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From the National Post ...

Dion sets sights on ending poverty

Allison Hanes , CanWest News Service - November 10, 2007

TORONTO -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Friday declared "war on poverty" in a major campaign-style policy announcement he vowed will create a "greener, richer, fairer" Canada.

Tearing a page from the playbook of former British prime minister Tony Blair's New Labour - and laying out his priorities for the next election - he promised to cut the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by 30 per cent and the number of impoverished children by 50 per cent over the course of a Liberal mandate.

"Today we aim high," Dion said in a speech to the Learning Enrichment Foundation in Toronto. "In five or six years, I want all of you to say you were there when Canada's next prime minister set out his 30/50 plan."

Calling it "the strongest government action in a generation," Dion said this is but the first plank in a Liberal platform that aims to share Canada's prosperity with seniors, children, single mothers, the working poor and First Nations.

He vowed to:

- create a benefit that will make work pay and "lower the welfare wall" that acts as a disincentive to recipients getting off social assistance;

- expand the child tax benefit and make it a refundable credit;

- ensure widowed seniors are not pushed below the poverty line when their spouse dies due to a reduction in their pension;

- and resuscitate the shelved Kelowna accord for First Nations.

"This is the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, the fair thing to do," Dion said of the commitment to lift 788,000 children out of poverty, adding: "The cost of doing nothing, which is the Harper plan, is far, far greater than the cost of investing in aboriginal Canadians."

Dion claimed his proposals were affordable, but that a full costing would not come until the next election campaign - whenever that may be.

Monte Solberg, minister of human resources and social development, took aim at the credibility of Dion's plan, sharply criticizing its lack of detail.

"We're glad that Mr. Dion also wants to tackle poverty - we all do - but saying what you want is very different from actually doing it," said Solberg. "He has failed to present a specific, detailed and credible, costed plan. Without costing, a plan to eradicate poverty is just talk."

The New Democratic Party's critic, Peggy Nash, also questioned the Liberal record on eradicating poverty when in office.

"Child poverty has increased in this country while we had Liberal majority governments and surplus budgets so I think Mr. Dion has a credibility gap on this," she said.

But leaders of community groups that strive to give the poor a hand up, were delighted a party leader has decided to put the issue front and centre on the national agenda.

Rupert Downing, executive director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network, said his group asked all the political parties to come up with a strategy and Dion was the first to respond.

"I think this is groundbreaking for Canada, but we have seen it in other countries," Downing said.

ahanes@nationalpost.com
with files from Canwest News Service

© CanWest News Service 2007