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Plans for a convergence of feeder marches
culminating in a massive demonstration and rally at the Ontario Legislature in
Toronto on
September 26 are proceeding apace, fueled by reports of deepening child
poverty and a crisis in Ontario’s disability support programme.
Campaign 2000, a non-profit cross-Canada coalition
dedicated to ending child poverty, issued a report in mid-July aiming to
affect the agenda of the October 10 Ontario provincial election.
The report revealed the following dismal statistics:
- Almost one in every six children is growing up in poverty.
- Overall, 14.5 per cent of people in Ontario live in poverty, or 1.8
million people.
- 330,500 Ontarians rely on food banks every month, 40 per cent of them
children.
- Low-income families are living in deeper poverty now than during the
early 1990s.
- The average low-income family would need an additional $9,500 to
$11,000 a year to bring them up to the Statistics Canada low-income cutoff.
- 56 per cent of low-income children in Ontario live in families with a parent who
works either part time or full time.
In 1989, Canada’s federal Parliament pledged to end
child poverty by 2000. No plan was released or followed.
Today more children are living in poverty in Ontario, historically the
country’s richest province, than when the pledge was made.
To make matters worse, people living with physical and
mental challenges, who are among the poorest and most vulnerable residents
of the province, continue to experience a nightmare in terms of accessing
disability benefits.
An internal government report by two McMaster
University professors found that the programme is plagued by excessive
workloads and rising absenteeism among staff, which is hurting
claimants. Ministry of Community and Social Services workers often
have caseloads of up to 600 people and are increasingly suffering from
stress-related illnesses. Many clients have their meagre benefits
cut off because they did not fill out the right form or failed to produce
the required documents.
Under the previous Conservative government of Mike
Harris, benefits to the disabled were slashed by 22 per cent. The
12 per cent increase to payments since the Liberals took office in 2003
is grossly inadequate for people who on average live on incomes less than
half the poverty line.
A report by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Martin last year
found applicants often have to wait 10 months to find whether they are
even eligible for benefits. Only about 35 per cent who begin the
process succeed, and then only after lengthy appeals. Thousands of
the needy are left out in the cold.
The Campaign 2000 blueprint for reducing child poverty
in Ontario calls for a number of reforms. These include:
immediately hike the minimum wage to $10 a hour; increase and index
welfare rates to inflation; increase annual child benefits by $1,260;
introduce regulated child care, with fees based on parents’ income; build
8,300 new affordable housing units and provide 45,000 rent supplements.
The demands of Toronto Anti-Poverty, the coalition endorsed
by over 80 groups which is organizing the September 26 protest actions,
are similar. TAP adds a call for a 40 per cent increase in social
assistance rates, and access without fear to government services for
non-status people – a “Don’t ask/Don’t tell” policy.
Taking to the streets on September 26 is an important
step forward. It will enable more people to realize that there is
power in mobilized numbers, and that to achieve social justice the
capitalist system itself must be challenged and replaced.
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