Guelph’s member of provincial parliament is calling perceived cuts to ODSP and Ontario Works ‘cruel’ and says the Ontario PCs broke their promise to continue a Basic Income Guarantee pilot project that will now be scrapped.
The Ontario PC government actually announced it is raising social assistance rates by 1.5 per cent, but that is half of the three per cent increase the previous Liberal government announced in its pre-election budget.
Mike Schreiner, Guelph MPP and Green Party leader, considers the increase to be a cut to the social assistance rate.
“Social assistance rates are already well below the poverty line,” said Schreiner in a press release Tuesday.
“It is not possible for someone in my riding of Guelph or in communities across Ontario to live on $721 per month.”
Ontario's new Progressive Conservative government says it will bring in major changes to social assistance, starting with reducing a planned increase in support rates and cancelling a pilot program that provided payments to low-income people in certain communities.
Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, says the previous Liberal government left behind a patchwork system that the Progressive Conservatives will replace.
She says the governing Tories will set a 100-day deadline to come up with a new social assistance program that will help people break the cycle of poverty and get back in the workforce.
The government's first steps, announced Tuesday, will be to cancel the previous Liberal government's plan to raise Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works rates by three per cent and raise them by 1.5 per cent instead.
"Cutting the meagre three per cent increase in half is cruel.” Said Schreiner. “Making cuts on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens will damage people’s lives and end up costing the province more in health care, policing and emergency services.”
The province will also wind down Ontario's Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) pilot project, which provided payments to 4,000 low-income people in communities including Hamilton, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay.
Single participants receive up to $16,989 a year while couples receive up to $24,027, less 50 per cent of any earned income.
“The PC government has now broken its promise to keep the BIG pilot. Ironically, the original idea for a Basic Income Guarantee came from conservative economists,” said Schreiner.
He said a Basic Income reduces red tape for the poor, saves money in healthcare and decreases the burden on the criminal justice system.
“It’s deeply frustrating that the pilot is being ended early before we have any evidence on whether it is working,” said Schreiner. “There are more compassionate ways the government could save money without targeting the most vulnerable.”
—with files from The Canadian Press
