By Heather Miller
The region has voted to establish a permanent advisory committee on poverty.
The formation of the committee follows the report of a regional task force looking at the issue.
Task force members say the advisory committee can ensure the report’s recommendations are implemented.
They say they continue in the spirit of co-operation and understanding between the government and the poor.
“Realistically, poor people are (usually) the people with the least voice, the least say in what the government does,” says Candice Beale, a single mother of two and the poverty task force’s representative from the Centretown area.
She says the task force changed that by allowing people like her, who live in poverty, to be part of the policy-making process.
Jocelyne St Jean is a director for the region’s social services.
She says the long-term consultation with those most affected by the new policies will allow the region to make more effective decisions.
“(We’re) trying to look at practical things, things that will have a real impact,” she says.
St Jean was co-chair of the task force which included regional staff, social service providers and community members.
It made an extensive list of recommendations intended to improve the lot of Ottawa’s low-income earners and their families.
Some of the recommendations have already been implemented, including the introduction of an OC Transpo day pass. Under that program, a person can take the bus all day for $5 and a family can ride on one pass on Sundays.
Beale and other task force members say transportation is key because low-income earners can become isolated, unable to search for jobs or participate in community activities.
The bus company says about 400 to 500 people take advantage of the family pass program every Sunday.
Other recommendations will take longer to implement because they must be negotiated with housing agencies and service providers, but can be accomplished at the regional level, St Jean says.
This includes the recommendation to make it more difficult to have low-income earners cut-off hydro or kicked out of apartments.
Some of the issues the task force wanted to address, like child-care, are largely in the control of the federal and provincial government. For this reason, they also made several recommendations for concentrated lobbying.
An interim advisory committee, including members of the task force and its monitoring group is still meeting on a regular basis.
A permanent committee will be established soon and the plan is for it to include a rotating membership of community members and regional staff with an interest in the issues at hand.
Its mandate will be to ensure the implementation of recommendations on the regional recommendations and lobbying for improvements at higher levels of government.
The advisory committee will also aim to keep dialogue between community members and the region alive.
Task force co-chair Cliff Gazee says this should help to alleviate some of the frustrations that can keep poor people in a downward spiral.
Gazee speaks from personal experience.
He says he walked into a community health services centre about five years ago desperate and depressed after the mother of his children died and he lost his job — all within the same year.
Now, Gazee is the chair of the Somerset West Community Health Centre and he wants things to be easier for other Ottawa residents who might find themselves in a similar situation.
“Not all the problems of the world have been solved (by this task force),” he says, “but we’ve gotten over the ‘us versus them’ mentality to solve problems together.”