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Turn attention to Ontario's poor
Mar. 18, 2006. 01:00 AM


Ontarians spend $1.2 billion a year feeding and taking care of their pets.

Given that huge sum, just how much value do you think Ontario residents
place on the 660,000 men, women and children who are dependent on them for
social assistance? The answer is that Ontarians spend just over three times
as much on welfare benefits as they do on their pets. That comes to a
monthly average of just about $540 per recipient for food, shelter,
clothing and all the other necessities of life.

That figure is disgraceful — especially when one-third of all welfare
recipients are children, and another third are disabled adults.

Has the province forgotten the sense of compassion and caring that long
defined it before the former Conservative government of premier Mike Harris
slashed welfare benefits by 22 per cent some 11 years ago to pay for big
tax cuts? The answer will come Thursday in the budget that Premier Dalton
McGuinty's government tables at Queen's Park.

In a bid to remind McGuinty that the plight of Ontario's poorest citizens
has actually worsened since he came to power, advocacy groups, including
the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the Canadian Auto Workers and the
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, took to the streets Wednesday in
a Hunger March, demanding an increase in social assistance. They want
benefits raised by 40 per cent to make up for the 1995 cuts and the
inflation that has eaten into welfare cheques since then.

The advocates claimed an increase of that magnitude is justified because
after paying rent and utilities, some welfare recipients had as little as
35 cents a day to feed and clothe themselves.

The poor had the right to hold their peaceful protest. They also should
have the right not to go hungry, as many of them now do. Underscoring the
inadequacy of social assistance, All Saints Church drop-in co-ordinator
Brian Buckle stresses what everyone on welfare already knows: "In the City
of Toronto, you can't be on welfare and pay rent and buy food."

Joining the growing chorus of those who believe McGuinty can do better, the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives this week released a pre-budget
report urging the premier to stop ignoring the needy. Pointing to a huge
windfall in corporate taxes the government didn't expect, the centre says
the government has run out of excuses for leaving the poor behind.

While Finance Minister Dwight Duncan may not have all the money he would
require to undo all the harm inflicted on welfare recipients over the past
11 years, he will unquestionably have the money he would need to reverse
most of the Conservatives' original 22 per cent cut in benefits.

Although McGuinty has worked hard to repair the damage the Conservatives
did to health care and education, he has done little to address the
pressing needs of Ontario's most vulnerable people. He hasn't even entirely
reversed the Tories' deplorable policy of depriving children on welfare of
the money Ottawa provides for poor and middle-income children.

The time has come for McGuinty to declare his government represents the
interests of all Ontarians, even those who are without a strong voice.

In Thursday's budget, the premier needs to let his voice speak for the
disabled, for the province's poorest children and for their parents who go
without so their children can eat. He needs to tell them that his
government will give them the assistance required to make sure they at
least have food on the table and a decent place to live.