A Statement on Social Policy Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
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A statement on social policy remarkable for its clarity and courage has come from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in association with the Canadian Labour Congress, the...
...c) measures to bring about greater social equality between the highest and lowest levels of salaries and wages...
...and (e) adequate support programs designed to enable persons to take full advantage of employment opportunities (e.g., affirmative action programs, universal child care, adult literacy programs...
...In the midst of this social crisis, Canada is rapidly becoming a sharply stratified society of "winners" and "losers...
...that bilateral free trade will enhance Canada's economic and social development...
...Social Spending: Government spending on social programs in Canada is well below spending levels in most other industrial nations...
...This is the question that must be faced by all residents of Canada today...
...A society where over a million and a half workers are rendered unproductive by forced idleness is wasting its human resources...
...These divisive strategies, in turn, have been reinforced by ideologies that promote selfishness, greed, individualism, racism, sexism, and anti-union sentiments...
...In other words, work in the form of paid employment should be the primary source of income in a people-oriented economy...
...In a market-oriented society, human beings and social relations are largely defined in terms of the demand and supply forces of the marketplace...
...c) the development of full-employment strategies that will reduce unemployment rates to 3 percent within 5 years...
...b) the development of new investment strategies including investment controls designed to redirect capital for the enhancement of manufacturing and resource sectors of the economy and regional development...
...b) the adoption of legislation designed to guarantee jobs for all citizens in all regions...
...Through ongoing research, analysis, and discussion by popular organizations and professional groups in communities and regions across Canada, we hope that more detailed proposals pertaining to these and related policy alternatives will be worked out...
...Poverty will be eliminated through full employment at decent wages coupled with improved social insurance, the extension of universal services, and adequate income support for those unable to participate in the work force...
...On the other hand, a more technologically secure and upwardly mobile sector of the population is permanently employed with adequate incomes...
...Do we want to continue the present course of building a society and economy based primarily on market-oriented values and priorities, or do we want to chart an alternative course by building a society and economy rooted in the values and priorities of social solidarity...
...We are pleased to be able to present this text to readers in the United States...
...By contrast, the highest 20 percent possess 69 percent of Canada's total net wealth...
...Together, we can build a more human society based on the principle of social solidarity...
...In response to the so-called "tough new world of competition," federal and provincial governments have been busy restructuring Canada's economic and social policies for a high-tech market future...
...In 1984, for example, Canada would have had to spend an additional twenty billion on social programs just to keep pace with the average in other countries...
...Plant shutdowns, farm bankruptcies, business failures, and abandoned communities have left well over a million and a half people unemployed, thus deprived of an adequate family or personal income...
...The signs of the times give us some cause for hope...
...In other words, most are in debt...
...For an injury to one is an injury to all...
...This would include the following components and measures: (a) increases in the rate of personal income taxes for the top 40 percent of income earners and the closing of tax loopholes...
...Other organizations are being asked to endorse it...
...3. Labor Standards: A new set of labor standards designed to ensure adequate incomes, social equality, workplace democracy, and decent working conditions needs to be established and implemented...
...Over the past two years, we have witnessed some dramatic illustrations of this commitment to mobilize popular coalitions around social policy issues...
...Indeed, we stand in the tradition of popular movements that have relentlessly struggled for public policies based on economic and social justice in Canada...
...This fundamental right applies especially to those groups most frequently denied decent employment opportunities today (e.g., young people, persons with disabilities, people in poverty, older workers, and women who have finished raising their families...
...As an alternative platform, therefore, we propose the following socioeconomic policies and strategies based on social solidarity: 1. Full Employment: A full-employment policy, guaranteeing decent jobs for all those willing and able to work, must be established as the cornerstone of economic and social security in Canada...
...Moreover, the activity of work itself is integral to human life and has its own intrinsic value...
...Indeed, the universality and quality of many of our social programs are being severely eroded at a time when they are most needed by a growing number of people...
...Social Solidarity Historically, social and economic policies in Canada have been developed in such a way as to divide the struggles of poor people from those of working people...
...Between these two solitudes lies a large number of working people whose economic base has been severely eroded, or who live in constant fear of layoffs...
...Here are some counter-facts: Private Sector: Instead of giving top priority to creating new jobs, most of Canada's large corporations have destroyed jobs by investing in labor-saving technologies, financing corporate takeovers and mergers, and "downsizing," or transferring production to other countries...
