Poverty Awareness in York Region

Former Golden Glove boxer John Fletcher lived here behind the 404 plaza in Newmarket. He died homeless. There is no transitional or assisted housing for single men in YR. The lone Men's shelter runs full most nights. Join us Ap 19 .

  In my previous blog I wrote about being locked in for the Ontario Budget and commented on it a bit and felt I shouldn't let the federal budget go without comment.

  Firstly the feds are planning to implement new rules to make it even tougher for everyone to collect employment insurance - including Ontarians who already get shafted on the eligibility requirements in comparison to most other provinces - rules that will include a provision that workers cannot say no to any 'local"job offer. That is worrisome, like firstly how will they define "local", and secondly that would require a guarantee of transportation to and from said 'local" job which the feds cannot guarantee such as through something like the recent York Region Transit strike which left riders in lurch for 4 months and still has essentially the same problematic deal between the region/transit company/and unions still in place, so there's certainly no guarantee there for them.What would happen then? The onus would be on the worker as the feds would say, " public transportation is a municipal matter" is what.

  Also quietly buried in the feds' budget was the fact that they have killed the National Council of Welfare which, since 1962, has been there with a government mandate to advice and warn policy makers about the consequences of neglecting poverty issues. Their 1.1 million dollar budget afforded them the ability to access expensive unpublished Stats Canada facts and data that anti-poverty advocates used to make their points and present their educated ideas from. Not any more, as another long standing social agency bites the dust. You couple this with the recent elimination of the long form census and what we will have here is a situation wherein the government will be able to fudge facts and figures and no-one will be able to counter with any certainty - a fact the shrewd working feds are banking on. Meantime Back in Ontario Dolton is licking his chops..quietly.

  Speaking of Premier MCgee..rumour has it he's making a "mannequin tour" this coming weeks as part of the "Put Food in the Budget" Campaign with the idea that people can speak their mind to the real - life sized-looking Mcguinty lookalike, a version of which will be hanging out with me in York Region from April 19 to 23d should anyone like to "interview" him...on camera of course! The tour gets kicked off at Toronto's Queen's Park April 19 at 1:30PM to draw attention to the freeze in social assistance and ODSP rates as contained in the Ontario budget, and removal of the "Start-up" fund which in essence eliminates York Region's lowest income recipients from any anti-homelessness programs completely.. Join us!

  Another topic I blogged and created video-blogs as far back as November about was the need to make the York Regional Chairperson a voted position and lo and behold it's now finally on the table for review!? This position carries far too much responsibility and power for it to not have someone held accountable as in times such as the recent transit strike wherein our Chairman, Bill Fisch, could essentially sell out low income York Regioners by sitting on his hands for 4 months whilst some peoples lives dissolved around them. He dismissed offhandedly my submission to council that they leave their cars at home for the duration of the strike. His laissez-faire attitude toward bringing an end to the dispute was a shining example of why that person needs to be held accountable - either through a performance review or voted out by the public. Other regions have adopted a voted in Regional Chairperson and certainly see no reason why York region shouldn't as well.


  Funny thing, at the same time as Newmarket council raised the issue of perhaps instilling new measures to ensure 'donations' and such for elections are controlled and transparent, so too did they in regards to charities and events the councilors support. They mentioned donations to " Belinda's Place", The Hoedown, Y.R. Habitat for Humanity - which recently paid out a whopping 6 $million dollars in "costs" fyi.

  Speaking of Belinda's Place, nice to read in the Newmarket Era that the to be 'single women's shelter" as well as the other 7 shelters in York Region that accept women (abused - includes immediate access to social housing - 3), family-1, single women to age 27- 1 (plus transitional housing), In / Out from the Cold's(2) are going to have apartments, transitional housing and "programs' to assist them all. This in addition of course I assume to whatever programs are offered out by the Y.R. Womens Centre.

