First United Church on Tuesday, Aug. 28, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. (TONIGHT!)
Thurs Aug 23 2012
Economic hardship should be election issue, coalition says
WATERLOO —
A new coalition launched in Waterloo Wednesday wants to know where candidates in the local byelection stand on the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. The K-W Common Front is a coalition of social groups, poverty groups and labour unions. It was formed to make “the growing economic inequality” in Kitchener-Waterloo riding a byelection issue.
“There’s a wider range of people feeling economic uncertainty,” Trudy Beaulne of the Social Planning Council of Kitchener and Waterloo said Wednesday. This includes not just people on welfare, but senior citizens, disabled people and middle-income earners who lost their jobs and can’t find new work paying a decent wage, she said. Beaulne helped organize a panel presentation at First United Church in Waterloo Wednesday to address issues the coalition wants raised in the byelection.
Beaulne doesn’t think government austerity measures and cutbacks are the way to go, despite the ballooning provincial deficit. Instead, she believes economic recovery will occur when government invests in programs and services that help displaced workers, people with disabilities, immigrants, aboriginal people and people of retirement age. As those groups are helped to become more productive, they will cost less and contribute to the tax base, she said. The coalition says the government must increase welfare rates, disability pensions and the minimum wage. The government can pay for this by making corporations pay their full share of taxes, rather than granting them tax cuts, it says.
Antoni Shelton, director of the Ontario Federation of Labour, told the small gathering that the province has not rebounded since the recession of 2008 when the manufacturing sector was hit hard. Many union workers in Waterloo Region who had good jobs, lost them, he said.
“No group is untouched by the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots,’’ he said. “The gap is threatening our way of life in Canada.”
Beaulne said average incomes in the Kitchener-Waterloo riding are high because of the technology sector. Yet there are still more than 13,000 households living in poverty, she said. Marty Suter, of the Alliance Against Poverty, said many people don’t realize how quickly they could face poverty if they became sick or disabled. Suter ran as a federal election candidate in Kitchener Centre in 2011 for the Communist party. Catherine Stewart-Savage, who co-ordinates the Out of the Cold program at First United Church, said many “good people have been reduced to sleeping on church floors.’’ Church membership is declining, she said. “We won’t be able to continue doing this forever. The government must take responsibility.” Charles Nichols, of the Waterloo Region Housing and Homelessness umbrella group, said political change might happen if more people raised their voices.
“What would happen if (there was an) uprising — not a violent uprising, but a movement of everyday people telling those who hold public office, ‘Enough is enough. It’s time to end poverty?’ ” he asked.
Beaulne said the Common Front is non-partisan and does not support any candidate. Its members need to encourage all parties to “recognize the growing inequities,” she said. Some individual members of the Common Front “speak for a certain party, but the Common Front wants every representative to be rooting for us,” she said.
The coalition is holding an all-candidates meeting at First United Church on Tuesday, Aug. 28, from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
dwood@therecord.com
A new coalition launched in Waterloo Wednesday wants to know where candidates in the local byelection stand on the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. The K-W Common Front is a coalition of social groups, poverty groups and labour unions. It was formed to make “the growing economic inequality” in Kitchener-Waterloo riding a byelection issue.
“There’s a wider range of people feeling economic uncertainty,” Trudy Beaulne of the Social Planning Council of Kitchener and Waterloo said Wednesday. This includes not just people on welfare, but senior citizens, disabled people and middle-income earners who lost their jobs and can’t find new work paying a decent wage, she said. Beaulne helped organize a panel presentation at First United Church in Waterloo Wednesday to address issues the coalition wants raised in the byelection.
Beaulne doesn’t think government austerity measures and cutbacks are the way to go, despite the ballooning provincial deficit. Instead, she believes economic recovery will occur when government invests in programs and services that help displaced workers, people with disabilities, immigrants, aboriginal people and people of retirement age. As those groups are helped to become more productive, they will cost less and contribute to the tax base, she said. The coalition says the government must increase welfare rates, disability pensions and the minimum wage. The government can pay for this by making corporations pay their full share of taxes, rather than granting them tax cuts, it says.
Antoni Shelton, director of the Ontario Federation of Labour, told the small gathering that the province has not rebounded since the recession of 2008 when the manufacturing sector was hit hard. Many union workers in Waterloo Region who had good jobs, lost them, he said.
“No group is untouched by the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots,’’ he said. “The gap is threatening our way of life in Canada.”
Beaulne said average incomes in the Kitchener-Waterloo riding are high because of the technology sector. Yet there are still more than 13,000 households living in poverty, she said. Marty Suter, of the Alliance Against Poverty, said many people don’t realize how quickly they could face poverty if they became sick or disabled. Suter ran as a federal election candidate in Kitchener Centre in 2011 for the Communist party. Catherine Stewart-Savage, who co-ordinates the Out of the Cold program at First United Church, said many “good people have been reduced to sleeping on church floors.’’ Church membership is declining, she said. “We won’t be able to continue doing this forever. The government must take responsibility.” Charles Nichols, of the Waterloo Region Housing and Homelessness umbrella group, said political change might happen if more people raised their voices.
“What would happen if (there was an) uprising — not a violent uprising, but a movement of everyday people telling those who hold public office, ‘Enough is enough. It’s time to end poverty?’ ” he asked.
Beaulne said the Common Front is non-partisan and does not support any candidate. Its members need to encourage all parties to “recognize the growing inequities,” she said. Some individual members of the Common Front “speak for a certain party, but the Common Front wants every representative to be rooting for us,” she said.
The coalition is holding an all-candidates meeting at First United Church on Tuesday, Aug. 28, from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
dwood@therecord.com
