Sherry wrote:

The proposals I have seen, do not seem to link (as the
Premier's Council had said) ending disadvantage with
addressing disadvantage.  Thus it feels to me all these people
concerned with the well being of children are not concerned
with changing the resources their mothers have to parent them.
....
As I have said before in Ontario, we have seen welfare
benefits paid to parents reduced by $50. and month and that
money is to be reinvested in to programs that address "risk".
I find this immoral  and will be paying close attention to the
"reinvestment" measured against the number of children who
go hungry.  I think we need to start looking at tracking the
impact of welfare benefits themselves on children, thus "every
dollar paid in welfare benefits saves society $25. dollars
down the road".

Sherry,

Thank you for going to the transcripts and reading them for
the rest of us.

I am amazed with your unrelenting commitment to get the
message across to professionals and government that supporting
parents (most often mothers) means giving them enough
resources (MONEY), not better programs and screening tools.  I
know you must get tired of saying the message over and over.
The most upstream thing we can do  (for health and social
well-being) is eliminate the unequal access (to everything)
caused by lack of money (minimize the gap between rich and
poor).

Even in our more even-minded society in Canada, we are dealing
with two main soietal attitudes as barriers to this message
being heard when it comes to mothers on welfare:

1.      Women who take care of children are not productive
members of society.

2.      Giving money to the poor is wasted.

These attitudes are well established in polls and surveys. I
think we can work on these attitudes.  First by looking at our
own attitudes and continuing this kind of dialogue, then by
presenting the "facts" showing the advantage of a fair welfare
 system (similiar to the old, now lost, federal policies you
quoted).  The next election is a key time to act.

Lorraine Telford, RN