Ontario’s 2026 Budget arrives with a familiar promise of protection, but for whom? The province faces compounding pressures, including a deficit that has nearly doubled to $13.8 billion, ongoing U.S. tariff threats, and the ripple…
Nearly one million Ontarians rely on social assistance programs like Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) for survival. These are programs of last resort, a lifeline for those with nowhere else…
Disability Without Poverty (DWP), a national disability justice organization, is holding a virtual symposium on December 3, 2025, the International Day for Persons with Disabilities. The symposium, titled “Disability Poverty in Canada: Learning from Today…
ISAC is launching a survey on social assistance today, aimed at gathering data and stories from individuals who are receiving or who have recently received provincial social assistance (OW and ODSP specifically.) We intend to…
The Ontario Divisional Court granted the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) intervener status in Ministry of Community and Social Services v. Robinson-Cooke. This legal challenge concerns whether the strict training and accreditation requirements for the Guide…
Ontario’s social assistance system is in the midst of a “modernization” process that aims to “build a more responsive, efficient, and person-centred” system. The modernization process essentially involves two parts – Social Assistance Renewal (SAR)…
ISAC’s Senior Policy Analyst Devorah Kobluk was interviewed for an article in The Monitor, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives online magazine, on the topic of the modernization of social assistance. Read the full story…
ISAC’s Senior Policy Analyst Devorah Kobluk was quoted in an article by Press Progress about changes to the employment services model which are part of the province’s plan to modernize of social assistance. Read the…
** Français ci-dessous ** What the coming changes mean for Ontario’s social assistance recipients The Ontario government is changing how employment services are provided in the province. The most concerning aspect of the proposed changes is that…
On December 10, International Human Rights Day, ISAC participated in a press conference hosted by Defend Disability at Queen’s Park, urging the Province to protect the right of people with disabilities to an adequate standard…
Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) cautions against relying on the Auditor General’s fundamentally flawed report on ODSP The report misunderstands the purpose of ODSP and relies on erroneous assumptions The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)…
On December 4, 2019, the Auditor General released an audit of the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). ODSP is a critical program that provides monthly income supports and health benefits to low-income persons with disabilities…