  Y.R.'s men get no apartments or transitional housing and are kicked to the curb at 8am until evening for their "programs', then shipped to Toronto or Barrie to be rid of. I guess the region didn't get the memo that with the opening of the new family shelter the women's shelters use numbers are all down. But hey, we can't spoil a planned party now, especially if its going to deify Belinda for her wondrous foresight aided of course by the etchings of the local newspaper Editor Deb Kelly who is also on the Belinda's Place's (closed group) committee, and helped present it to the Regional Council to acquire funding / support. Funny they haven't printed one letter I've written about the shelter idea and the fact that affordable housing for singles including men is what's needed, not another expensive to run shelter, even though I co-authored York Region's social audit " Behind The Masks" and Chair it's only grassroots organization with a mandate to reduce poverty. I've said it before and I'll say it again this proposed new shelter will have to bring single women (over age 27 since we have youth shelters already for single women up to 26) in from outside York Region to fill it, but Joe and Jill Public will ever be the wiser since all they'll be told through our mainstream local media (via the same Editor) is that everything is wonderful there. The same spin that happens now.

Homeless man visits for the first time since his death, the "home" of former homeless person John Fletcher. John's saying was " It's 60-40 for the good guys". He left behind two children when he died in Newmarket.

  Two homeless men I know of have died homeless in Newmarket in the past few years such as John Fletcher, a former golden gloves boxing champion who lived behind the Metro grocery store at the 404 plaza, and not a word in the local newspapers was written about them, nor any new programs to save our men announced - although funding for some upstart group claiming to be helping young low income girls was announced..I guess Girls Incorporated and Big Sisters or free activities programs offered up by Operation Sparrow which PACC helped create, does not segregate and costs nothing for users wasn't enough? Why not just fund them so they can expand a model already set up and sensitive to those living on the margins.

  I know it's nice to save our women and children first, just like the Titanic, but like the Titanic the model is destined to sink because it overloads one area while neglecting another. At some point they/we must all co-exist. You don't skip over 90% of a problem area to focus most of our resources( grants, gov $, charitable donations, media) to another because it's "sexier".

  90% of our truly homeless are men, 90% of those killed on the streets are men, and 90% killed in wars for this country are / were men...It's ugly yea, but surely the ones in need who didn't ask for a life of street violence, crime, and hunger deserve some consideration, respect and hope...just saying...

Tom out

This PACC report is a wake up call to the federal, provincial and regional governments to end the York Region Transit Strike.

Saturday November 19th 2011 at Fairy Lake.


Video produced by TP. It's absolutely hilarious. He plays about 20 different recognized characters in a 60 Minutes style presentation. Some tough opinions but funny nevertheless.


Occupy Newmarket Video

As the York Region Transit strike moves into a 3rd week, those workers and kids needing to get to their destination workplaces and schools, have been nothing more than an afterthought it seems...no outcry from our main-stream media for transit workers to end their strike...no indications from the regional government  to end it or declare it an essential service - like Toronto did....What's wrong? Aren't our transit users as important or their survival as essential as the city folk!?..Or is it just that we in rich York Region are composed of mostly car users as opposed to local transit users, and therefore we don't have to care enough?....It should be an even more vital a service in suburbia as far as I'm concerned, especially for those communities isolated from schools, amenities, food or any non Y.R.T. transit station. Ironically only Conservative M.P.P. Frank Klees seems to be saying anything about it politically. Everyone else keeps playing the don't look at me game.


I don't know what they could possibly be striking about anyway as YRT is quite possibly the worst service I've ever experienced and I've taken it often and ridden transit systems right across Ontario. Frequently with connecting routes on the YRT that run every hour and drop you to wait another 45 minutes to an hour for a connector often without a shelter..I've had it take me 3 hours to travel a 10-15 minutes car ride distance... or after getting in town from work taking up to an hour and a half to get home. Ridiculous...and the newest Y.R.T. drivers are often rude and seem more interested in picking up green lights than passengers ....one driver stops daily while already running 10 minutes late to use the bathroom at Tim Horton's on Yonge St because it's apparently better than the one at the Go terminal she tells me..nice perk, er I mean perc., ha...and that route already runs only once per hour...on strike!?...Ha!

