{"id":6942,"date":"2014-10-10T14:44:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/letter-costs-us-accept-poverty-eradicate-2\/"},"modified":"2021-01-01T20:34:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T01:34:46","slug":"letter-costs-us-accept-poverty-eradicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/letter-costs-us-accept-poverty-eradicate\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: It Costs Us More To Accept Poverty Than To Eradicate It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-kjf19jqt-8d8f6c9af572cdfa1408a28d1b062c51\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-kjf19jqt-8d8f6c9af572cdfa1408a28d1b062c51{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-kjf19jqt-8d8f6c9af572cdfa1408a28d1b062c51 .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-kjf19jqt-8d8f6c9af572cdfa1408a28d1b062c51 .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-kjf19jqt-8d8f6c9af572cdfa1408a28d1b062c51 av-special-heading-h5 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first '><h5 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >Les Actualit\u00e9s &#8211; October 10, 2014<\/h5><div class='av-subheading av-subheading_below'><p>(en anglais)<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-kja6aso6-327ad0e9cae246a4a20c9ec48ae0a51a '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6940 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-300x297.jpg\" alt=\"Les Actualit\u00e9s - It costs us more to accept poverty than to eradicate it\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-300x297.jpg 300w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-600x595.jpg 600w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites-450x446.jpg 450w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-les-actualites.jpg 670w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We, the members of the Anti-Poverty Committee of Project Genesis, would like to underline the importance of of October 17th, the International Day to Eliminate Poverty.\u00a0 This day is especially important given the fact that poor people are being increasingly marginalised and ignored by the powers that be in this climate of austerity and cutbacks.\u00a0 Currently, in Montreal over half a million people live below the poverty line and the gap between rich and poor is growing. Alarmingly, the poverty rate in Montreal is about two and a half times as high in racialized communities as it is in non-racialized communities.<\/p>\n<p>Poverty is a vicious cycle that causes stress and illness, both physical and mental.\u00a0 The unemployment rate continues to stagnate at around 7%, and even finding a job is not a sure pathway out of poverty.\u00a0 For example, a minimum wage worker working full time still lives below the poverty line.\u00a0 The problem of poverty in Montreal is persistent profound, and yet the government does not take action to confront these issues head on.\u00a0 While this inaction continues, the repercussions of poverty keep rearing their ugly heads \u2013 homelessness, mental illness, high health care costs, and isolation.<\/p>\n<p>What can be done to eradicate poverty?\u00a0 Research has shown that a strong social safety net fights poverty, exclusion and economic inequality.\u00a0 People need income support to buy nutritious high quality food and live lives of dignity, need affordable public transportation to get around and to defeat isolation, need a strong health care system and decent housing in order to stay healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Currently we are hearing a lot from the provincial government about how they don\u2019t have the money to fund social programs.\u00a0 We would like to remind the government that it costs more to maintain people in misert than to provide adequate programmes so that people can escape poverty.\u00a0 For example, twenty percent of the costs in the health care system can be attributed to economic inequality.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to remember that, despite what we often hear about the need to tighten our belts, fighting poverty is a question of political will.\u00a0 If the government truly assumed its mandate to ensure that all people living within its territory are able to live lives of dignity, they would be able to find the funds to pursue this noble goal.\u00a0 \u00a0Instead, the government has chosen to prioritise tax cuts that do not benefit either the economy or the residents of Quebec.\u00a0 For example, the provincial government abolished the tax on capital for financial institutions in 2011.\u00a0 This move deprives the government of about 600 million dollars a year, to the benefit of financial institutions such as banks that are making record profits.\u00a0 This money could be better used to improve the living conditions of our neighbours and relatives that are struggling with incredible material deprivation.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of groups across the province and across the country are working together, bringing these issues to the attention of the government.\u00a0 Now it is the turn of the government to show us if they are serious about eliminating poverty or not.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1010-lesactualites-ca.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Les Actualit\u00e9s \u2013 October 10, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[281,59],"tags":[159],"class_list":["post-6942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dans-les-medias","category-nouvelles","tag-lutte-a-la-pauvrete"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 02:41:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6942"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16960,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942\/revisions\/16960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}