The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council Report released Monday morning at Queen’s Park promotes a bold new vision for income security in the long run but is weak on what it asks the Ontario Government to do to help people on social assistance meet their basic daily living necessities now. The Review panel recommends a consultation and system overhaul process that will take 12 to 18 months.

“A bold vision for tomorrow does not put food on the table today,” says Marvyn Novick, retired Professor Emeritus in Social Policy at Ryerson University and contributor to the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO). “The Ontario Government has ignored the needs of the most vulnerable in the province. It sets up a panel on social assistance and shortly thereafter cuts the Special Diet Allowance, reneges on the dental program for adult recipients, and reduces the woefully inadequate real income of recipients by 1% in the latest budget. While the panel claims to promote long-term reform, the real situation with people on the ground is deteriorating rapidly.”

“Minister Meilleur needs to listen to people like me,” says Nadia, an Ontario Works recipient in Toronto, “who are making the choice every month between paying for my children’s needs and buying healthy food and not listen to those who would trade real change today for promises in the future.”

“The report lacks a sense of urgency because many are in crisis right now and it ignores the short-term recommendation of $100 a month Healthy Food Supplement for those on welfare,” says Tom Pearson, Chair of the Poverty Action for Change Coalition in York Region, “The Healthy Food Supplement would put money in people’s pockets instantly and it is widely supported in communities across the province.”

“The Advisory Council acknowledges the urgency facing single adults with inadequate income support,” says Peter Clutterbuck, SPNO Coordinator. “But it is weak on the immediate measures that could be taken to address that issue. The community would support the panel’s proposal for a well-designed and adequate housing benefit in an overhauled income security system in the long run. But, in the meantime, measures like the Healthy Food Supplement could be easily implemented using the existing social assistance benefit system. People who do not know where their next meal is coming from do not have the luxury of time.”

The SPNO has been working with community partners across the province in the last year on a campaign called Put Food in the Budget. The campaign calls for the immediate introduction of a $100 a month Healthy Food Supplement for people on social assistance as a first step toward setting rates at a level that allows them to live with health and dignity. SPNO and its community partners urged the SARAC panel to make this recommendation to the Minister of Community and Social Services along with proposals for long-term income security reform. They are disappointed in the panel’s failure to do so.

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For further information:

Peter Clutterbuck, SPNO/PFIB
Tel. (416) 653-7947
Cell (416) 738-3228

PDF Version of Media Release

For more information and to download a copy of the declaration go to

ODSP Action Coalition

Time: 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Where: Fellowship Towers Retirement Community
877 Yonge St., Toronto MAP

The Ontario government is developing a new, long-term housing strategy to make it easier for Ontario families to find and maintain affordable housing.

The Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy will provide a framework for affordable housing in Ontario over the next 10 years.

The government is seeking your opinion on the proposed vision, principles and goals that will ultimately frame the strategy, and to help identify initiatives that can be taken to support these directions.

Between now and December 31, 2009, we encourage the public, our partners and stakeholders to provide pragmatic, specific and affordable solutions to assist in building this plan.

This consultation is about how to make the housing system work better.

You can share your ideas in a variety of ways — complete the online questionnaire, attend a consultation session, review the Long-Term Affordable Housing Consultation Document and/or send in your opinion to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

We will be accepting submissions until December 31, 2009.

Thanks for participating in this important discussion.

SPNO remains engaged primarily in four poverty reduction campaigns, which Poverty Watch Ontario will track.

Put Food in the Budget

SPNO is working in partnership with the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa), the Stop Community Food Centre and local poverty reduction groups and public health departments in communities across Ontario to urge the Ontario Government to introduce a $100/month Healthy Food Supplement added to the Basic Needs Allowance of all Ontario adults on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports Program.

The introduction of the Healthy Food Supplement as a first step toward income adequacy for people on social assistance would be a clear gesture by the Ontario Government that it is committed to serious transformative change in its planned Social Assistance Review.

In this stage of the Put Food in the Budget campaign, SPNO and its provincial and cross-community partners are using Do the Math, the on-line tool developed by The Stop, to build community support and reach MPPs across the province with the urgency of closing the gap between the what social assistance recipients receive in income support and what they need to meet the basic costs of living with health and dignity.

Stable and Affordable Housing

The SPNO is an active contributor to the Housing Network of Ontario (HNO) formed in the early months of 2009 to help communities across Ontario prepare for the Housing Review being rolled out by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Twelve community consultations will be held in communities across Ontario between June and the end of September (see PWO calendar for the current schedule of consultations). Local MPPs will also be encouraged to hold their own consultations on a long-term affordable housing strategy for Ontario.

SPNO joined with its HNO partners to plan and conduct a strategy meeting on the consultation in Toronto on May 11, attended by 100 housing activists from across the province. An Affordable Housing Declaration was reviewed at that time and has been revised based on feedback at the meeting. The major elements of an Affordable Housing Strategy were also discussed at that time.

As part of HNO, SPNO will provide organizing support to communities for participation in the Minister’s and the MPPs consultations in the housing review.

Developments and updates on the Housing Review and resource materials can be found at www.stableandaffordable.com.

Drive to Work

SPNO is participating in the DRIVE TO WORK (DRV2WRK) labour caravan organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). Sustaining employment is key not only to poverty reduction but also to poverty prevention.

The DRV2WRK caravan of unemployed workers and labour leaders started on June 8 in Kenora and Oshawa and will cross the province making stops in 50 communities before arriving in Toronto on June 25.

DRV2WRK is a province-wide tour to find out how the recession is really affecting working people. Along the way caravan participants will talk with thousands of Ontarians and listen to what they say on the need to preserve and create good jobs and maintain strong public services for healthy communities. The stories, videos, letters and ideas of unemployed workers and low income people will be gathered over three weeks for delivery to the Premier.

Anti-poverty groups, faith groups and other community supporters are joining with the OFL and affiliated unions on the DRV2WRK Caravan and going on the road to over 50 communities so that people can have their say.

SPNO is promoting participation in the labour caravan among all of the local community partners and poverty reduction groups in its cross-community network. With the support of the OFL, SPNO is working more closely with the local labour leadership in four communities – Sudbury, Windsor, Brampton and Hamilton.

The full tour itinerary and stories collected along the route can be found at www.drivetowork.ca.

The Ontario government has promised to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure everyone has “adequate, suitable and affordable housing” and it has launched a provincial consultation plan. Over the summer, provincial housing minister Jim Watson will be hosting regional meetings in 12 communities across Ontario; every MPP will be encouraged to host at least one meeting in their riding; and the government has launched a new web site to collect issues and solutions. This is our chance to be heard, to let the government know the real housing stories across the province, and to tell them about the solutions – more funding, new laws, better programs and services – that are needed in our neighbourhoods.

A calendar listing the regional meetings, a copy of the minister’s presentation on the consultation, and a link to the official provincial web site is available at http://stableandaffordable.com – along with lots of other resources, links and useful information. Keep checking back regularly for updates, reports from the regional meetings, key principles and other important information.

Dates for the 12 regional housing meetings, click here.

Official Ontario housing consultation web site