The VIVA drivers of course have no conversations with you whatsoever eliminating friendly hellos with their "honour system" designed to criminalize and sentence our poor, young, and homeless to lives with bad credit ratings for daring get warm in the winter, and which it's personnel has been boosted in recent times by an apparent influx of transit security police, not previously needed, who last summer delayed me an hour for simply insisting on full time on my transfer...sure I got an apology...but tell that to the meat, ice-cream, and milk that spoiled...where's my payback? I was treated like a criminal for insisting on my full fare value for which there was no argument in the end...just a driver having a bad day wanting to take it out on someone was my best guess...until I played my P.A.C.C. card. They've since changed the transfer system to a digital timed one now which eliminates the manual option and the little discretion a nice driver may have had in the past to give a few more minutes on a system you never every minute for! It's become a sad, face-less transit system with an even sadder direction in which it seems to be going ...the only reason the service has increased in number of riders in 2010-11 is because they now offer 15 minute interval runs up Yonge St to Finch Station which is convenient, but connecting a bus(es) home in a timely manner once back in your town is another thing entirely....This service does not warrant a raise and needs a new manager to run it as the guy they brought from the U.S. and his crony security cops style of service is not the Canadian way. This is not Boston city. He also has no concept of priorities it seems.

Over the summer they quietly changed some routes again....meaning chopped them..like the route 53's 6:20 a.m. run which connected remote Bathurst St. dwellers in Newmarket to work and schools and amenities. What were those people supposed to do that relied on that? Did you not know the route covered an area rife with low income earners? This route is changed constantly as well it seems so how do they expect to grow ridership?...One man I spoke to last year was late for the 1st time in 12 years after another one of the silly route 53 changes which, when changed, made him miss his usual connecting bus....and this without any strike!! And did they need to cancel completely their transportation to Walmart Sundays too for those working there? And shorten the last bus time so students from the mall can't catch it home after work whereas before there was one more that ran? Those workers can't afford the 30 buck cab fares on the wages paid ... even with a union! That is, short of labour laws that ensure they make a living wage so they could afford a car to drive...and to top it off Y.R.T. already charges more than the T.T.C. which offers much better and frequent service with talk of another fare raise in early 2012.Please! Improve your service and you'll improve your ridership and in turn more revenue. Just gouging the poor riders for more doesn't cut it. Terrible service. Terrible planning.

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Tom-a-Talk

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It should really come as no surprise that the NDP, and to a lesser extent the Green Party, are making a dent in the pre-election strategists theories…As some of you who have followed my blogs may know I have mentioned months and months back that Ignatief had better get out there and start branding himself because people just don’t know him enough or feel familiar enough with him (to prove a point I’m not even sure I’ve spelt his name correctly)…sure he started hitting the trail during the election but way, way too late…people already know and like Jack Layton, he’s a familiar and thus increasingly trusted face and as my astrology acquainted says, “He’s and cancer and actually does care”. Not that I take stock in astrological advice however I don’t discount the idea that he may actually care whereas Stephen Harper smiles sardonically and says little, using short answers like, “That’s just not true”.

That seems to be the element people are most disillusioned with, you can talk to your politician and it may seem as if their mind is elsewhere or they’re throwing back a rehearsed party line, but Layton seems to be able to convey a message that he’s listening and that he has some intelligent alternatives that resonate with all Canadians…and he has a platform that cares about and is inclusive of every day people and with more and more in dire straits financially or on the brink or knowing someone affected by a job loss, along with an aging population as well as a surging popularity in blue collar Quebec and Atlantic Canada suddenly they’ve thrust themselves into the mix like never before. The knock always is that the party is too left leaning…but in this day and age of “coalition” possibilities which would force parties in a sense to ‘collaborate’ in order to function, who knows? It’s actually possible Layton could be placed in as Prime Minister by the Governor General should the right conditions come to be. Yup then our 1st lady would be foreign born too. Wouldn’t that be egg on the faces of Bloc’s Gilles and Iggy who seem to like to toss at him that he’d never have a chance to be Prime Minister. In hindsight these comments from the two at their televised debate showed they were both scared of the NDP. As for Harper it might teach him not too be too smug and arrogant next time.

Locally I got a chance to hear the candidates debate – unfortunately no NDP rep could make it for me to critique – however I did get the sense people were looking for an alternative that night despite the heckling I received when asking incumbent Conservative MP Lois Brown (from obvious supporters section) why her office hadn’t replied to our request for a debate focusing on social issues…It actually took the Green party to bring some of the debate’s focus onto issues that more and more are affecting Canadians - in fact local candidate Vanessa Long stole the final show for the final statement if you ask me…Canadians are concerned about issues like poverty reduction, employment insurance benefits increases, skilled(green) jobs, national daycare, old age pensions, etc as these are issues that more and more Canadians are affected by and why I believe there is a surge in support for parties that include all Canadians – truly include them - and not with shell games and fancy talk that fools the general public but affects the most vulnerable most often and only speaks of inclusivity.

