Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) fonds

1989-2018, n.d. Brock University Archives

RG 593

Creator: The Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) Extent: 20 cm (1 box) Abstract: Fonds contains material about the activities of the Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN), as well as its predecessors, the Social Assistance Reform Committee (SARC) and the Social Assistance Advisory Committee (SAAC). Materials: Minutes, briefs, reports, correspondence, news articles. Repository: Brock University Archives Processed by: Chantal Cameron Last updated: April 2019

Terms of use: The Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) fonds is open for research. Use restrictions: Current copyright applies. In some instances, researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Brock University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the Library’s usual procedures unless otherwise specified. Preferred citation: RG 593, Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) fonds, 1989-2018, n.d, Brock University Archives, Brock University. Acquisition info.: Material was donated by Gracia Janes in 2017. An accrual was received In April 2019.

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Administrative history: In 1988, the Social Assistance Reform Committee (SARC) was formed, comprised of several front line agencies, organizations, churches and individuals across Niagara, to monitor and support the progressive social welfare reforms of Judge George Thomson’s Social Assistance Review Commission. The Commission was introduced by the Liberal government of David Peterson, continued by the NDP government in the early 1990s, and then ended by the Conservative government in 1995. A conference on social welfare reforms sponsored by SARC in 1999 led to the formation of a task force to examine these reforms and assess progress in Niagara, in keeping with Judge Thomson’s work. The task force was called the Social Assistance Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was endorsed by the Commissioner of Community Services. The task force was composed of individuals who had direct involvement with low-income individuals and families and/or those who advocated on behalf of low-income households. Its mandate was to bring issues and concerns facing low-income individuals and families in Niagara to the Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities Division. The Social Assistance Reform Committee (SARC) and the Social Assistance Advisory Committee (SAAC) merged in 2010 to save time and energy for their front-line agency members. The groups continued to keep their respective mandates and roles. The new group was named the Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN).

Scope and content: Fonds contains material about the activities of the Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN), as well as its predecessors, the Social Assistance Reform Committee (SARC) and the Social Assistance Advisory Committee (SAAC). Most of the material consists of meeting minutes, briefs, reports, correspondence and news articles. Duplicate material was removed and discarded. Within folders, material is arranged chronologically.

Organization: The records were arranged into three series: Series I: Administrative, 2011-2018 Sub-series A: Minutes Sub-series B: Correspondence

Series II: Activities, 1989-2016 Sub-series A: Conferences & Forums Sub-series B: Briefs

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Series III: Publications, 1998-2018, n.d.

Inventory: Series I: Administrative, 2011-2018 Sub-series A: Minutes, 2011-2018 1.1 Minutes, 2011-2013. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the Social Assistance Reform Network Niagara Committee from September 2011 to November 2013 (non-inclusive). Includes related news articles, reports, media releases and correspondence. Some of the topics covered include Niagara’s Homelessness Service System request for proposal; loss of community start-up and maintenance benefit (CSUMB) and new provincial homelessness program, Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI); Niagara’s 10-year community action plan to help people find and keep housing; prosperity projects funding update; and the Niagara Regional Housing Rent supplement program. 1.2 Minutes, 2014. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the SARNN Committee. Includes related news clippings, reports, and correspondence. Some of the topics covered include Campaign 2000 (raising the minimum wage); Niagara region nutritious food basket and resources; elimination of the Community Start-up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB); and an update on HOPE House emergency hostel transition strategy. 1.3 Minutes, 2015. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the SARNN Committee. Includes related news clippings, reports, and correspondence. Some of the topics covered include Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program; Niagara Prosperity Initiative Projects; and Home for All, Niagara’s ten-year community action plan to help people find affordable housing. 1.4-1.5 Minutes, 2016. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the SARNN Committee. Includes related news articles, correspondence and reports. Most of the material concerns guaranteed basic income. 1.6-1.7 Minutes, 2017. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the SARNN Committee. Includes related news articles, correspondence and reports. Some of the topics covered include the federal poverty reduction strategy; basic income guarantee; rent-hike protection; eligibility for legal aid; Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act; Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. RG 593 Page 4

