good for all Canadians, not
          just Canadians on welfare.

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            12.  "Workfare" should be banned outright.  Encouraging able-bodied
          welfare recipients to find some kind of work is acceptable.
          Assigning them to specific menial or dead-end jobs as a condition
          of welfare is bad social policy and is tantamount to servitude.
 
            13.  Minimum wages should be high enough to ensure reasonable
          standards of living.  The value of the minimum wage has plummeted
          in most jurisdictions in Canada during the past generation to the
          point that even a single person working full time at the minimum
          wage winds up well below the poverty line.

            14.  All provinces and territories should have earnings exemptions
          in their welfare programs that allow welfare recipients to enter
          the work force without suffering huge financial penalties. Under
          current arrangements in some jurisdictions, welfare recipients
          lose a dollar of welfare for every dollar they earn beyond a token
          amount.

            15.  All provinces and territories should provide assistance
          for prescription drugs, dental care and eyeglasses to welfare
          recipients and low-wage workers and their families.  Losing
          coverage for health care costs not covered by medicare is a
          clear disincentive to work for welfare recipients.