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October 5, 2000
Growing Together:
Priorities for the 2001 Federal Budget
Section 4
Conclusion
Last year's report from the Finance Committee talked about "getting the fundamentals right." In the view of the CCSD, the Committee concentrated excessively on the growth agenda, in isolation from the social agenda and thereby failed to fully recognize the indivisibility of our economic and social well-being. As described above, we face a real risk of "growing apart" if we do not take active measures now to ensure that we "grow together." Major social investment must be undertaken to reinforce and complement economic growth, and to spread the growing prosperity of some Canadians to all Canadians.
Getting the fundamentals right means providing economic and social security for all Canadians in the face of a rapidly changing global economy and an increasingly diverse society. It means ensuring the opportunity for all citizens to fully participate. It means giving our children the best chance possible to grow and develop through the National Children's Agenda. It means making key reinvestments in the social infrastructure of Canada, including affordable housing and supports for persons with disabilities. It means taking low-income Canadians out of the tax system.
We can do much more to build a prosperous and inclusive society and fortunately, the means are now at hand. We just need to find the will to act.
Notes
Canadian Council on Social Development,
190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100,
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2R3
Tel: (613) 236-8977, Fax: (613) 236-2750, Web: www.ccsd.ca, Email: council@ccsd.ca
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