Human services & poverty

Following Minister of Seniors and Housing Josephine Pon’s tabling of Bill 78, the Alberta Housing Amendment Act, and the release of the provincial affordable housing strategy, Public Interest Alberta Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement:

EDMONTON - The Alberta College of Social Workers, the Edmonton Social Planning Council, and Public Interest Alberta have jointly released a report on the state of child and family poverty in Alberta, Spotlight: Lessons on Child Poverty in a Pandemic.

Keep Alberta Strong is a coalitions of groups (including Public Interest Alberta) dedicated to keeping Alberta strong and vibrant by protecting the public services the already-vulnerable rely on to live full lives of dignity. The coalition was formed after the provincial government released their first budget in November 2019. The following is a letter sent on April 10, 2020 to Dr. Deena Hinshaw with recommendations about how to protect the most vulnerable Albertans during this crisis.   

The Government of Alberta has introduced a discriminatory minimum wage for youth.

On October 1, 2018, the minimum wage in Alberta went up to $15 per hour. Over 300,000 people in our province got a raise - that's 1 in 6 working Albertans.

The effects of the $15 minimum wage were immediately apparent. It was a positive step forward for building a strong economy for all Albertans, and contributed to the child poverty rate decreasing by half over the last two years.

But now, the provincial government is discriminating against youth--a demographic of workers who can't express their opinion at the ballot box--by cutting their minimum wage from $15 to $13 per hour.

This policy divides working people by providing an incentive for businesses to avoid hiring adult low wage workers, who tend to be already-struggling young adults, women, and people of colour.

A discriminatory differential minimum wage is wrong.

Join us to demand equal pay for equal work. Sign the petition today.

On November 20, 2018, to coincide with National Child Day, Public Interest Alberta, the Edmonton Social Planning Council, and the Alberta College of Social Workers published a new child poverty report, One in Six is Too Many: An Alberta Child Poverty Report.

The Edmonton Social Planning Council, Public Interest Alberta, and the Alberta College of Social Workers have jointly released a new report on the challenges faced by Albertan children and youth titled “One in Six is Too Many: An Alberta Child Poverty Report”.

EDMONTON – The Government of Alberta has introduced An Act to Combat Poverty and Fight for Albertans with Disabilities, which if passed will increase and index income support rates for its Income Support and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) programs. These are changes Public Interest Alberta has been advocating for years.

Edmonton - Public Interest Alberta has released new data from Statistics Canada showing that more than 300,000 Albertans, nearly one in six workers, will receive a raise when the minimum wage is raised from $13.60 to $15.00 per hour on October 1, 2018.

As Alberta's minimum wage is set to increase from $13.60 to $15.00 per hour by October 1, 2018, a business lobby group has called on the province to freeze the minimum wage at its current rate of $13.60 per hour.

Our executive director, Joel French, debated this proposal on CTV Two's Alberta Primetime program, which aired on August 22nd. Our province has gone on too long allowing workers to be paid poverty-level wages. The minimum wage increase will allow these workers to support their families.

EDMONTON – The federal government has released its long-anticipated poverty reduction strategy, titled Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy. The strategy sets a standard measure for poverty and aims to reduce it 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030.