...At the same time, Canadian employers will be pressing to lower their pay and benefit plans down to the levels of their U.S...
...Today, social inequalities are further dramatized by the realities of regional underdevelopment that exist across this country...
...We believe that this is a time to stand together...
...Today, the accumulated federal debt is around 35 percent of the GNP, while in 1952 it was as high as 51 percent...
...Bilateral Free Trade: Unemployment and 316 • DISSENT poverty in Canada would be further aggravated by a bilateral free-trade accord with the United States...
...At the same time, we hope that this declaration will be used as a framework for evaluating provincial polices and stimulating thought about policy alternatives...
...by the end of 1986 it had risen to 309 percent...
...As socially concerned people in labor unions, women's organizations, welfare rights associations, church organizations, aboriginal groups, and other community associations, we are alarmed by signs of deepening social crisis in Canada today...
...Social solidarity has to do, first and foremost, with the realization of the common good in a given society...
...A revitalized system of social programs would include: (a) the assurance of full universal access to essential social services and programs like national health care, education, family allowance, and day care services...
...First, all citizens who freely choose to work in paid productive employment have a basic right to permanent jobs with decent wages and working conditions...
...d) the effective elimination of discriminatory barriers in employment practices...
...This means converting to a peopleoriented economy and society that put top priority on serving people's basic needs, enhancing the value and dignity of human work, achieving a more equitable distribution of wealth and power among peoples and regions, and creating a more vital and participatory democracy...
...To move in this direction, however, it is essential that people coalesce around a common social and economic vision...
...On the one hand, a substantial number of working people have been subjected to permanent unemployment or shut out of employment by the new technologies...
...We intend to take this declaration and agenda to a host of popular organizations in communities and regions all across Canada...
...Together, we can reverse the present backward move toward an inequitable and divided society...
...The time has come to explode these myths...
...Moreover, the takeover of public services by private firms inevitably results in job losses and the erosion of working conditions, as work gets contracted out to nonunionized, low-wage enterprises...
...By targeting people through means tests, selective programs inevitably serve to create divisions between those "who pay" and those "who receive...
...Selective Programs...
...Social Movement Taken together, these measures constitute an alternative set of social policy directions for Canada...
...As a country, we have the resources, the capital, the technology, and, above all, the people and skills required to develop a new economic and social order...
...The strategies of governments and corporations have often been to accentuate the differences between the poor and workers to the point of playing one group off against another...
...In any case, the present social crisis constitutes a series of assaults on the value, dignity, and self-worth of a growing number of people in Canada today...
...Third, all people engaged in productive but unpaid forms of work in both the home, and the community have a basic right to be recognized for their contributions to the development of society...
...Today, more than ever, we must resist the strategies of divide and conquer and unite in common cause...
...6. Public Sector: To accomplish the above objectives, the public sector itself needs to be reorganized, strengthened, and revitalized as the engine for economic and social development in Canada...
...Natural Unemployment: There is nothing "normal," "natural," or "voluntary" about unemployment...
...Economic and social policies are generally subjected to such market criteria as what is most "profitable," "productive," "competitive," and "efficient...
...In terms of net wealth (total wealth minus debt), the poorest 20 percent of all Canadians have next to nothing, a mere 0.3 percent...
...If the quality of working life is to be improved, therefore, new forms of workplace democracy are imperative...
...Under free trade, U.S...
...In a society based on solidarity, the economy is people oriented in the sense that resources, capital, labor, and markets are organized to provide for the basic life needs of the population...
...Although much remains hidden, the crisis is real...
...The key to social solidarity and to building human community lies in our understanding of human work...
...that present high unemployment rates are "normal" or "natural" for a modern industrial nation...
...The next 20 percent have only 2.4 percent of total net wealth...
...Workers are pitted against the unemployed, the working poor against the welfare poor, low- and middle-income taxpayers against people on social assistance...
...Indeed, we believe that social inequality is inherent in market-driven societies...
...These proposals are not meant to be a detailed blueprint for Canada's social and economic future...
...and (d) the mandating of crown corporations to implement a wide range of just policies on labor, economic, social, and environmental concerns...
...A country where billions of dollars from peoples' savings are squandered to finance corporate takeovers, mergers, investment abroad, and unproductive speculation on the stock market is wasting a people's heritage...
...Today, women and children clearly find themselves among the prime victims of poverty, homelessness, and hunger...
