Policy

Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change (COP-COC) commends the Ontario Government for its ongoing commitment to poverty reduction, expressed through the release of its second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), Realizing Our Potential – Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy (2014-2019) on September 3, 2014. In it the Government reaffirmed its commitment to “reducing poverty among children and youth through targeted investments and supports”, and adds a new focus on ending homelessness while moving towards employment and income security, particularly for “vulnerable populations”.

OCASI wrote to Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development to express support for Ontario employment programs resourced through the federal-provincial Labour Market Agreement, and to urge that these funds are not diverted to the Canada Job Grant.

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Honourable Jason Kenney
Minister of Employment and Social Development
Place du Portage, Phase IV, 14th Floor
140 Promenade du Portage
Gatineau, Québec K1A 0J9

08 May 2013/Toronto – OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is deeply concerned that the Statistics Canada Voluntary Household Survey released today does not capture the full reality of Canada's populations, such as racialized residents, and foreign-born individuals.

The Voluntary Household Survey notes that foreign-born residents were one-fifth, or 20.6% of the Canadian population in 2011. It notes that recent immigrants (2006-2011) represented 3.5% of the total population and 17.2% of the foreign-born population.