It’s Hunger Awareness Day and The Daily Mail in Toronto reports on local action: a food bank is calling for a new Minister of Social Inclusion for Ontario. The group’s envisioned role for the new minister includes a comprehensive approach and reveals (again) that people in other nations have a different public understanding of poverty from us. The call to action shows that Canadian advocates’ concept of social inclusion includes not only what we think of as income poverty, but also many other aspects of life necessary for a strong economy and civic participation – things like education, housing, and health care. Moreover, these advocates suggest government should shift the focus of services to a broad set of workers, rather than focusing solely on the unemployed.

The next Ontario government must appoint a Minister for Social Inclusion to coordinate with federal and provincial government, the community sector and those with personal experience with poverty to agree to a poverty reduction timetable with targets and put in place programs and policies. The new Minister will: * Coordinate with relevant Ontario Ministries, including Community and Social Services, Labour, Health and Long-Term Care, Education, Housing, and Children and Youth Services, the community sector and those with a direct experience with poverty to agree to a set of poverty measurements and a poverty reduction timetable with explicit, outcome-based targets * Orient existing programs toward these goals in a cohesive manner * Report annually on the progress of the Ontario government toward its poverty reduction goals * Be a champion for investment in programs funded primarily by the federal government, particularly childcare, housing, child benefits and work credits * Re-conceptualize the role of the provincial government from providing services and income supports to the unemployed to offering services and income supports to all poor people in or out of work