...What is required are policies and strategies designed to stop the waste and to mobilize our human and material resources for these purposes...
...At the same time, it is also clear that this is a critical moment for making major choices about the future direction of Canada's economic and social policies...
...Or do we want to chart an alternative course by building a society rooted in the values and priorities of social solidarity...
...A full-employment policy for Canada would include the following objectives: (a) the recognition of universal access to paid employment for all who want it as a vital element of social and economic citizenship...
...We believe this is a time to stand together...
...They include women, students, 314 • DISSENT young people, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities...
...As members of various popular organizations, we wish to declare our solidarity with all those people who have become the victims of the continuing social and economic crisis in this country...
...that replacing all social programs with a guaranteed income would serve to cut social program costs and eliminate poverty...
...Government Deficits: As a percentage of the GNP, the current federal deficit is lower than it has been in the past...
...b) equal pay for work of equal value...
...Social Crisis Today, the living signs of this social crisis are all around us...
...They involve the aboriginal peoples, new immigrants, and visible minorities...
...Caught in the downward spiral of social mobility, they constitute the "new poor" class that is rapidly emerging in Canada today...
...Under these conditions, minimum-income programs would extend poverty rather than end it...
...In 1983, at the height of the economic crisis, Newfoundland's unemployment rate was 175 percent that of Ontario...
...We therefore invite other members of our own organizations, as well as other concerned persons and groups in communities and regions across Canada, to join with us in a process of analyzing the realities and causes of the present socioeconomic crisis and identifying alternative economic and social policy directions...
...What is required is the social imagination, moral courage, and political will to chart a new course...
...In the operations of hospitals and nursing homes by private firms, for example, studies show that quality of service is generally sacrificed in the quest for profits...
...d) improved working conditions (e.g., reduced working year, familial and study leaves, improved health and safety standards...
...Ens...
...Indeed, human work has the power, in and of itself, to create human community and social solidarity...
...During the past two years alone, nearly a million people have become dependent on welfare...
...At the same time, these trends are augmented by other signs of social breakdown, including increased alcoholism, violence against women and children in the family, delinquency, suicides, along with growing numbers of mental health cases and family breakups...
...For these reasons, we maintain there is another vision of society and the economy, one based on "social solidarity" rather than market values and priorities...
...and Canadian companies to reduce or eliminate those social programs said to be giving Canadian companies an "unfair competitive advantage...
...Moreover, businesses and other private-sector organizations have a responsibility to join in this process of building an economy that serves people...
...Action must be taken to relieve the suffering of the homeless, the hungry, and the poor...
...These include the public campaigns against extra billing for Medicare, against the de-indexation of old-age pensions, and against the de-indexation of family allowances...
...In a people-oriented economy, there are three basic dimensions with respect to human work that are essential...
...Minimum Incomes: Minimum-income programs at less than the poverty level (as recently proposed by the Macdonald and Forget Commissions) would serve to further free both government and businesses from their responsibilities to provide full-time jobs at livable wages...
...What kind of society do we want to build in this country...
...Under these conditions, human labor, human needs, and services tend to be treated as commodities to be bought, sold, or exchanged in the marketplace...
...d) the expansion of public and community services as a positive means for increasing job creation and productive capacity...
...These standards for working people would include the establishment of: (a) living wages...
...On the contrary, large-scale unemployment (and underemployment) has become the central cause of economic and social insecurity in Canada...
...Income-support schemes enable employers to avoid paying a decent wage...
...This compels us to raise some serious questions about some of the dominant market-oriented policies and strategies that govern our economy and society...
...Privatized Services: Privatized services do not mean high quality and greater efficiency...
...We are told that the private sector is the main source of economic growth and prosperity...
...In the final analysis, a society and economy that are based primarily on market priorities is enormously wasteful in terms of both human and material resources...
...In this regard, poor peoples' organizations across the country have an essential role to play in establishing the criteria and the goals for adequacy in our social assistance programs...
...The emerging public debate over Canada's social policy future provides an occasion to begin this coalition-building process...
...This would include: (a) new forms of public ownership, planning and decision making through new mechanisms to ensure effective public participation and accountability...
...A statement on social policy remarkable for its clarity and courage has come from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in association with the Canadian Labour Congress, the Confederation of Canadian Unions, the Confederation des syndicats nationaux, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and the United Church of Canada...
