Poverty Awareness in York Region

On Aug 18 2010 I met with The Honourable Bryon Wilfert MP from Richmond Hill on behalf of Campaign 2000 ( http://www.campaign2000.ca/ ). I was to be meeting him with another who relies on wheel-trans to get around. When trying to book a ride, this person was told there were no rides available at that time because those early times are taken up by those who need medications, thus she could not go. I mention this because it's another way those in poverty and reliant on public wheel-transport (in YR) are often left out - such as in this case.


At any rate we met Aug 18 just the two of us(no assistant) and had a good discussion. I also received a letter the other day from his office following up on our meeting reiterating his positions..

I was impressed by his candor and knowledge. Having been a longtime municipal politician his local knowledge was also good.He knew that 3 and 1/2 million people lived in poverty in Canada - seemed to have a grasp on poverty nationally as well.

The MP supports a pan-Canadian conference on poverty ( and a national poverty reduction strategy with measurable outcomes) which would include all levels of government and hear from those in poverty. He supports income supplements and a $10 national minimum wage and indexing it to the cost of living.

He mentioned only 4.6% of a billion $'s alotted for fixing housing has been accessed to date and only 1.9% of $400 million for low income seniors housing and only .1% of 75 million for helping house those with disabilities.

MP Wilfert spoke of investing - not spending - mentioning that the only 12% of infrastructure spending actually created jobs.

He feels that the bill C-545 and C-304 are private members bills and are "feelgood" bills .

He supports pension reform, pan-Canadian learning approach including early childhood, aboriginal, workforce literacy for newcomers and access to higher education and training.

His letter to me concluded by saying he looks forward to working with me on this issue in the future...let's hope he means it.

Tom Pearson
Chairman, Poverty Action for Change Coalition
Make Poverty History YR
http://www.povertyacc.com/