1.8 Minutes, 2018. Contains agendas and meeting minutes of the SARNN Committee. Includes related news articles, correspondence and reports. Some of the topics include food security, homelessness, and basic income guarantee. Sub-series B: Correspondence, 2012-2016 1.9 General correspondence, 2012-2016. Contains correspondence to the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance, and letters to and from government officials and anti-poverty groups. Politicians include Dalton McGuinty (Premier), Gary Burroughs (Chair, Regional Municipality of Niagara), John Malloy (Minister of Community and Social Services), Soo Wong (MPP), Linda Jeffrey (Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing), Joe Oliver (Minister of Finance), Eric Hoskins (Minister of Health and Long Term Care), and Cindy Forster (MPP, Welland). Anti-poverty groups include the ODSP Action Coalition, Ontario Campaign 2000, Canadian Council for Refugees, and Put Food in the Budget.

Series II: Activities, 1989-2016 Sub-series A: Conferences & Forums, 1996-2016 1.10 Poverty Conference, 1996. Contains an agenda for the conference by the Niagara SARC Network Forum entitled The Impact, The Challenges, The Actions. Also contains biographical information about workshop leaders (Christel Haeck, Milica Kovachavich, Catherine Francis, Andrew Mitchell, and Margaret Jarell); a list of conference participants; and summaries of speakers presentations. 1.11 Poverty Conference, 1999. Contains an agenda of the conference, entitled Tracking down the best kept secret: the SARC welfare reforms of 1989-1995. Also contains a conference budget, press release, and news articles. 1.12 Poverty Conference correspondence, 1999. Contains correspondence to and from conference participants, including George Thomson, Sue Cox, Andy Mitchell, Susan Eagle and Peter Clutterbuck. 1.13 SARNN Public Forums, 2008-2016. Contains material from SARNN’s spring community forums, including a presentation entitled Ontarians waiting for leadership on poverty reduction by Trish Henessy (2008); a summary of a forum on youth homelessness (2011); the Big Push for a guaranteed annual income (2014); Code Red, Steve Buist’s series on health outcomes (2015); and correspondence and promotional material about Michael Shapcott’s presentation addressing affordable housing and homelessness (2016). Also includes a list of SARNN’s spring community forums from 2011-2015 with a list of RG 593 Page 5

the group’s objectives and reporting relationships, members, and history from 1988-2015. Sub-series B: Briefs, 1989-2015 1.14 Briefs, 1961, 1989-1995. Contains notes for a nomination speech by Premier T.C. Douglas, 1961; A Housing Framework for Ontario: response from the Social Planning and Research Council, St. Catharines and Thorold, September 30, 1991; brief to Joe Clark re: Federal government Constitutional proposals/social charter, February 29, 1992; brief to Marion Boyd, Minister of Community and Social Services, re: response to Time for Action: towards a new social assistance system for Ontario, September 30, 1992; letters to Tony Silipo, Minister of Community and Social Services, April-July, 1993; submission to Walk Lastewka, MP, and Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Human Resources Development re: Social Security Review, December 1, 1994; and comments re: Bill 26: Savings and Restructuring Act, 1995. 1.15 Briefs, 1996-2004. Contains briefs to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs 1997, 2000; correspondence to John Baird (Minister of Community and Social Services), Brenda Elliott (Minister of Community, Family, and Children’s Services), () and Dalton McGuinty (Premier of Ontario); a brief entitled Lack of Transportation in Niagara as a barrier to employment & access to social and community services, 2003; a press release and summary of the “Lives in the balance—Ontario’s Social Audit”; and a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin from the Campaign Against Child Poverty. 1.16 Briefs, 2005-2009. Contains briefs from the Niagara SARC network to the Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs, 2005, 2008; a response to Ontario’s Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy discussion paper, submitted to Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing from SARNN, 2009; and a brief to the Provincial Standing Committee on Social Policy from SARC re: Bill 152, the Poverty Reduction Act, 2009. 1.17 Briefs, 2010-2015. Contains a brief to the Provincial Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs from SARNN, 2010; correspondence to Premier Dalton McGuinty; a brief to the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario, September 2011; a proposed resolution on the provincial cuts to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit for consideration by the Public Health and Social Services Committee, 2012; correspondence to Gary Burroughs (Chair of the Regional Municipality of Niagara), John Milloy, Minister of Community and Social Services, and Kathleen Wynne, Premier; and a brief to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, 2015 pre-budget consultations. RG 593 Page 6