...Moreover, the present social crisis reveals the deep structural inequalities that exist in the distribution of wealth and power in this country...
...This includes a growing number of workers who have no other choice but to depend on part-time, temporary, low-wage jobs for their livelihood...
...As the present social crisis continues unabated, Canadians have become further polarized by class divisions, social inequalities, and regional disparities...
...Yet, experience has shown the opposite result, namely, that market mechanisms often end up perpetuating poverty and social inequalities...
...and (d) improved standards of quality and public participation for the improvement of our social programs...
...Indeed, the top 10 percent of Canadians control over 51 percent of total wealth in this country...
...Although existing programs have helped to eliminate some of the harsher realities of poverty, they have nevertheless not eradicated it...
...These class divisions become even more evident when the net wealth of all families is considered...
...This calls for decisive measures to restructure and upgrade existing social assistance programs to ensure adequate income supports...
...c) greater community control over health care, education, and social services...
...Even in difficult, often alienating working conditions of our present market economy, people struggle for human dignity and participation in society through their work...
...As a result, the poorest sectors of the population are further stigmatized, humiliated, and even harassed...
...2. Economic Strategies: The implementation of a national economic strategy for full employment must involve the following components: (a) concerted efforts to promote and achieve a greater degree of economic self-reliance...
...Do we want to continue on the present course of building a society based primarily on market-oriented values and priorities...
...Alternative Policies There is a pressing need today to develop alternative economic and social polices based on social solidarity rather than market-oriented priorities...
...Reduced worktime would allow both men and women to share more equally in voluntary work and participate more fully in community and family life...
...b) the creation of democratic institutions such as worker- or community-controlled enterprises and cooperatives...
...Historically, the aboriginal peoples of this country have generally been the hardest hit by the realities of poverty and oppression...
...c) the linkage of government subsidies or grants for corporations to specified job-creation standards...
...The relentless lineups at food banks and the increasing number of homeless and hungry people on our streets dramatize the realities of this social tragedy...
...Through the activity of human work in all its forms, people should be able to realize their human dignity and self-expression, participate in social and economic life, secure decent personal and familial incomes, and contribute to the building of a more just world...
...Instead, social spending in this country continues to decline relative to national wealth...
...At the same time, many current forms of voluntary work need to be converted into paid employment as a further step toward a society based on full employment...
...Through this process, greater emphasis would be placed on stimulating community and worker participation in, and control over, both social and economic development in Canada...
...It is clear that Canada's social-assistance programs are not adequate to measure up to the demands of the crisis...
...4. Social Programs: Existing social services, insurance, and assistance programs need to be strengthened, revitalized, and expanded in order to better serve the basic needs of all citizens in our society...
...In economic terms alone, recent unemployment has resulted in an annual loss of some $53 billion to Canada's economy...
...c) the provision of upgraded and fully indexed social assistance benefits to recognized adequacy levels for people unable to work...
...that Canada's social programs are too generous and can no longer be afforded...
...Today, the top 20 percent of income earners receive 43 percent of total personal income, while the bottom 20 percent receive less than 4 percent...
...Financing is also required to empower municipalities to renew their infrastructures...
...The gap in the rate of unemployment between these underdeveloped regions and southern Ontario, for example, has steadily widened in recent years...
...Current government deficits are largely the result of reduced tax revenues caused by high unemployment, increased social assistance payments to the jobless, and multibillion dollar handouts to corporations...
...In a market-oriented economy, however, many forms of human work in our society remain either undervalued or unrecognized...
...b) the enhancement and extension of socialinsurance programs (e.g., unemployment insurance, Canada/Quebec Pension) to ensure continuity of income in the case of contingencies...
...Finally, the development of a stronger and more participatory democracy is an essential goal of a solidarity-oriented society...
...Moreover, federal and provincial governments will be pressed by both U.S...
...and (d) a new system of taxation to ensure that corporations and financial institutions pay their fair share of taxes...
...that social programs would be more beneficial if they were targeted exclusively for the truly needy...
...SUMMER • 1988 . 317 Today, the increasing trends toward marketoriented economic and social policies again threaten to divide the struggles of the poor from those of working people...
...In order to attract profitable investment, for example, federal and provincial governments have put priority on lower social spending, lower corporate taxes, lower workers' wages, and lower environmental standards...
...The victims of this deepening social crisis are many...
...competitors...
...As members of popular-sector groups across Canada, we have declared our commitment and determination to struggle for social and economic policies based on social solidarity...
