On December 4, 2008, the Ontario government released Breaking the Cycle: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. In this Strategy, the province has committed to reducing child and family poverty in Ontario by 25% in the next…
Starting in 2008, the Back-to-school and Winter Clothing allowances provided through OW and ODSP will no longer be paid out in lump sum payments, as the provincial government starts to move benefits for children out…
It’s time for a paradigm shift in how we think about social assistance, its objectives and its role. Social assistance programs must incorporate an explicit objective to move people out of poverty, by offering meaningful support opportunities for those who can work and ensuring that those who cannot are able to live with dignity.
ISAC used the Ontario election in 2007 to push all of the parties to make concrete commitments to reduce poverty across the province. We created a list of “key demands” and put together a kit…
In December 2004, Deb Matthews, the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community and Social Services, released her long-awaited report on social assistance with several recommendations for improving the system in ways that actually work…
In February 1999, the Prime Minister of Canada and provincial/territorial Premiers (excluding the Premier of Quebec) signed on to the Social Union Framework Agreement, an agreement intended to guide intergovernmental cooperation on social policy in…