I’ve compiled a list of financial & social supports which hopefully will be consider at the emergency intergovernmental tables convened to combat #COVIDー19.
1. Housing Allowance - immediately expand, accelerate payment and increase amount to reflect true housing costs.
1. Housing Allowance - immediately expand, accelerate payment and increase amount to reflect true housing costs.
2. Freeze all renovictions and evictions - immediately and without exceptions.
3. Monthly Basic Income - immediately establish and distribute to every citizen.
4. Employment Insurance - simplify and fast track the application, increase the amount to reflect true cost of living and expand to those traditionally not covered such as small business owners and independent contractors etc.
5. Paid sick days - ensure all workers including salaried, hourly and contracted have access to paid sick days and forgo the requirement for doctor notes.
6. Freeze commercial/residential rents and mortgage payments immediately.
7. Freeze all interest payments on credit cards, lines of credit, mortgages - the Bank of Canada has already dropped their rate and those savings are not being passed along to the borrower.
8. Cancel all student and education loans - we can not ask the young people of this country to help us rebuild the economy when many of them are strapped down by punishing amounts of student debt.
9. OW and ODSP - reverse any cuts and immediately expand, accelerate payment and increase amount to reflect true costs of living in Toronto.
10. Childcare subsidizes - ensure that no parents or caregivers lose childcare subsidizes because of child care centre closures and service disruptions.
11. Pay for Care Work - establish a fund to compensate those (mostly women) providing primary caregivers for infants, children and elderly relatives.
12. Technical support for non-profits and small businesses - they need help to expand their capacity to deal with the crisis - most are simply shutting their operations or waiting for the City to tell them to do so, but have no contingency plans for remote working.
13. Address gender-based violence - which dramatically increased in China as families went into isolation. When women, children and vulnerable ppl are trapped at home w their abusers, there is no where for them to go.
Services are often exclusively accessed in person and almost none of our services providers provide text support and they can not make phone calls to the police, families, counsellors etc in the presence
14. Intersectional analysis - women, people w disabilities, immigrants, non-English speakers, undocumented, poor, LGBTQ2S+, elderly, Black, Indigenous and racialized communities are always the ones left behind in the time of crisis.
Any economic stimulus packages or enhanced social supports must incorporate an intersectional gender lens in their policy development and implementation.
15. Provide immediate pharmacare support for people to access the medication they need when they need it and not risk going into medical spaces unnecessarily.
16. Expand and mobilize resources for shelters and others working in the sector, plus provide medical assistance programs to house people in isolation temporarily.
17. Denounce all forms of xenophobia and racism - Chinese and other Asian communities, especially children, are continuing to experience high incidents of racism as people are looking for scapegoats to blame.
Overall, govts need to provide enhanced financial and social supports as soon as possible and we need to cut the red tape on everything. Don’t make people fill endless forms and wait. People are scared of losing their jobs, homes and families. They needed help yesterday.