...Among the OECD countries, Canada ranks thirteenth out of nineteen countries in the proportion of national income expenditures on social programs...
...Second, all working people have a basic right to meaningful and effective participation in decision making with respect to the workplace...
...Through this process, we expect that a variety of grass-roots initiatives for alternative policies will emerge that will, in turn, add further insights and options to the proposals advanced in this declaration...
...and (e) the creation of democratic local structures designed to stimulate employment and regional SUMMER • 1988 • 319 investment...
...They also encompass older workers, farmers, fishers, and the working poor...
...Close to one out of every five citizens in Canada is now living at or below the official poverty line...
...5. Taxation Policies: To ensure sufficient revenues for full employment and a more equitable distribution of wealth, a progressive and fair taxation system needs to be developed based on the ability to pay...
...What we have put forward here, instead, are some of the basic elements of an alternative vision based on principles of social solidarity rather than market priorities...
...In the case of Newfoundland, the gap has widened dramatically...
...The primary objective of these polices has been to stimulate the private sector as the engine of economic growth through such measures as deregulation, privatization, and deficit reductions...
...Meanwhile, other countries have managed to maintain low rates of unemployment in spite of changing world economic conditions...
...These dimensions of human work are essential to a people-oriented economy...
...These underdeveloped regions are Newfoundland, the Maritime Provinces, the northern parts of Ontario and large parts of Quebec, most parts of the Prairie provinces and British Columbia, and the Northern territories...
...It is a time for the victims of the current socioeconomic crisis to unite in a common struggle for social and economic justice in this country...
...Market Policies Today, Canada's social policies are increasingly being determined by market-oriented strategies...
...and (e) new forms of workplace democracy...
...At the same time, popular coalitions for social solidarity have been organized in several provinces to address critical social and economic policy issues affecting the victims of crisis in their region...
...All across Canada, these new trends of poverty, homelessness, and hunger are manifesting themselves in different degrees between regions and within both urban and rural communities...
...320 • DISSENT As a society, we have the people, the resources, and the skills required to develop an alternative economic and social future...
...Across this country today, there is a growing commitment by popular groups— labor unions, women's organizations, welfarerights groups, church organizations, aboriginal associations, handicapped groups, racialminority associations, co-op groups, students' associations, environmental groups, and a variety of other community organizations—to mobilize against any further assaults on Canada's social programs by market-oriented strategies and to struggle for alternative policies based on social solidarity...
...companies with branch plants in Canada would shift production back to their parent companies, leading to more plant shutdowns and layoffs here...
...c) specific measures to ensure annual reduction in wealth disparities...
...The fact that so much of a person's time is spent at work requires that the value and 318 • DISSENT dignity of human work be recognized in the workplace...
...We hope to encourage thousands of peoples' organizations to discuss, debate, and endorse the basic orientation of the declaration...
...We believe that these economic and socialpolicy directions are based on a number of false SUMMER • 1988 • 315 assumptions and myths...
...This calls for a strong and dynamic public sector that is both accessible and accountable to popular participation...
...An economy where over a third of its productive capacity sits unused is wasting its material resources...
...We now call upon all people who share this social vision to join with us in building a popular movement to transform the dominant socioeconomic policies of this country...
...q SUMMER • 1988 • 321...
...Although some new jobs have been created, the majority of these are part-time, low-wage forms of employment...
...In the midst of all this, many voluntary organizations and people of goodwill have been manipulated and co-opted by these divisive strategies...
...that large government deficits are the principal cause of Canada's ongoing social and economic problems...
...The devastating social impact of unemployment is negative proof that work, and not just income, is an essential condition of well-being in society...
...that privatization of social services may be a more effective means for serving basic social needs...
...b) a progressive tax on wealth above a modest threshold (e.g., taxes on the value of property owned, dividend income, capital gains inheritances...
...The result has been jobless forms of economic growth...
...In this context, the marketplace is understood to be a system of "natural justice" wherein each person is paid according to his or her "productivity" and where accumulated wealth is expected to trickle down to the people...
...The highest rates of unemployment and poverty are found today in these regions, which have traditionally served as resource hinterlands for the metropolitan industrial centers of Canada...
...At the same time, it should be emphasized that federal, provincial (territorial), and municipal governments all have important roles to play in developing alternative strategies and programs...
Vol. 35 • July 1988 • No. 3
