History
In 1969, the National Council of Welfare (NCW) was constituted as an advisory group to the Minister of National Health and Welfare. In January 1971, in Toronto, the NCW held the first national Poor People’s Conference from which a resolution was unanimously passed to form a national organization representing those who are poor. Later that year, in Winnipeg, the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) met for the first time and formally adopted its name.
NAPO’s first brief was on excessive costs of essential foods and the resulting impact on nutrition and health for those on low incomes. It was presented in February of 1973 to the House of Commons’ Special Committee on Trends in Food Prices. This marked the beginning of many briefs and presentations to governments on numerous issues that affect those who are poor. NAPO’s history shows its unwavering concern for human rights and dignity. Research and publications contributed to its credibility. This “credible voice” has spoken in Parliament, in courtrooms, before the United Nations, and in many places in-between.
The 1970s
During this decade, NAPO helped thousands of people receive money and access to programs to which they were entitled (e.g. veterans allowances, old age pensions). NAPO advocated against Bell Telephone’s proposed increase in rates, won the retention of the 10-cent pay phone, won changes in credit collection procedures, fought for a low-cost or life-line service, and helped other groups initiate similar actions in areas served by other telephone companies.
NAPO also campaigned for protective legislation to stop exploitive income tax rebate discounters. Legislation to control discounters was tabled and passed in April of 1978 by Parliament. The NAPO publication, Out of Work, was considered to be the best and most up-to-date reference on the federal Unemployment Insurance Program. Many law clinics, private practice lawyers, and unions ordered copies.
Through the 70s NAPO became recognized as (1) the coordinating national umbrella organization for poverty and low income groups in Canada; and (2) the mechanism through which its constituents could approach the federal level of government for discussion and action on issues of concern to those living in poverty.
The 1980s
NAPO’s parliamentary submissions in this decade addressed issues on health care, housing, unemployment insurance, job training, the tax system, pensions, family benefits, financial services and phone rates. The Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and constitutional change introduced new issues that extended through the decade. NAPO embarked on a research project in 1989 to examine the strengths and weaknesses of job training programs from the perspective of social assistance recipients. NAPO worked with community-based organizations in nine provinces to identify a cross section of participants to be interviewed. Their voices are heard throughout the report:
At one point I was contesting not receiving enough money for books. This one welfare agent said, “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” I said, ‘Listen, it might be a molehill to you, but twenty-five bucks to me is worth a week’s groceries. So you call it a molehill, I’ll call it a mountain.
That report was appropriately titled You Call it a Molehill, I’ll Call it a Mountain: Job Training for People on Social Assistance. It served as source material during consultations for a federal Labour Force Development Strategy.
The 1990s
The 90s was a busy decade, marked in the initial years by NAPO research on the connections between literacy and poverty: a 1992 research report also was authenticated by the voices of those interviewed.
In 1993, NAPO (represented by former Director Sarah Sharpe, of Newfoundland and Labrador) and the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues (CCPI, represented by Bruce Porter, who remains a close working colleague) appeared before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to give testimony on Canada’s economic and social rights performance. This was the first time any non-governmental organizations had appeared before this Committee, the customary presenters being national governments. The Committee’s concluding observations reflected the concerns reported by NAPO and CCPI, as well as those of the federal government.
Also in 1993, NAPO brought more than 120 delegates to Ottawa for the Nation-Wide Poor People’s Conference – the first since 1971. The conference brought together anti-poverty groups’ representatives to share their recommendations, ideas and experiences. The conference produced some striking insights into social programs across the country, in particular that those who were poor continued to face genuine problems in accessing social programs.
In 1994 the federal government issued a discussion paper, Improving Social Security in Canada, which included the option of major reforms to the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP). As the direction of the coming reforms became apparent, NAPO spoke out on behalf of low-income Canadians. Nonetheless, CAP was dismantled by the government, resulting in the loss of legislated national standards that gave some protection to those who were poor. CAP’s demise opened the way for cuts to welfare across the country, which NAPO monitored with increasing alarm. The most drastic cut to social assistance was in Ontario, where welfare allowances were cut by nearly 22%.
Fighting for the economic and social rights of Canadians became the dominant issue of the decade. NAPO campaigned to reinstate national standards for welfare. In 1995 and again in 1998, NAPO returned to speak before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with concerns over the loss of CAP and national standards. At the provincial level NAPO made submissions to the Ontario legislature in response to the Tenant Protection Act that, in effect, eroded tenant rights. NAPO also sought, with some success, revisions to punitive municipal panhandling by-laws. As NAPO became more aware of the practice of making people in poverty the scapegoats for society’s social and economic problems, NAPO campaigned against “poor bashing” – the demonizing of vulnerable, disadvantaged people.
NAPO also became in the 1990s even more active on the international scene. NAPO was a member of the Canadian NGO Organizing Committee that brought Canadian NGO delegates to the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in 1995. The principal commitments of the Summit included the goals of eradicating poverty and promoting social integration by fostering societies based on the protection of human rights, both nationally and internationally. In 1996 NAPO participated in Habitat 2 in Turkey – a United Nations effort to address the growing world gap between those who are housed and those who are homeless. And in 1998 NAPO co-hosted a Poverty Roundtable in Santiago, Chile, concerned with the social and economic rights of all peoples in the Americas.
The 2000s
In 2000 NAPO received honourable mention, from the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, for its international work and contribution to sustainable human development and poverty eradication. Also in 2000, in its ongoing efforts for equity and access to needed services, NAPO made a submission to Parliament for better access to basic banking services. In the same year, NAPO claimed a legal victory when Winnipeg’s City Council conditionally repealed the city’s by-law against panhandling. NAPO claimed the by-law was unconstitutional and openly discriminated against the poor by distinguishing them from other citizens.
In 2004 NAPO published a major report, Voices: Women, Poverty, and Homelessness in Canada, to inform the public about homelessness from the point of view of women who are homeless. The report aided anti-poverty, housing and women’s groups to push for greater funding for social housing and services. Shortly after, NAPO also initiated a national campaign called Make the Minimum Wage a Living Wage. This campaign, calling for the federal, provincial and territorial governments to raise their minimum wages to a level where someone working full time could escape or avoid poverty, helped encourage living wage efforts in a number of communities.
Other initiatives in the decade included a push for a comprehensive rebate plan from the federal government to help low-income families and individuals cope with rising energy costs, and a national youth poverty initiative called Our Future Now to raise public awareness of how poverty affects youth in low income families.
The year 2009 marked a turning point for NAPO when it became renamed as “Canada Without Poverty” – the new name chosen to reflect the end goal and vision. As well, a new logo was adopted, symbolizing the rising above a poverty line towards a brighter and better future. Also in 2009, Canada Without Poverty (with Citizens for Public Justice) founded and launched Dignity for All: The Campaign for a Poverty-free Canada, which has subsequently grown into a major national campaign to secure strong, enduring federal leadership on poverty issues.