Series III: Publications, 1998-2018, n.d. 1.18 Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition publications, 1998-2007. Contains Lives in the Balance: Ontario’s Social Audit; Still Lives in the Balance: Ontario’s Social Audit; and Our Neighbours’ Voices: Will We Listen? 1.19 Publications, 2007-2013. Includes a report prepared for the Region of Niagara entitled A Legacy of Poverty: addressing cycles of poverty & the impact on child health in Niagara Region (2007); and a report by the Niagara Region entitled Hungry for Health: understanding the connection between poverty and health in Niagara; and news articles. 1.20 Publications, January-June 2014. Includes a report by the government of Ontario entitled Realizing our potential: Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy, 2014- 2019; a Ministry of Community and Social Services question and answer sheet re: social assistance rate increase and extension of TCB repayment period; a dental health report by Bridges Community Health Centre, June 2014; and news articles. 1.21 Publications, July-December 2014. Includes a Campaign 2000 E-Bulletin; Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program, and Ontario Child Benefit rates for July-October 2014; news articles; and a discussion paper by Put Food in the Budget, December 2014. 1.22 Publications, January-June 2015. Contains news items from e-mail subscriptions, including some from Workers’ Action Centre, Put Food in the Budget Campaign, Income Security Advisory Centre; and other news articles. 1.23 Publications, July-Dec. 2015. Contains news articles; Campaign 2000 material; a report entitled Jobs and Income: HEIA in the Federal Election by the Wellesley Institute, 2015; report entitled Household Food Insecurity in Canada, 2013; a table entitled Summary of Evidence from a selection of cash transfer program and pilots, November 16, 2015; a report summary entitled Raising the Roof: putting an end to child & family homelessness in Canada; news items and newsletters from the Homeless Hub and Put Food in the Budget; and excerpts from a report entitled Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities staffing level study in the Regional Municipality of Niagara. 1.24 Publications, January-April 2016. Includes a paper entitled A wider lens: an analysis of Kesselman’s view of a basic income; news articles; a list of Niagara Prosperity Initiative Projects from 2013-2015 for Fort Erie, Grimsby/Lincoln/West Lincoln, Port Colborne, St. Catharines, Thorold, Welland, and Niagara Falls; and a RG 593 Page 7

report entitled Calculating the Living Wage for Niagara Region, 2016 by the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network. 1.25 Publications, May-December 2016. Includes news articles; a discussion paper by the Government of Canada entitled Towards a Poverty Reduction Strategy; a report published by the Mowat Centre entitled Working without a net: rethinking Canada’s social policy in the new age of work; and Ontario’s Social Assistance Poverty Gap published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 1.26 Publications, 2017. Includes a paper entitled Designing a basic income guarantee for Canada; news releases; a briefing note by Citizens for Public Justice entitled Towards a Guaranteed Livable Income, March 2017; and a report on feedback on the design of a Basic Income Pilot Project by the Government of Ontario, March 2017. 1.27 Publications, n.d. Includes speaking notes entitled Raising living standards for the working poor: issues and solutions by Andrew Jackson; excerpts from a report entitled Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults; and questions and answers re: social assistance rate increase and extension of TCB repayment period from the Ministry of Community and Social Services. 1.28 Regional Municipality of Niagara Reports, 2001-2018, n.d. Includes reports on transportation needs; adequacy of social assistance rates; nutritious food baskets and resources; Niagara Prosperity Initiatives, community homelessness prevention initiative funding; an update on “A Home for All: Niagara’s ten-year community action plan to help people find and keep housing”; a list of Niagara Prosperity Initiatives (2012, 2015); background on the Social Assistance Advisory Committee (SAAC), and a 2018 Niagara Prosperity Initiative update.