Forum

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The Poverty of Risk: A Conversation About Equitable Access to Insurance

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Insurance is a proven method for reducing risk, improving resilience, and promoting recovery from disruptive events. Yet some people face barriers to insurance, leaving them uninsured or under-insured and financially vulnerable. Join the Canadian Poverty Institute for an online conversation with Duncan Minty and Cheryl Evans about equity in insurance and improving access for people on the margins.

Wednesday February 28

9:00 - 10:30 (MT) / 11:00 - 12:30 (ET) ONLINE

Information and Registration

Duncan Minty is an independent ethics adviser, specialising in insurance. As a Chartered Insurance Practitioner, he has a wide experience of how the market works. He has helped insurers on a variety of ethics projects over the past 21 years. He is the author of the Business Ethics Programme for the CII’s Fellowship qualification. He has engaged with academics researching insurance for several years and spoken at universities such as Bologna, Zurich, Manchester, Southampton and Leicester. He has a particular interest in the future of insurance and the implications of trends such as personalisation, optimisation, predictive analytics and panoptic regulation.

Cheryl Evans is the Director, Flood and Wildfire Resilience at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. Cheryl Evans has over 20 years’ experience working in collaboration with residents, businesses, and communities to help them assess and address their unique climate-related risks, such as flooding, wildfire and extreme heat.  She serves as a member of the Canadian Poverty Institute’s Fair Access to Insurance Roundtable at Ambrose University, and is the Canadian representative for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Tri-National Environmental Justice Network. Cheryl is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Disaster and Emergency Management from Royal Roads University.

Spero - Newsletter of the Canadian Poverty Institute - Fall 2023 Issue

The Fall issue of Spero is now available. In recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this issue takes a look at child poverty. Read about how poverty affects children and some innovative approaches to addressing. The Fall issue is available here.

Read about:

  • Addressing Child Poverty in Black Canadian Communities: The Sunny Pathways Initiative

  • Childhood Poverty: Re-imagining Support for Families Experiencing Systemic Barriers

  • Child Poverty and Child Labour

  • Updates from the CPI

Spero - Newsletter of the Canadian Poverty Institute - Spring Issue

The Spring edition of Spero has just been released. In recognition of Black History Month and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, this special issue of Spero offers reflections on racism and the experience of Black Canadians. Read about

  • The Amber Valley Story Is the History, Not the Future of Alberta

  • Stepping Up to Dignify Pregnancy and Childbirth In a New Land

  • Awaken(Ed) To Awake: Praising Current Progress While Addressing Persistent Forms of Oppression

  • Eliminating Racial Discrimination For Our Minds Sake

  • On Realization, Othering and Activism

Read the latest issue here.

Poverty and Anti-Black Racism: What Poverty Rates Tell Us (and Don't Tell Us) About Blackness in Canada

Poverty rates are revealing. Every five years, Canada conducts a Census that provides us with a snapshot of the population. Income and poverty are two of the important snippets of information reported by the Census that offer a glimpse of how people are doing.

Across Canada, many people continue to struggle daily in the reality of poverty. The fact that certain groups of people are more likely to experience poverty sheds light on what causes low-income and consequent poverty and what to do about it. Historically, Black Canadians are disproportionately represented among the population that lives with low-income.

Read More …

2022 Year in Review

As we begin 2023 it is a good time to look back and reflect on the accomplishments of the past year. For the Canadian Poverty Institute, 2022 was a year of tremendous activity as we continued to pursue our mission “to advance the eradication of poverty in Canada through research, teaching and action that promotes systems change.” Read about our work in these three areas.

CPI Year in Review 2022

Inflation by Income: Differential Spending Patterns and Low-income Disadvantage

Recent increases in the rate of inflation have caused concern about the financial resilience of Canadian households. Of particular concern are significant increases in the cost of basic necessities such as food, shelter and transportation. The impact of price increases in these goods and services, however, will affect households differently depending on the share of the household budget allocated to those items.

This report examines the impact of inflation on different income groups based on their differential household spending patterns. Based on this analysis, the lowest income households in Canada experienced a 5.8% rate of inflation in 2022 compared to a rate of only 3.7% among the highest income households. This differential will exacerbate existing trends of economic and social inequality.

Read the full report here.

The Longest Night of the Year

December 21st was not only the longest but also the coldest night of the year. Despite this, people experiencing homelessness continued to be removed from places of shelter such as transit vehicles and stations into the cold. Granted, such places are not intended or equipped to serve as homeless shelters. At the same time, the response of simply removing people from what is perhaps their only place of refuge during extreme weather is equally untenable and morally wrong.

As a matter of principle and in fulfillment of Calgary and Canada’s human rights obligations, if during life threatening situations, people are taking refuge in places not designed for shelter, there should be an obligation to ensure that they are transferred responsibly to appropriate alternate places of shelter, or allow them to remain until such transfer can be arranged. We call on The City of Calgary to adopt such a policy and process immediately.

Read our call to The City of Calgary here.