National Council Of Welfare: Canada

The Conservative Government Dept: The Conservative government s decision to scrap the council in the budget speech was a cheap shot in more ways than one and a shot that will deprive Canadians of one more source of valuable research, according to The Star. But the council has worked in many other areas as well. Its reports on child poverty and women and poverty are well known. It has published some of the most readable descriptions of public and private pension programs. It documented the many shortcomings of legal aid in Canada. A report on the justice system showed that poor people are most likely to be picked up by police, most likely to appear in court without adequate legal representation and most likely to wind up serving time and ever since its creation by an act of Parliament in 1969, the National Council of Welfare has been the only federal agency with a mandate devoted exclusively to improving the lives of low-income Canadians. The council s work on the welfare system has been extraordinary. Its annual publication Welfare Incomes is the single authoritative source on that subject in Canada and is used extensively both inside and outside government. The council was a leader in the fight against provincial and territorial governments clawing back part of the federal Canada Child Tax Benefit from families on welfare. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.