This article examines the failure of Canadian public policy in addressing racial economic inequality directly. Our analysis contends that Canada's key policy regimes were established in the postwar era, when approximately 96 per cent of Canadians were of European descent. As a result, the frameworks, problem definitions and policy tools inherited from that era were never intended to mitigate racial economic inequality. Moreover, this policy inheritance was deeply shaped by liberal universalism, which rejected racial distinctions in law and policy. These norms were carried forward into the more racially diverse Canada of today, where they have steered attention away from the use of racial categories in policy design. As a result, racial inequality was not a central priority during major policy reforms to core policy regimes in recent decades. In theoretical terms, our analysis contributes to Canadian Political Development through a sustained consideration of the intersecting roles of ideational frameworks, path dependency and policy inertia.

This article compares social assistance incomes, or minimum income protection, for four household types in the 10 Canadian provinces between 1990 and 2017 and relates these incomes to a number of factors, including partisan dominance over time, trade union density, the presence or absence of poverty reduction strategies, provincial social expenditures, overall redistribution efforts, debt service costs and social assistance recipiency rates. In line with findings for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) welfare states, partisan politics does not play a strong role but, as power resources theory predicts, union density and a province's overall redistribution efforts do. Social assistance recipiency rates, which capture the salience of social assistance incomes in a province, also have a significant, positive impact on welfare incomes, confirming the “welfare paradox” identified by Ivar Lødemel. Poverty reduction strategies, however, do not, and they even have a negative influence on welfare incomes.

Dans cet article, nous empruntons le vocabulaire des études cinématographiques pour visualiser le droit tel qu’il est utilisé, interprété et construit du point de vue des personnes en situation d’itinérance. Nous avançons que les modalités du droit s’expriment différemment dans les lois élaborées pour règlementer les personnes en situation d’itinérance. Les techniques cinélégales que nous proposons sont au fond des métaphores qui permettent de mieux nuancer les représentations sceptiques et instrumentalistes du droit. Ces façons d’éprouver la réglementation des personnes itinérantes peuvent également favoriser l’incarnation de la perception des interactions urbaines entre les personnes en situation d’itinérance et leurs interlocuteurs.

Homelessness among older people is a growing concern across Canada and is expected to rise with demographic change (Crane & Warnes, 2010; Culhane, Metraux, Byrne, Stino, & Bainbridge, 2013). Yet current knowledge, policies, and practices on homelessness largely focus on younger populations. Likewise, research and policies on aging typically overlook homelessness. Responses to homelessness among older people must address complex needs related to health, income security, and housing. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article outlines the existing and needed research with regards to homelessness among older people. We clarify the intersections of aging and homelessness; review the relevant statistics, including estimated prevalence; discuss pathways and variations in experience; and identify gaps in knowledge. We conclude with a call for an inclusive research agenda that will help build policies and practices to reduce and ultimately to eliminate homelessness among older people in Canada.

Poverty analysis is in the midst of a multidimensional “turn” due, in part, to the growing awareness of the limitations of relative income measures of poverty. In this paper, we argue that the conceptualisation of poverty remains a neglected aspect of this multidimensional turn to date, and demonstrate that the counter-intuitive results which flow from relative income analyses are not problems of measurement, but are entirely consistent with the conceptualisation of poverty under Peter Townsend’s dominant Poverty as Relative Deprivation framework. In response to these problems we articulate an alternative framework, Poverty as Capability Deprivation, drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, and argue that this provides more persuasive explanations as to why some nations have greater poverty than others and why poverty remains a problem even in the richest nations.

Canada and other countries are changing the age for public pension eligibility. A policy concern is the welfare of those individuals exiting the labour force before the age of pension eligibility. This study, through the use of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics data, addressed early retirements by (a) examining the incomes of those who are not working at near-retirement ages, and (b) examining how these Canadians avoid economic hardship. It found that around three-quarters of those not working have been able to avoid low-income status. Most important for avoiding low income are other family income sources, good health, and employment-related pension income.

This article describes the emergence of imprisonment as part of the collection of child-support debt in Alberta, Canada. This approach to child poverty arose in the context of political conservatism, a shift in the feminist movement, and changes in the legal environment. Findings indicate that incarceration for support debt is increasing and that Blacks, Aboriginals, the unemployed, and those without post-secondary education are over-represented among those imprisoned for support debt. It is argued that child-support enforcement as an implement of social policy has limits, especially among low-income payors.

Contrary to what prevails in the context of the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights, constitutional judges in India and South Africa have clearly recognized the justiciability and enforceability of social and economic rights. To explain this normative phenomenon, the author advance a hypothesis according to which the socio-economic conditions and the level of development of a country and the ideological context in which constitutional standards were adopted and are interpreted constitute factors that inevitably influence the courts and the conception judges have of human beings. The author therefore bring to light the formal conception of the person that Canadian judges promote by over-valuing individual autonomy in the interpretation of sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and note that in countries marked by extreme poverty, the case law on socio-economic rights is more vibrant, since the Indian and South African supreme courts recognize human beings in all their dimensions.

Despite a rapid overall decline in poverty among older people since the 1970s, poverty among elderly immigrants is persistently high in Canada. Using data from the 2006 Canadian Census of Population, this article presents results of a study on the poverty of elderly immigrants in comparison to the Canadian-born elderly population. Results from logistic regression analysis suggest that a large portion of the higher poverty rates among elderly immigrants can be explained by the lack or inadequacy of state income support. Nevertheless, the high poverty levels among elderly immigrants are mitigated by financial assistance from their kin. This article concludes by highlighting the role of family support as a coping strategy for escaping poverty and by assessing two mechanisms of state intervention that could improve the economic well-being of elderly immigrants.

