Poverty reduction act toothless but not pointless

In November 2018, Noah Zon wrote about the federal Policy Reduction Act in Policy Options.

Whether future governments will follow through on the poverty reduction goals outlined in a new bill depends not on the law but on voters.

The Trudeau government has a new plan to lock future governments into following through on its Poverty Reduction Strategy. Can it succeed where others have failed?

Since coming into office three years ago, this federal Liberal government has spent a lot of time making plans for the future. Its first budget featured a 10-year infrastructure plan, later extended to become a 12-year plan. Last year’s National Housing Strategy takes us through most of the next decade. More recently, the new Poverty Reduction Strategy sets targets for 2020 and 2030.

We want our governments to be thinking beyond the short term: the real-world issues that we expect them to address don’t fit neatly within election cycles. But it’s also worth asking how much stock we should put in promises that need to be delivered one, two or even three elections from now. […]