Non-Governmental and
Municipal Government Sites in Ontario
D-W

(Toronto)
"The Daily Bread Food Bank is a non-profit, non-denominational charitable organization working to eliminate hunger in the Greater Toronto Area. It is Canada's largest food bank, serving 170 food programs. In addition, we work together to try to end the root causes of hunger through public education and research."

Sample reports:

By Chandra Pasma
July 9, 2009
"(...) Canada has no official definition of poverty. There are a number of definitions and measures that are commonly but unofficially used for social policy discussions, but no formal agreement as to what we are seeking to eliminate in Canada. For this reason, provincial poverty reduction strategies have had to choose their own definition and measurement of poverty. Measuring is essential to tracking movement and providing accountability.

Ontario chose to develop a new measure, the Ontario Material Deprivation Index. Ontario’s strategy will use this measure in conjunction with two other measures: 40% of median income as a measurement of the depth of poverty, and 50% of median income to measure low income. (Although both of these are relative measures, Ontario chose to fix its target of 25% reduction of poverty in 5 years according to the 50% low income measure fixed at its 2008 level and adjusted by inflation only). The Deprivation Index fits in the context of these other two measures as a way of understanding standard of living. It is not considered to be a complete description of poverty, but a way of recognizing common symptoms of poverty. It includes multiple elements of poverty, including deprivation that leads to social isolation, issues of economic security, and the ability to make changes in your life.
[ ]

The Ontario Material Deprivation Index
was developed by the
in conjunction with people living in poverty.
Source:

[ ]

Fighting Hunger : Who’s Hungry
2009 Profile of Hunger in the Greater Toronto Area
June 18
Complete report:
(PDF - 798K, 28 pages)
June 2009

June 18, 2009
TORONTO - Government programs are failing to support people ravaged by the recession, according to Daily Bread Food Bank's latest Who's Hungry: Profile of Hunger in the GTA. Client visits to GTA food banks over the past year exceeded 1 million for the first time ever. Total client visits were 1,030,568, a rise of 8% over last year. More disturbingly, the increase in client visits in the first three months of 2009 averaged 17%. The spike in food bank use is directly related to the current recession. Over half of new clients surveyed accessed a food bank for economic reasons due to job loss (35%), reduced hours at work (6%), or had no current source of income and were living on savings (11%).
Source:

(PDF - 51K, 1 page)
[there's more info on each finding below in the PDF file.]
* Food bank use in the GTA has rapidly increased in the past year due to the recession.
* The largest portion of new clients is people who have lost their jobs or have had their hours cut. A substantial number are not accessing welfare because of their savings.
* The majority of people using food banks do so for a relatively short period of time.
* Over one third of food bank clients are children. However, single adults remain the largest household type using a food bank.
* The majority of respondents are Canadian citizens, and many are immigrants who have been in Canada for 10 years or more.
* A significant percentage of respondents are highly educated, and include newcomers who cannot get work in their field.
* The cost of housing is the largest expense for most people.
* Hunger in the GTA is the result of lack of money, not lack of food.
* Being employed is not always a ticket out of poverty.
* People living in poverty have a high level of vulnerability to costly forms of debt in order to pay for their basic needs

---

Coalition releases innovative plan to address housing poverty
[missing link]
News Release
November 17, 2008
TORONTO – A coalition of private, public and non-profit housing associations, community organizations, academics, and foundations released a proposal today for a new housing benefit for low-income Ontarians. The proposal, outlined in A Housing Benefit for Ontario: One Housing Solution for a Poverty Reduction Strategy, recommends a new income benefit that will help low-income, working age renters with high shelter costs in communities across Ontario. The proposal would add a necessary affordable housing component to Ontario’s highly anticipated Poverty Reduction Strategy, expected in December.

(PDF - 255K, 30 pages)
November 2008
"(...)The proposed benefit pays an average of $103 per month to an estimated 66,000 families and 129,000 individual and couple households. The amount of the benefit is based on a formula that pays 75% of shelter costs between a floor and a ceiling that varies by community size. The housing benefit is reduced as income rises."

(PDF - 57K, 2 pages)

(PDF - 44K, 5 pages)

Source:
Proposal submitted to the Province of Ontario by a coalition of industry and community organizations:


Greater Toronto Apartments Association (no website found)

---

TORONTO, June 24, 2008
People accessing food banks in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are unable to get ahead because of the high cost of housing, according to a report released today by Daily Bread Food Bank. Who's Hungry: 2008 Profile of Hunger in the GTA found that food bank clients pays an average of 77% of their income on housing alone, which crowds out money available for other basic necessities such as food.

