From "Gary Bloch" <[log in to unmask]>
Please consider signing the letter below regarding the recent devastating
restriction in access to the special diet supplement. I expect it will end
up with hundreds of signatures, representing the huge concern we have with
our government's continued actions to weaken our social safety net and
progressively cut social assistance. This cut will result in a huge loss
of income to thousands of families living in poverty, putting them at high
risk of poor health outcomes.
If you would like to sign this letter, please email Kathy Hardill at
[log in to unmask] (cc'd on this letter). Also, please forward to any
you think may be interested in signing on.
[McGuinty is premier of Ontario, Pupatello is Minister of Community and
Social Services]
Ontario residents only please...
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26 November 2005
OPEN LETTER TO DALTON MCGUINTY AND SANDRA PUPATELLO
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our grave concern at how your
government is treating its most vulnerable citizens: the 760,000 men,
women and children living on social assistance.
You have not honoured your promise to reverse the deep 21% cuts to social
assistance made by the previous government, and now your government has
continued the Conservative program of welfare cuts with a devastating
restriction of the special diet allowance.
Many of us are health professionals and, on a daily basis, we witness the
relentless effects of poverty on our clients: high rates of chronic
illness such as high blood pressure and diabetes, nutrient deficiencies,
insufficient energy to carry out routine activities, and little ability to
manage those conditions because they cannot afford a healthy diet. It is
well known that poverty is the number one risk factor for ill health, and
every cut to welfare, including the restriction of the special diet
supplement, makes it more likely that our clients will suffer from ill
health.
When doctors, nurse practitioners, dieticians and midwives prescribe the
special diet allowance for poor Ontarians it represents a high impact
health intervention that both provides immediate relief from desperate
poverty, and prevents future illness, resulting in significant long term
savings to the health care system. This supplement represents one of the
few ways in which we, as health providers, have been able to alleviate our
clients' major risk factor for ill health.
Cutting this benefit is mean spirited and short sighted. The "savings"
will be illusory, and the impact on families living in poverty will be
devastating. As always, children, the most vulnerable of those living in
poverty, are likely to suffer the greatest, and longest-lasting, ill
effects. Failing to restore social assistance rates to, at minimum,
pre-Harris levels is unconscionable.
In real terms, when inflation is factored in, the previous 21% cut amounts
to 40% today. To head off a looming health crisis, we call for an
immediate increase in social assistance rates by 40%, and the immediate
restoration of the special diet allowance for everyone whose health is at
risk from legislated poverty.
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