I revisit trends in the level and distribution of income among Canadian seniors in the context of what is arguably the major source of change in these trends since the end of the seventies: the maturation of Canada's public and private earnings-related pension systems. The expanded role of earnings related pensions in the 1980s and 1990s is largely the result of changes that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (C/QPP) were implemented in 1966 and the first cohort to receive full C/QPP benefits turned 65 in 1976. Cohorts retiring after this period were also the beneficiaries of the expansion of private occupational pensions that took place between the 1950s and the 1970s. I rely on a detailed decomposition of income by source to show that the maturation of these earnings-related programs produced not only a substantial increase in average real incomes but also a substantial reduction in income inequality among older persons, due mainly to higher C/QPP benefits. Rising real incomes went disproportionately to lower income seniors contributing to the well-known decline in low-income rates among older persons.

This article highlights the incidence of poverty amongst older persons in Canada by documenting the poverty rates among women and men from seven different ethnic groups representing both White ethnic and visible minority populations (Chinese, Aboriginal, Ukrainian, Jewish, Black, Greek and Italian ethnic ancestry). Special attention is placed on the incidence of poverty amongst older women and reasons for differential poverty rates among ethnic older women will be addressed. An attempt is made to link these issues with an agenda for gerontological research, policy and practice including addressing the need for improved services for this population.

The purpose of this research is to examine what factors influence the economic circumstances of widowed women who were in the labour force at some time in their lives. Using the Survey of Ageing and Independence, widows are compared to the married, separated/divorced and the ever single who retired. Widows above and below Statistics Canada Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) are also compared. Models predicting who falls below the Low Income Cut-Off are estimated for all women and for the widows. The findings indicate that 49 per cent of the widows live below the Low Income Cut-Off. Factors associated with living below the poverty line include widowhood, a smaller household, lower levels of education and an occupation at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy. Sources of income that would enhance the likelihood of being above the poverty line, such as RRSPs, investments and a job-related pension, are not common amongst these women despite their previous attachment to the labour force.

This study examined whether Canada's public pensions (Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan) provided adequate income for seniors living in Nova Scotia in 2005 to afford a basic nutritious diet. Monthly incomes were compared to essential monthly expenses for four household scenarios: (a) married couple, 80 years and 78 years, in urban Nova Scotia; (b) single male, 77 years in rural Nova Scotia; (c) a couple, 70 years and 65 years, in rural Nova Scotia; (d) widowed female, 85 years, in urban Nova Scotia. The monthly food costs for the four households were CAN$313.32, $193.83, $316.71, and $150.89, respectively. Results showed that both single-member households lacked the necessary funds for a nutritious diet, while living with a partner seemed to protect against inadequate financial resources. These findings illustrate the need to improve Canada's retirement systems to ensure all seniors have adequate financial resources to meet their basic needs—including nutritious food—prevent chronic disease, and ultimately improve quality of life.

This paper examines the economic well-being of women who become divorced or separated in mid- or later life, using 1994 data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Economic well-being is measured by adjusted economic family total money income, before-tax low-income cut-offs, and ownership of dwelling. Women and men aged 65 and over still in their first marriages are compared with women and men, aged 65 and over, who were divorced or separated at age 45 or older. Results show that women who become divorced or separated in mid- or later life are more likely to have low income than married persons and men who become divorced or separated in mid- or later life. Persons who divorce or separate in mid- or later life are less likely than married persons to live in a dwelling that is owned by a member of the household. Regression analyses show that receiving pension income and receiving earnings are positively associated with income for women who become divorced or separated in mid- or later life. Implications for the Canadian legal and retirement income systems are discussed.

Dans la perspective d'une stratégie de réduction de la pauvreté et l'atteinte des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement, une littérature sur la croissance pro-pauvre s'est développée depuis une quinzaine d'années. Toutefois, les analyses d'impact sur la pauvreté des réformes sont appliquées en équilibre partiel et abordent peu l'efficacité et l'équité conjointement. De plus, elles s'intéressent rarement aux interactions entre les politiques envisagées. Nous abordons ces questions à travers une application d'un modèle d'équilibre général calculable de type macro/micro aux Philippines dans lequel nous générons de la croissance par l'endogénéisation de l'offre de travail et les externalités des dépenses publiques. Les résultats mitigés obtenus des simulations de réformes illustrent l'importance de la prise en compte des spécificités et du contexte particulier de chaque pays dans la mise en œuvre des réformes.

Il est généralement considéré que la pauvreté en Afrique est essentiellement un phénomène rural. Cette analyse est confortée par le fait que l'on relève dans le milieu rural des incidences de la pauvreté particulièrement élevées. En fait, cette représentation de la réalité est en grande partie biaisée par la combinaison de deux choix méthodologiques : d'une part le recours à un seuil de pauvreté unique pour l'ensemble du pays, d'autre part une focalisation sur l'incidence de la pauvreté au détriment d'autres indicateurs tels le nombre absolu de pauvres ou bien leur déficit de dépenses par rapport au seuil de pauvreté, des informations cruciales pour la détermination de politiques de lutte contre la pauvreté. Le recours à des méthodologies et des représentations mieux adaptées aux réalités locales dessine une autre image en montrant une pauvreté urbaine plus importante qu'il ne l'est généralement admis.