http://www.eye.net

Let them eat cake

Five healthcare workers representing Health Providers Against
Poverty (HPAP) pile out of an elevator and into an empty hall.
At the end of the corridor, a receptionist sits behind a tall
desk, behind a locked door and glass wall. Somewhere behind her
is MPP Sandra Pupatello's office.

The healthcare workers, all women, don't seem like the type who
would storm a minister's office; one even has her three-year-old
son in tow. But when requests for a meeting with the Minister of
Community and Social Services were denied in the fall, showing
up uninvited appeared to be one of the few alternatives left.

The nurses and nurse practitioners are desperate to talk to
Pupatello about what they see as a looming crisis: drastic cuts
to access to the special-diet allowance, which provided
individuals on social assistance with up to $250 a month to be
able to afford nutritious food (or just plain eat).

According to calculations by Ontario's Public Health Units,
after housing costs are taken into account, families on social
assistance do not receive enough to afford food that will
provide adequate nutrition. The Toronto Board of Health and HPAP
are calling on the government to raise social assistance rates
by 40 per cent to make up for the 21 per cent the Conservatives
gutted in 1995, plus inflation.

To grab Pupatello's attention, the nurses have brought a
homemade ricotta cheesecake to present to the minister along
with their open letter. The cake is "deliciously nutritious,"
calcium-enriched, iron-enriched and fibre-filled -- key
components of a nutritious meal.

Though they're not invited beyond the locked door, the nurses
are eventually greeted by Carol Latimer, executive assistant to
the deputy minister.

"Sweet. Very sweet," Latimer says when they hand her the cake.
Unfortunately, Pupatello is in cabinet.

A couple of days later, Sarah Best, Pupatello's communications
advisor, tells me the cake caused a bit of a kerfuffle.

"We have OCAP here a lot and stuff and various other security
issues so that kind of thing kind of scares people, but I know
that wasn't the intention and it wasn't the minister who was
concerned," Best says.

But the cake may not have been enough to entice Pupatello to
meet with the health workers. "She's well aware of the issue and
she's addressed it numerous times so I don't know that she has
any more to say," Best says.

One wonders what it takes to get a meeting with the minister --
simple requests, dropping by with cake and even angry
demonstrations don't seem to work.

HPAP's next step is to meet with the public. They're throwing a
town hall meeting on the link between poverty and illness
tonight (Dec. 15) at St. Michael's Hospital Auditorium. DALE DUNCAN




	

	
		
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