The Broken Charity Model and the Burden of Social Care
The non-profit sector is a booming industry in Canada. 1 in 10 workers are employed by non-profits. This doesn’t account for the 2 billion volunteer hours donated to by private citizens each year, the equivalent of over 1 million full-time jobs. The sector accounts for 8% of the total GDP, impressive when the average functional program staff and support staff make less than $50,000 a year. For reference, the vaunted oil and gas industry employs directly & indirectly only 140,000 people and make up only 6.4% of total GDP.
Non-Profit jobs & volunteer hours represented as jobs vs. Oil & Gas jobs
It’s safe to say that non-profits are essential to the Canadian economy and to social care. This year 587,000 people in Ontario alone accessed a Food Bank. The burden of social care bThe idea of the Government supportieing pushed onto non-profits like the Food Bank is an unfortunate development that is relatively recent to Canada. It may surprise some who are under a certain age, but this was not always the case. The first Food Bank in Canada was established in the 1980’s. Yup, that's right. Food Banks have been in Canada for less than 40 years. Prior to the 1980’s, the burden of social care and social support fell on… gasp…. Elected Governments.
OCFP wants it noted that governments taking on the “burden of social care” during this period led to disastrous results for certain groups, particularly Indigenous people due to overt racism and a denial of Indigenous people’s right to autonomy.
A Short History
Subsidizing programs for Canadian citizens was a carry over from the Second World War. Childcare, subsidized housing, rent control, pensions and industry regulations were implemented in order to support the war effort. Following the end of the war in 1945, successful governments implemented additional support for Canadian citizens, such as old-age pensions, universal healthcare, unemployment assistance, post-secondary subsidies, and a minimum wage.
In the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s, ideas on “trickle down economics” professed by world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Raegan began to take hold. The idea that public spending and taxation on the wealthy and corporations should be reduced. This in turn would lead to a “trickle down” of wealth to citizens. The result has been a disastrous 40 years of public austerity on social programs, leading to record numbers of homeless, food insecure people, and corporate profits.
A Rise in Non-Profits & Food Banking
The non-profit sector has seen a boom since the 1980’s in order to deal with the lack of social responsibility taken on by governments. In 1986 there were an estimated 60,000 non-profit organizations throughout the country. By 2020 that number has ballooned to a staggering 170,000. Since 2007 the sector has grown by an impressive 5% year over year, while the economy as a whole has grown by only 3%.
Unfortunately the increase in social service and non-profit workers, organizations, and private donations have not led to improved services for those in need. In fact, the reverse has occurred.
Let’s look at Food Banks as an example of how charities often act as an emergency response and are not modeled to fix root causes. A Food Bank is really just an organization that collects and redistributes food to individuals and families. Some take the form of warehouses, others operate out of community hubs and resource centres. Research does show that Food Banks which operate within resource centres have better results in reducing the amount of visitors the Food Bank sees due to the fact that people can access additional resources like housing or job applications. But even these gains are described as “statistically insignificant”.
According to Charity Intelligence, an organization that reports on charity financial impact and clarity, the Ottawa Food Bank received $19.9 million in combined donations and government funding. An impressive number when compared to most non-profit funding, less impressive when held up against the City’s budget for fixing potholes ($76 million in 2022) or police funding ($346.5 million in 2022).
Yet despite its outsized comparative budget, the Food Bank has done little to reduce food insecurity. As previously mentioned, Ontario saw 587,000 people access the food bank (an increase of 14%) with 4.3 million individual visits (an increase of 42%). More people are being forced to access food banks, and they are being forced there more often. The organization has seen a 56% increase in monthly visits from pre-pandemic levels. Out of the 140 Food Banks across Ontario, all acknowledged that their current level of support was unsustainable, and the problem is only getting worse with inflation expected to continue at historic rates. An incredible 11% of all fully-employed Ontarians are spending more than their net pay, an all-time record. This is without even mentioning those on social support, who can not even afford rent, let alone food.
Individual studies by both the Ontario Food Bank Network AND Ottawa Public Health acknowledge the limitations of the current system. Giving people food (often inadequate in amount and quality) does next to nothing to address WHY these people are hungry. The simple answer is a lack of income. This is evident in the reduction in Food Bank visits while CERB was running. To actually reduce the amount of hungry people in our communities with sustainable solutions, both reports had remarkably similar conclusions.
Create a living wage indexed to inflation.
Reduce income tax on lowest income households AND provide free income tax filing.
Increase Social Assistance such as Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program and index both to inflation.
Build more affordable housing units and extend the life of community owned rental homes (NOT create new luxury condos)
Additional suggestions from either report are:
Reduce barriers to unionization and classify “gig” workers as employees.
Protect victims of wage theft
Re-institute equal pay and paid sick days
Establish a social assistance research commission
Provide public transit & childcare
Provide a national school lunch program.
Consult people with lived experience