Toronto Star,  May 7, 2004.

 `Whole system ridden with fear'

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1083881409536&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

 CAROL GOAR

 The first book, written in hope, was called Neighbour to Neighbour: Voices
for Change. It came out in 1990.

 The second book, written in frustration, was called Our Neighbours'
Voices: Will We Listen? It was published in 1997.

 The third book, written in alarm, was called Lives in the Balance. It was
released last week.

 The three volumes, published by Interfaith Social Assistance Reform
Coalition, chronicle Ontario's evolution from a province in
 which the poor were treated with benign ignorance to one in which they are
wilfully marginalized. "We're talking about a
 deepening crisis," says Anglican Archbishop Terence Findlay. "Lives in the
Balance shows a devastating picture of poverty in
 the midst of plenty."

 The interfaith coalition, made up of the leaders from Christian, Muslim,
Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish communities, is calling on
 the government to raise social assistance rates in this month's budget.
(They have been frozen since former premier Mike Harris
 slashed them by 21.6 per cent in 1995.)

 It is urging the provincial Liberals to stop clawing back the federal
Child Tax Benefit Supplement from families on social
 assistance.

 And it is asking Finance Minister Greg Sorbara to consider a modest income
tax increase to alleviate the growing inequities in
 the province.

 The group is likely to be disappointed on all three fronts.

 Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello has made it clear
that, with a deficit approaching $8 billion, the
 government can't afford to reverse the welfare cuts made by the Tories.
The best she can promise is that there will be help for
 the "most vulnerable people" in the May 18 budget.

 Provincial officials point out that Ottawa's Child Tax Benefit Supplement
was never meant to top up welfare. It was designed to
 put more money into the pockets of the working poor.

 As for an income tax increase, Sorbara has ruled that out categorically.
The Liberals intend to keep their campaign pledge to
 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation not to boost personal taxes, he says.
Any revenue they raise will be through
 "non-tax-based mechanisms."

 In short, the outlook for the 385,000 Ontario families who depend on
social assistance is bleak. If they get any help from the
 government, it will be modest and phased in slowly.

 But a close reading of Lives in the Balance suggests that there is
something Ontarians could change right away: their attitude.

 Somehow, it's become acceptable to stigmatize the poor, tolerable to turn
away from need, normal to dismiss compassion as a
 costly indulgence.

 The book, which is based on the testimony of 1,500 low-income people, is a
catalogue of petty indignities and patronizing
 judgments, unfair assumptions and punitive rules.

 "As the depth of poverty has increased, public attitudes toward the poor
have hardened and many individuals and the media
 have come to accept widespread poverty as part of our society," the
commentary says.

 This callousness comes through in story after story.

 A woman in Peterborough (all names are omitted to protect the
participants) recounted how her son had come home from
 school saying: "You're a welfare bum."

 A man in Kingston agonized over a $930 dental bill. "What can I do?" he
asked. "I can ask my landlord for my last month's
 rent. I can do crime. Or I can get my teeth yanked."

 A disabled couple in Wasaga Beach ? both are deaf, she has asthma, he
injured his leg in an industrial accident ? said they'd
 be better off financially if they split up, but they'd be too lonely in a
hearing world.

 In all 15 communities where hearings were held, social assistance workers
came in for harsh criticism. But they said they felt
 trapped too. They were forced to spend their time filling out computerized
forms rather than listening to people. They had to
 grill applicants about their personal habits, force them to sell their
assets and look for reasons to deny them benefits. "The whole
 system is ridden with suspicion and fear," one official admitted.

 It wouldn't cost a fortune to treat people who have fallen on hard times
with a little humanity. It wouldn't be prohibitively
 expensive to design a computer program that accommodates the real-life
circumstances of welfare applicants rather than
 shoving them into rigid pigeonholes. It wouldn't break the provincial
treasury to let welfare recipients hang on to their homes,
 keep their divorce settlements or save for their children's education.

 The Liberals, to their credit, have taken some preliminary steps. They've
set up a rent bank to help tenants facing eviction,
 ended the lifetime welfare ban for those convicted of fraud, raised the
minimum wage and created an emergency fund to help
 low-income households cope with this month's jump in electricity rates.

 But what is really needed is a reliable, non-degrading safety net for
those who need society's help.

 That will only come when Ontarians tell their government that hunger,
homelessness and begging are no longer acceptable in
 this province.

 Monday: a view from Queen's Park

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