Welfare recipients get no boost from Yukon budget
Last Updated: Friday, April 20, 2007 | 11:04 AM CT
CBC News
Yukon welfare recipients and anti-poverty activists were disappointed to find no change in social assistance rates in the territory's latest budget.
Premier Dennis Fentie delivered a projected $862-million budget on Thursday, the largest in the territory's history.
Many who attended the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition's monthly meeting late Thursday had been hoping the big budget would include an increase in monthly social assistance payments. Coalition co-chair Ross Findlater said he was "quite disappointed" with the news.
Despite lobbying efforts from the territory's opposition parties and his coalition, "we are now moving into our 16th year without a rate increase in SA [social assistance] in the Yukon, and the cost of living has gone up at least 26 per cent in that same time period," Findlater said.
Kate Singingstone, who attended the meeting, said she must survive on $37 a week for groceries — something that could slow down her recovery from an upcoming surgery, since she cannot afford a healthy diet, she said.
"Most people can realize that no human being can live on five dollars a day," Singingstone said.
Health Minister Brad Cathers said changes to social assistance will be announced soon, as he has officials working on the issue.
Fentie said Thursday that any changes will be made "not in a piecemeal basis, but in a very comprehensive way," adding that changes will be incentive-based and geared to getting people off welfare.
But Findlater and others at the coalition's meeting said governments, both past and present, have done nothing over the years to increase social assistance rates.
"I've seen many reviews conducted by various different governments, none of which have resulted in any rate increases to this point," Findlater said.
