In Canada we have it pretty lucky.  However, I’m not quite sure everybody realizes it.  Whether its health care or education, our society decided a long time ago every Canadian was going to get it.  Sure we have terrible internal growing pains, but for the most part, this “social compact” between Canadians and their government works.

The problem is there are gaps.  One of the hardest working groups in our society today is the “working poor”.  The name itself has a certain connotation to which I don’t like.  A lot of us think of ourselves as “po folks”, but economists have different measures.  Let’s think of it this way.  The man or women on a single income making about $8 to $12 an hour might find themselves in this category.  They pay the rent, the heat, the other utilities, food etc and its still not enough.  Struggling economically is a way of life.

Some of you might say welcome to the club.  However about 33,000 Ontarians who collect provincial welfare also earn some type of wage.  In other words, they are working mostly in the service sector trying to make a go of it for themselves and their family.  Their kids would certainly be classified as living under Statistics Canada’s constantly fluid poverty line.

Some economists think Canada can do a better job for these people.  I’m one of them.  The “working poor” in many ways are important “underpinnings” of our greater Canadian economy.  They do the jobs, which need to be done and when they go home at night, sometimes their reality isn’t very good.  There is a long-term economic cost to this within our greater Canadian economy.  Guaranteeing every Canadian a fair annual income is one way, which our Canadian society could avoid, these costs and make for better lives for all Canadians.

I’m sure our editor and publisher John Gardiner is smiling.  John has never bought into why our greater society has such unequal wealth distribution and why we can’t provide for the “working poor.”  In a society where we have Alberta oil fields, which rival Saudi Arabia, you’d think we could find enough money so people have decent living conditions.

We get many things right in our Canadian society but maybe we’re still wrong about the guaranteed annual income.  Governments have certainly looked at it.  However there are problems with it.  One is the incentive to work and the quandary where that might put some employers.  Labour shortages might results.   The list goes on and on.  That’s one reason governments have tinkered with the Child Tax Credit and other measures to enact economic equity in our society.  Still Canadians fall through the cracks and the “working poor” continue to pull more than their fair share in this economy.

There is much more to this story.  I recently was in the United States and had to access their health care system.  Of course the first question from me was how much and do you take VISA and MasterCard?  The answer was we start at $95 a visit and we’ll gladly take your credit card.

If you don’t have the $95 US dollars you don’t get in.  However in Canada you get in even if you don’t have the $95 US dollars.  Canadians make an attempt to help our people with basic human services.  Keeping it that way is vital.  Expanding out into the guaranteed annual income might be another way this society might choose to go.

Clues may be coming.  Both the McGuinty government and the Harper government are making motions in this way.  No, I don’t expect either to come out with some type of guaranteed annual income.  However the child tax benefit may be increased substantially in the next federal budget.  There might also be a new federal “working tax benefit.”  Ontario might chime in with their own “made in Ontario” tax credit.

These tax credit measures are targeted at those people making $8-$12 an hour.  Call them the “working poor” if you must.  I like to call them some of the hardest people working on earth.  With our federal government being in constant surplus, while talking bravely about the “fiscal imbalance” its pretty obvious the working poor need to be targeted.

But in the end will it happen?  Will it make a difference?  Even economists who believe government has a role to play in our economy like myself shudder at how government “screws up.”  Key might be for a realization that the “working poor” add great value to this Canadian society.  Making sure their economic and social reality reflects that should be a Canadian priority.