The Liberal candidate Kyle Petersen in fairness at the debate I attended did very well as he was knowledgeable and actually garnered the most applause from the packed hall during debate points, but to read the polls you have to wonder why the lag and again I come back to the fact that people just are not comfortable enough yet with the liberal leader.. He may indeed be the right guy but he needed to get out and brand himself so people could get comfortable with the idea and he has failed to do that.. and frankly he sounds like a politician…The Liberals should also have been using Justin Trudeau to brand themselves way, way more and remind people of the “tradition” of the party..

So alas I think what the polls may be reflecting is that Canadians are looking for a safe, secure, comfortable, and caring place…the question is do you think any of the parties can really deliver this? Me Neither..alas what to do?...Oh..I know….I just remembered I started an alternative mock Party!!!!

I urge you all to join the Tea Brewhaha Party of Canada today on Facebook.
Act now and you can become absolutely anything in any position within the Party..Hey?!! Whattaya Gonna do! Ha!

Join us May 5 to kick off a new movement called ‘Poverty Free Ontario”

povertyacc@gmail.com
tp

Canada has serious social issues facing her - with record number's of food-bank users and homeless - yet the federal government is taking virtually no action on these fronts. Of course with no official poverty line(one of the only countries in the world without one) and the recent elimination of the full census, they will soon be able to provide "stock" answers about all this without fear of accountability...sort of like the "unreported crimes" "stat" that decided $billions would be spent on new jails instead of perhaps assisting to house people - Oh sorry, I guess that is a form of housing though isn't it as they'll have to put people somewhere I suppose when some begin to steal in order to eat.

This Government has drained its own $ resources - previously they cut the GST by two percentage points for a revenue loss of $12 billion per annum and they also brought in another corporate tax cut from 22 percent to 15 percent by 2012. The US sits at around 35% in comparison. It made several additional tax cuts - pension income splitting, which most benefits wealthy senior couples and further severely deprives the treasury of needed revenues.

The Budget’s most significant social policy news took the form of an increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) but the monthly amount of $50 is way too low to even dent poverty. Budget 2011 failed to deal with the holes in Canada’s retirement income system. The federal and provincial Finance Ministers have agreed to a new voluntary retirement savings plan called Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs) but Canada already has in place a voluntary supplementary system of pensions called Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). These are used by taxpayers in mostly upper-income levels who have disposable income surpluses already, and receive a large tax break in return. It is modest and middle-income Canadians who remain in dire straits.

Budget 2011 also announced a Children’s Arts Tax Credit, which will be provide up to $500 of eligible fees per child in qualifying children’s programs. However whereas the income tax system does act as a highly effective vehicle for the distribution of income benefits, such as the Canada Child Tax Benefit., but the tax system is not effective for attacking social needs as the problem is that the current tax credits for lower- and modest-income households paying little or no income tax see nothing − including the one just announced in Budget 2011.

Budget 2011 introduces measures in support of caregivers. Most significant is the Family Caregiver Tax Credit that will provide an annual tax reduction of $300 for caregivers of all types of infirm dependent relatives including − for the first time − spouses, common-law partners and minor children. The new Family Caregiver Tax Credit enhances current tax assistance for those now eligible for various measures. This simply adds to a system that is already unfair. It will end up providing more to those who already receive some assistance while the rich get more tax savings and low and modest-income households get zip. It is single fixed income seniors who are most in need but nothing for them.

Budget 2011 brought in several noteworthy measures around Employment Insurance but once again Ontario will be given unfair treatment through a dated system that is inconsistent and needs a complete overhaul.

We need to develop a clear and immediate social policy agenda to help tackle Canada’s most pressing social needs - like affordable housing, income supports, and a living wage. We can accomplish this through building on what we have not deconstructing as the current government seems to be bent on doing.

This Federal Conservative government shows no respect to those seniors and others living day to day barely surviving - and I know because they call me for help and wondering where they can get food - including war vets!!! Shame on them.


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Federal Budget 2011 - PACC's - Reaction


Tom Pearson
http://www.povertyacc.com/