The Ontario government included the Social Assistance Review in its Poverty Reduction Strategy in Chapter 4: Smarter Government. The commitment reads: “We will undertake a review of social assistance with the goal of removing barriers…
On May 6, the Ontario legislature unanimously passed Bill 152: The Poverty Reduction Act.
This legislation is particularly significant because it acknowledges that poverty is not inevitable and that government can and should create policy to reduce poverty.
There are 3 key facets of the legislation.
On May 6, 2009, all parties in the Ontario Legislature voted unanimously to approve an amended Bill 152: The Poverty Reduction Act, 2009. The Bill was originally introduced by government on February 25, 2009. Two…
The government has made a commitment to poverty reduction. And all of the political parties in the Ontario Legislature voted in favour of poverty reduction legislation. They can now demonstrate their commitment – by setting up a Review…
Ontario finally has a poverty reduction strategy. It’s about time.
For years, anti-poverty activists have been pleading with government to take poverty seriously. Teachers have talked about how poorly children do in school when they are hungry and distracted. Health practitioners have listed the ways poverty makes people sick and costs the health-care system millions of dollars. Low-income people have insisted that they should not be blamed for their poverty, but rather that the root causes of poverty such as low wages, lack of child care, discrimination and low levels of training and education should be addressed.
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…