First Call’s submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for Budget 2024 includes recommendations that would help to improve the lives of families who are living in poverty. Those recommendations include:
- Ensure the Canada Child Benefit, in combination with other income measures, raises all families with children above the CFLIM after-tax poverty lines.
- Continue to prioritize new early learning and child care investments.
- Reduce inequity for lower-income workers and prevent and reduce child and family poverty through Employment Insurance reforms.
- Increase federal investments through the Canada Social Transfer to support social assistance adequacy.
- Triple the Child Disability Benefit and create a caregivers benefit for those who lose work hours to care for their children with disabilities.
- Scale up federal housing funding and ensure that federally financed housing is affordable for low-income families and reflects the diverse needs of families with children.
- Retire the CERB debt, reverse reductions to the Canada Child Benefit based on CERB repayment, implement a CERB Repayment Amnesty for those living in or near poverty.
- Introduce universal coverage for all Canadians for prescription drugs, dental and eye care, hearing aids, and assistive devices and products as essential aspects of health care.
- Address growing income inequality and generate revenue for poverty reduction programming and policies by eliminating tax loopholes.