The Workfare Watch Project

c/o Community Social Planning Council of Toronto
                                                      2 Carlton Street, Suite 1001
                                                             Toronto, M5B 1J3
                                         (416) 351-0095 (tel.), (416) 351-0107 (fax)



 For release, Friday April 30, 1999

         Ontario Works hurting people's efforts to leave welfare -
                          Workfare Watch report

          I was told by my worker that I couldn't get any training whatsoever. 'Just go and pump gas
          or cut grass or whatever to replace your $520 a month and that's all we're concerned
          with.(Simon, Niagara Region)

Ontario Works, the Ontario Government's welfare reform program, is not only failing to "give
people a hand up", it is actually interfering with people's attempts to return to work according to
"Broken Promises: Welfare Reform in Ontario", a new report from the Workfare Watch
Project. The report will be released at a press conference at Queen's Park in the media
studio on Friday April 30, 1999 at 11a.m.

"Ontario Works reflects extremely short term thinking," said Andrew Mitchell, co-ordinator of the
project. "At a time when employers are demanding ever greater skills and education of their
employees, Ontario Works focuses on make-work projects and dead end jobs. Ontario Works
does nothing to help many people to escape from insecure low wage work, always at risk of having
to return to assistance," he added. "For most people, participating in Ontario Works means nothing
more than an intensified job search with little or no support. Where is the investment in people that
will truly help them move off assistance?" he asked.

          I...picked up a dead deer off the road, took it home, and gutted it in the driveway
          at 2 o'clock in the morning, skinned it up and put it into the freezer to feed my
          kids. I'm sick and tired of it. I don't want to feed my kids road kill. I want
          work.(Susan in Oshawa)

The Report also noted that Ontario Works provides so little money for people to live on that one
person said that she had had to pick road kill off the highway in order to feed here children. "The
extreme poverty people are enduring is not only morally unjustifiable, it will only diminish people's
chances of leaving welfare for work," said Rev. Susan Eagle, co-chair of the Ontario Social Safety
NetWork, a co-sponsor of the project. "We spoke to people who were unable to house or feed
themselves properly. Many people on assistance cannot afford clothing, a telephone or
transportation. How can someone re-enter the labour market if they are continually scrambling, just
to survive?"

"The Provincial Government points to falling caseloads as evidence that their reforms are working,"
said Mitchell, "but caseloads have fallen thanks to the improved export-driven economy and
because of tightened eligibility for assistance, not because of Ontario Works."

The report is based on the results of focus groups and interviews with Ontario Works participants in
communities across Ontario: Windsor, London, Peterborough, Guelph, Hastings and Prince
Edward Counties, Toronto, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Durham Region. Workfare Watch is a joint
project of the Ontario Social Safety Network and the Community Social Planning Council of
Toronto.

                                    - 30 -

See the Executive Summary at:

http://welfarewatch.toronto.on.ca/promises/summary.htm

For additional information:

Andrew Mitchell (416) 351-0095 (tel.)

mailto:[log in to unmask]