For Immediate Release April 19 2007
For: Editorial / News Desk
Re: Post: Meeting with Minister, Deputy Minister,Senior Advisors and Senior Staff
Minister agrees to participate in ongoing conference on poverty - first ever of its kind in York region!
York Region’s Poverty Action for Change Coalition (PACC) (along with York Region’s Alliance to end Homelessness and York Region Food Network) met with Ontario’s Community and Social Services Minister, Madeleine Meilleur, as well as the Deputy Minister, Assistant Deputy Minister, Senior Advisors and other senior staff, April 17 2007 at Queens Park. The meeting, scheduled for half an hour but lasting 1 hour, was requested on their behalf by Newmarket-Aurora MP Belinda Stronach; who herself has previously agreed to participate in a future “square-table” or “round-table” conference, designed to tackle poverty in York Region. Ms. Stronach had Constituency Manager Steve Hinder and her Assistant Maria Campbell attend on her behalf as she was in Ottawa.
The “Table” event, first proposed by PACC on the front lawn gathering at York Regional Municipal Headquarters on Oct 17 2006 on the” International Day of the Eradication of Poverty”, hopes to include federal, provincial, regional and municipal politicians, school representatives, health professionals, marginalized persons, social workers, religious organizations and others - working together in a non-partisan setting to assist in reaching action solutions.
The groups walked away winners, having convinced the Minister and Senior colleagues (after Ms. Stronach’s staff reiterated her support in their presence) that such an event would be helpful in future strategies to tackle poverty. It was agreed that it would not be a once only conference but a series of several gatherings.
PACC had declared that a formal commitment from both the federal and provincial levels would go a long way to ensure participation from others. The commitment to this proposal given by the Minister is a significant breakthrough for the impoverished in York Region and ultimately Ontario. This historic endeavor will be first ever of its kind for the region.
Both the Homeless Alliance and PACC pointed out that such an endeavor matches the ministry’s own (“Thriving Communities”) Strategic framework, which encourages working in partnership with community groups and others.
PACC also tried to convince the senior “ranking” audience, that immediate changes were needed in assistance rates for ODSP and Workfare (with inferred references to minimum wages) recipients and for an immediate end to the claw-back” to no avail. The Minister also shot down PACC’s request for an
“ Independent Advocacy Commission” to be set up on behalf of impoverished residents whom PACC maintains is systematically being abused across societies spectrum - in what they see as a sustained pattern. Minister Meilleur felt there were likely isolated incidents.
PACC remains hopeful that after having a chance to read an excerpt from their self-published book, Voices from The Edge; Living in Poverty - and in particular a new story submitted separately, that chronicles the ongoing nightmarish conditions that a local cancer survivor and single mom is having to live - and after participating in the “table’ – that they will be convinced otherwise.
“ This was an impressive senior staff audience which was encouraging, and despite not seeing any immediate concessions made, we believe it (the attending senior grouping) speaks to the fact that there is an awareness of room for improvement and as well we are encouraged by the Minister’s commitment to the “roundtable” which is significant. We acknowledge (d) that positive changes have been made within the ministry as good first steps, and we welcome the commitment to a Round-table type of conference - but we maintain that the current system and allowances fall considerably short”, states PACC Chair Tom Pearson, “and we still need recognition that mental health is a problem being partially fed by the current system’s set-up first, in order to have it addressed”.
PACC is a grassroots York Region community group, comprised of a unique cross - section of marginalized persons, as well as advocacy professionals and others, working together to eliminate poverty.
http://www.povertyacc.com/
From The NDP Party
Dalton McGuinty first promised to end the clawback in the 2003 election – now he says he needs to get elected again to get it done.
The OCB amounts to only $190 million this year – less than the cost of ending the clawback ($220 million). It doesn’t end the clawback today and is being phased in over 5 years – a long time in the life of a child.
McGuinty promised to end the clawback, saying “the clawback is wrong and we will end it.” But today’s budget pushes the end of clawback of the NCBS back another 5 years. Families can’t afford to wait that long.
Children born when McGuinty promised to end the clawback will be eight years old when their families finally see the value of the NCBS returned to them. Those who were ten will miss out altogether because they will be too old to receive the NCBS by then.
Meanwhile, children in poverty are still waiting for action on other Dalton McGuinty promises:
ODSP and OW rates are barely keeping pace with inflation – and people living on them are worse off than they were under Mike Harris in real terms.
Dalton McGuinty promised to invest $300 million in new provincial dollars on childcare – instead he’s pocketed $140 million of federal money that was supposed to be spent on childcare.
Minimum Wage Increase
NDP RESPONSE:
Ontario’s lowest paid workers need a $10 minimum wage today – not a post-dated election promise from a promise-breaking Premier.
Even if McGuinty keeps his promise workers living on minimum wage will be living in poverty:
Dalton McGuinty’s minimum wage plan will leave people earning it in poverty. Statistics Canada says the Low Income Cut Off for a single person in a large city like Toronto is $20,778. A person earning minimum wage of $8.75 working 40 hours a week will earn $18,200 – leaving them nearly $2600 below the poverty line.
Assuming even a low rate of inflation that same single person will need to earn $22,126 a year to be living above the poverty line by 2010. At $10.25 an hour a person working 40 hours a week would earn $21,320.
Studies show that Ontario can move to $10 today:
Theoretical studies of minimum wage, like the one Sorbara will present today, often predict job losses. But studies conducted on the ground after minimum wage hikes have been implemented tell a different story. In 2004, Santa Fe raised the minimum wage from $5.15 and hour to $8.50 - a 65 per cent increase to over $10 Canadian. A study by the University of New Mexico 's Bureau of Business and Economic Research found no significant employment effects, and that in fact in some sectors employment increased.
The author of the McGuinty government’s study has already confirmed that a $10 minimum wage would not result in job loss: “It's not that those jobs are lost, it's just that those jobs are not there now that would have been there” (Morley Gunderson, Toronto Star, March 21, 2007)
A person earning the current minimum wage would have to work full-time for a year and a half to earn as much as the McGuinty Liberals paid Morley Gunderson to write a report. A person earning the current minimum wage would have to work full-time for two and a half years to earn as much as Dalton McGuinty increased his pay just before Christmas.
The Green Party would:
- Raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour and index it
- Set welfare rates above the poverty line
- Regulate the temporary work industry
- Provide support for those enrolled in continuing education
- Speed up recognition of foreign educational credentials
- Facilitate apprenticeships for the un- and under-employed
- Financially support stay-at-home parents
- Provide "assisted housing" for people with disabilities
"Child poverty is evidently Ontario Liberal government policy," said Frank de Jong, GPO leader.
"Why does a wealthy nation such as Canada have 15 per cent of its children living in internationally defined poverty, while far less wealthy nations such as Denmark and Finland have fewer than 3 per cent of its children living under such conditions?" asks Dennis Raphael, professor in York's School of Health Policy & Management.
"Canada's policy structures lead to it having one of the highest proportions of low-paid workers, lower benefits for those unable to work or experiencing unemployment, and spending less on pensions, disability, and families than most developed nations."
For further information:
Richard Pereira - GPO Labour Issue Advocate
Green Party of Ontario
416-977-7476
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