The challenges we face with respect to building more affordable housing are complex to state the obvious, and resolving them calls for an integrated set of strategies that go far… Read more Affordable Housing is an Economic Problem →
Originally posted in November 2018 on the Edmonton CDC Blog. In Edmonton, approximately 140,000 workers are identified as low income earners (earning below $16.31 per hour), according to the Edmonton… Read more Living Wage IN a Livable Economy →
I was at the gathering where Premier Notley and Minister Sabir announced legislation that would improve benefits to recipients of AISH. I support these improvements (read more). My math indicates a 6% increase to the AISH benefit. Some critics say it should have been higher, given the length of time since the last increase. Some say the government could have brought in these changes earlier. Of course there are others who would choose to reduce AISH benefits while increasing the coffers of the wealthy through tax breaks. Everybody’s got their… Read more THERE’S MORE TO DO TO IMPROVE AISH, ISN’T THERE? →
I have written in the past about what I call the pendulum swing or the bandwagon effect. I think this is what has happened with respect to collective impact over… Read more Collective Impact as Uprising →
Note: In addition to writing about community change and penning commentary, I am a story teller. I write fiction and spoken word. This piece is a mix of fact and… Read more LIVING POOR: KAREN’S STORY →
Yes, perhaps an odd title for a posting, but bear with me. I was on my way back home from meeting downtown with Alberta Government colleagues who also work in… Read more Mandatory Winter Tires and Poverty →
As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest. – Nelson Mandela I have been doing research for a keynote I am doing next month on the socio-economics of poverty. I am speaking in Revelstoke, so I took a look at the welfare rates in British Columbia. There, if you are a single person deemed employable your income support “benefit” is $605 per month and the government’s website indicates… Read more I am angry about poverty →
Pretend. There are 300 people in the world. 180 are workers. The rest are children, seniors, and stay at home parents. The economy generates $5 million per year in wealth. That averages $27,777 per worker. However… 90% of the wealth is owned by 20% of workers. In other words… 36 of the 180 own $4.5 million of the $5 million in wealth. The remaining 144 workers divide up the $.5 million. I don’t really need to give you comparative averages, right? Yes, I understand economics might be a tad more… Read more A very short treatise on the wealth gap →
You might expect a post by this title would include narrative about income, jobs, housing, child care, transportation, education, health services and so on. It is true we need to address… Read more How to End Poverty →
The Mayors of Edmonton and Calgary are talking about it (read). Many agree with them and I am one; it’s worth a good look. In fact, I suggest that a guaranteed annual income be considered as a foundational strategy to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. Whether or not it will work depends on a myriad of factors that I do hope we will aptly include in a comprehensive approach to poverty elimination. I won’t pretend that I know what the answers are for what ails us.… Read more Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income in Alberta? →
“The top 10 per cent of earners have seen their share of income rise from 34 per cent in 1982 to 42.5 per cent in 2007. At the very top, the… Read more Pictures tell the story: Income Inequality →
