Event: Launch of The Stop
Meet Nick Saul at McNally Robinson Grant Park on Thursday, June 6, from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. The event is free, and will take place in the store’s Travel Alcove Space. For more information, visit www.cfccanada.ca/events or follow Community Food Centres Canada on Twitter or Facebook.
by Nick Saul
In 1998, when I became Executive Director of Toronto’s The Stop Community Food Centre, the small urban food bank was like thousands of other cramped, dreary, makeshift spaces—a last-hope refuge where desperate people could stave off hunger for one more day with a hamper filled with wilted produce and packaged foods. In spite of the best efforts and intentions of generous volunteers, for food bank users, knowing that this was their best bet for a meal was a humiliating experience.
by Sarah Cooper
The Honourable Jim Rondeau, Minister of Healthy Living, Seniors and Consumer Affairs recently introduced legislation to modify the Residential Tenancies Act. CCPA-MB was invited, along with representatives from several other community organizations, to meet with the Minister, as he was seeking to inform and hear from the community on these changes as well as some proposed changes to rent regulations.
The Act addresses the management of residential rental properties in Manitoba. Rent regulations are intended to provide tenants with predictability and stability in rents while still ensuring that the rate of return on rental investments is sufficient. Many of the proposed changes relate to renovations, and expand the protection and benefits provided to tenants through rent regulation.
The CCPA-MB is hiring a researcher – please circulate widely.
Job posting: Researcher – Housing and Community Development
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Manitoba office (CCPA – MB) is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates. CCPA has a national office in Ottawa, and provincial offices in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, as well as Manitoba.
The Researcher – Housing and Community Development’s principal responsibilities are to conduct and oversee research on affordable housing and community development issues in Manitoba. Other duties will include assistance applying for research grants, community presentations, and collaboration with CCPA’s partners in various policy related events and activities.
by Sarah Cooper
The ongoing expiry of social housing operating agreements is becoming a more prominent issue across Canada. As these agreements expire, many housing providers are finding that they cannot afford to provide the same levels of affordable or rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing without the subsidies. This is a crisis for the many households who cannot afford market rents and rely on subsidized housing.
In the decades before the early 1990s, social housing operating agreements were signed between the Government of Canada and non-profit housing providers. These agreements covered mortgage payments and the difference between rents geared to incomes and operating expenses. It was expected that once the agreements expired, rents would cover the operating and capital expenses, but this has not been the case for many housing providers.
For the full report, see here.
by Lindsay Larios
As Manitoba has welcomed many newcomers over the last few years, it has developed services to help these individuals and families adapt. Refugee families and individuals struggle with multiple challenges such as language, literacy and trauma-related mental health issues. A coordinated, integrated approach is needed to assist newcomers to navigate social systems and receive the support required to transition successfully to Canadian society.
The Family Centre of Winnipeg has endeavoured to address the unique needs of this population. Its Family Supports for Refugees (FSR) program provides extensive support services using a unique client-centred model for refugee families facing multiple barriers or challenges. The program is set up to be flexible in the services it can provide and is able to adjust those services to its clients’ needs. The Family Centre support coordinators work closely with families, helping to identify their needs and appropriate resources.
by Kirsten Bernas and Shauna MacKinnon
It was a welcome change to hear politicians of all stripes talking about poverty in the lead up to the 2013 provincial budget and in the analysis that followed. Unfortunately much of the chatter will serve the interests of politicians more than those most affected by government decisions.
The anti-poverty community has long advocated for a comprehensive plan to end poverty. In 2009, approximately 70 organizations endorsed a comprehensive plan in The View From Here: Manitobans call for a poverty reduction plan. It included a package of recommendations that would go far to reduce poverty in Manitoba. Since that time the Manitoba government has made some progress through its All Aboard Strategy.
by Andrew Stevens
Sweeping changes to Saskatchewan’s labour relations and employment standards legislation are on the verge of being passed. Bill 85, the Saskatchewan Employment Act, will dramatically transform the laws governing trade unions and industrial relations in the province. The Saskatchewan Party government, led by Premier Brad Wall, insists that the changes will simply modernize and simplify a dozen pieces of existing legislation into a single, omnibus employment act. But workers and trade unions are justified in thinking otherwise. In 1998, Saskatchewan’s current Minister of the Economy, Bill Boyd, unsuccessfully attempted to pass Bill 218, “An Act respecting the Right to Work (RTW) in the Province of Saskatchewan”, while the Sask Party was in opposition. In fact, debates over right-to-work style reforms and union financial transparency have already been contested in Saskatchewan as Bill 85 developed. But why is Saskatchewan so important in the national context?
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