2011:01EI - THE NEED FOR ALL CANADIANS TO HAVE ACCESS TO SUFFICIENT RESOURCES TO COVER THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
Whereas Statements
1. The UN Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, social services, and security in cases of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, or old age.
2. The National Council of Welfare's report, Welfare Incomes 2009, found that despite welfare increases in 2008, inflation had eroded 45% of purchasing power since 1990, leaving many recipients unable to afford necessities. The Canadian Community Health Survey indicates that 9.2% of Canadians (over 1.1 million people) live with food insecurity.
3. Research by the Canadian Centre for Public Policy Alternatives highlights a widening income gap in Canada, where upper-income earners’ wages have grown, middle-class wages have stagnated, and lower-income wages have declined, increasing food and shelter insecurity for vulnerable populations.
4. The World Health Organization calls for policies addressing social determinants of health to reduce health inequities.
5. Canada is the only major industrialized country without a national housing strategy, leaving First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities particularly affected by poverty, homelessness, poor housing conditions, and higher rates of incarceration and unemployment.
Resolved Statements
Resolved 1: The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) reiterates the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as policy, reaffirming the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing, housing, and social security in cases of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, or old age.
Resolved 2: The NCWC urges the Government of Canada to develop an anti-poverty strategy that:
a. Improves daily living conditions, focusing on single mothers, older women, refugee women, women with disabilities, and Aboriginal women off-reserve, increasing Federal Social Transfers to provinces and territories.
b. Ensures provinces and territories use additional benefits to help social assistance recipients afford nutritious food and safe housing.
c. Implements a National Housing Strategy without delay.
d. Increases federal funding for on-reserve Aboriginal housing, addressing overcrowding, mold-infected conditions, and lack of access to safe drinking water.
e. Develops a national health policy to reduce health inequities.
Resolved 3: The NCWC urges the Government of Canada to work with provincial and territorial governments to align minimum wage policies with the cost of living.