Canada Without Poverty
What Happened
In 2007, Canada Without Poverty had its funding cut by the federal government. In order to continue advocating for better public policies and to express its opinions in the interest of Canada’s poor, CWP created a parent organization in 2010 called the CWP Advocacy Network.
In 2007, CWP's federal funding was eliminated, a cut representing 55% of the organization's budget, putting the organization in great financial problems. The group had received the funding for many years and, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, the funding enabled the group to be centrally positioned to constructively and determinedly liaise with the federal government on poverty concerns. Executive Director Rob Rainer says that while the cut may have been ideologically influenced, it also came within the context of a wave of non-interest and non-sympathy for the work of NGOs.
Rainer views the cut as an indication that the federal government will neither finance nor support groups that advocate to eradicate the root causes of poverty, and would sooner fund groups that provide front-line services to communities. Since the federal funding cuts, the government has had virtually no contact with the CWP despite the organization’s standing as the only national charity wholly dedicated to eliminating poverty in Canada.
In 2010, CWP founded the non-profit but non-charitable CWP Advocacy Network in order to maintain and strengthen its advocacy voice on domestic poverty issues. The advocacy function is separated from the charitable function, as Canada’s charity laws prohibit spending more than 10% of an organization’s resources on advocacy.
Ironically, the government’s disinterest in funding an organization that raises its voice against poverty in favour of other service-delivery charity work, resulted in a stronger voice emerging against poverty, while the fight against poverty itself has been dealt a setback.
Relevant dates
- Fall 2006: The federal government decides to end funding for CWP.
- March 31, 2007: CWP funding runs out.
- May 25, 2010: The CWP Advocacy Network is founded as a separate entity from CWP.
Role or Position
Canada Without Poverty (CWP) is a national organization working to address the structural causes of poverty in Canada. It addresses the role of public policies in helping or hindering the social and economic development of individuals, families and communities. The organization was formerly known as the National Anti-Poverty Organization, and was founded in 1971.
Implications and Consequences
- Democracy: The government cuts seem to have strengthened CWP’s capacity to take action and seek change on poverty in Canada, having received wide support from a base of individuals, faith and labour groups, to weather the blow.
- Free Speech: Canada’s charity law, restricting the extent to which charities can practice advocacy, hinder the extent to which charities can contribute to a healthy public debate on public policies that will benefit their work.
- Equality: Showing preference to organizations that do less advocacy and more service-delivery can be beneficial in helping disenfranchised individuals, but fails to address the root causes of issues like poverty. To work towards a cure, instead of treating the symptoms, civil society organizations need to be free to propose long-term and deeper solutions, which inevitably entails proposing changes to current policies (i.e. advocacy), and being critical of the policies currently in place (dissent).
- Free Speech: Defunding organizations that do advocacy work, simply because the opinions they express do not fit the governing party’s ideology or preferences, results in an impoverishment of the public debate, and has a chill effect on organizations that would otherwise freely express their honest opinions.
- Democracy: The government's continued lack of engagement with NGOs, and disinterest in the solutions they propose (unless they are expressing agreement with the government) results in decisions based less on critical thought and discussion, which are essential to the healthy functioning of a democratic society.
