Letter

Below is a copy of my letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that you may feel free to cut and paste and personalize in whatever way seems good to you. This is following up on the Make Poverty History materials that we highlighted during the election. It is not a letter "from the church." It is simply a resource that you may make your own for use in your own church, with your family, and with your friends.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2

October 21, 2008

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

This past spring, when it looked like there might be an election, Make Poverty History worked with their partners (including the Assembly of First Nations) to ask the leaders of all parties what their plans were to combat poverty. At the time, your office responded that they were not going to answer the specific questions. Now that the election is over, I am writing to you today to reiterate the fact that poverty is still an issue.

I hope that as you set the agenda for the next government you and your government will answer yes to the principles endorsed by Make Poverty History – More and Better Aid, Trade Justice, Cancel the Debt, End Child Poverty in Canada – through your actions. Specifically I am asking you to consider the following.

1. Your government last year made a significant move towards better-targeted aid and it was a good first step. However, we in Canada must increase our foreign aid to 0.7% of our national income (GDP). We promised we would but we have been negligent (and increasingly so) dropping our aid significantly over the past few years. Help us to become, once again, a proud world leader in this vitally important arena.

2. Your government has offered targeted tax breaks as a way of achieving policy objectives (i.e. tax credits to sports programs for children and your proposal to offer tax credits for cultural programs for children). These programs definitely benefit middle class families but they are often of little value to very low-income families who are struggling to even put food on the table. I would like your government to consider increasing and (in partnership with the provinces) structuring the Child Tax Benefit in such a way as to ensure that low income families get to keep more of their money so that they may pay for basics like housing, food and fuel (costs that are going up rapidly).

3. Your government has provided funding for the Homelessness Partnering Strategy. Finding safe and suitable housing is one of the most significant problems facing low income Canadians. I urge your government to give this issue a high priority and senior government attention.

4. Your government has offered a historic apology to the First Nations of Canada for the Residential School issue and agreed to a Truth and Reconciliation commission. However, a sad truth is that while First Nations communities are under your government’s direct jurisdiction they experience some of the worst water, most substandard housing, and excessive poverty in the country. This is a disgraceful situation. The Kelowna Accord was conceived as one way of beginning to address these concerns in partnership with the communities in question. I would like to know what your plan is to make real positive change in partnership with First Nations communities (which are primarily a Federal responsibility) and implement it so that this unjust situation may be addressed on behalf of all Canadians.

Thank you, for your time and consideration,

Kirsty Hunter