Complete report:

(PDF - 672K, 32 pages)
June 2008

Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank Blog
Launched in June 2007
"(...) It is time to take the next steps in the fight against hunger and that is where Hungry City> Make Your Mark comes in. It is also where you come in. We are armed with information and we have realistic policy solutions outlined in A New Deal to Fight Hunger. Now, we need to come together for real political change. You are invited to post your concerns about hunger and poverty in your community on this blog. Keep visiting hungrycity.ca to see where people stand on this important issue. Daily Bread Food Bank is committed to ending the need for food banks and we are excited to work with our community and start mobilizing to have our voices heard. No one should go hungry in our great city, province or country. I’ve made my mark…have you?" [Excerpt from the , June 5/07)

(PDF file - 1.8MB, 32 pages)
June 5, 2007
Read a detailed report about the current hunger crisis in the GTA. It features Daily Bread's A New Deal to Fight Hunger, a significant next step toward solving the hunger crisis.

(PDF file - 63K, 1 page)
June 5, 2007
Check out the key statistics drawn from the survey over 1,800 food bank clients from across the GTA.

(PDF file - 60K, 2 pages)
June 1, 2007
Daily Bread's call for a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy

Related link:

- A Daily Bread Food Bank Initiative
There is no excuse for hunger and poverty in a country as wealthy as Canada, the Hungry City initiative is your chance to take action. Join with thousands of others to make your voice heard for real political change, to elect a provincial government committed to ending hunger and poverty on October 10th, 2007. Hungry City is about you. Find out how you can participate, make your mark here...

(PDF file - 96K, 1 page)
News Release
June 6, 2006
TORONTO, ON ? Food bank use across the GTA has risen a dramatic 79% since 1995, according to the report Who’s Hungry: 2006 Profile of Hunger in the GTA released today at BCE Place. The results of Daily Bread’s annual survey paint a picture that cannot be ignored of the struggles and financial plight of the diverse population relying on food banks. The 894,017 people who accessed emergency food services last year through GTA food banks, 38% of whom were children, would not go hungry if the issue of poverty were addressed. So, in conjunction with the report, Daily Bread advances the Blueprint to Fight Hunger.

Complete report:

(PDF file - 1.9MB, 13 pages)

(PDF file - 214K, 1 page)
June 2006

Jun. 28, 2005
"Food banks are on a treadmill; we have to run faster just to stay in the same place. After 16 years of working at the Daily Bread Food Bank, I have never seen the food bank network as strained as it is now. We can't keep running more and more food drives to keep up to demand. So the time is right for fair and sensible welfare policies that make work pay and eliminate hunger. As Bob Geldof said this week, 'charity is always worth it, but it can never deal with the structure of poverty. That's politics.'"
[Sue Cox is the former executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.]
Source:

(PDF file - 393K, 28 pages)
June 07, 2005
"Daily Bread Food Bank insists that charitable food relief programs are only a temporary solution to hunger. Food banks have consistently advocated that government programs ensure a decent standard of living for everyone. Despite this work, food banks are still entrenched as a necessary social service for low-income people, compensating for the government cutbacks of the 1990s and the increasingly tenuous labour market."

(PDF file - 60K, 2 pages)
Report looks at who’s hungry in Toronto in 2005 and how to help them
News Release
June 7, 2005
"TORONTO, ON – Thirty-four per cent of people on Ontario Works are discouraged from working because of the deduction of employment income from their social assistance, according to the results of Daily Bread’s 2005 survey of people relying upon food banks. As a result, just thirteen per cent of this group reports work income (virtually identical to the 14% who do so across the province). The loss of dental and drug benefits is another major barrier to getting back to work as shown by the experience of people relying upon food banks who are working full-time—46 per cent of them have no dental coverage and only 43 per cent have an employer drug plan."

(PDF file - 390K, 18 pages)
March 15, 2005
"Daily Bread's detailed proposal on the best way for the provincial government to keep its promise to end the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement from social assistance cheques. To do so, it recommends changing how social assistance benefits are calculated so that adults have a greater incentive to work their way off welfare and their children receive the NCBS whether their parents are on or off welfare."

(PDF file - 26K, 4 pages)
March 26, 2005
"Preliminary results from the 2005 Annual Survey on skilled immigrants being forced to rely upon foodbanks to survive in Toronto. This report builds a strong and compelling case for greater financial support from the federal government to help the province of Ontario aid immigrant settlement to quicken the pace of their integration into the Canadian economy--benefitting both the immigrants and the long-term health of the Canadian economy."

(PDF file - 142K, 3 pages)
November 02, 2004
"Daily Bread has taken a closer look at our research statistics to determine the correlation between rent increases and food bank use. The results are included in the attached an update to our August report on housing. The data shows that there is a strong link between rising food bank use and the Tenant Protection Act. "

(PDF file - 138K, 2 pages)
A review of the impact of the "clawback" of the National Child Benefit Supplement is affecting children whose families are on social assistance
Research Bulletin #4
August 31, 2004
"...it is possible to extrapolate that approximately 13,500 children in the Greater Toronto Area alone would no longer need to use a food bank if their families received the National Child Benefit Supplement."

Somewhere to Live or Something to Eat: Housing Issues of Food Bank Clients in the GTA
August 2, 2004
- based on housing statistics from the Daily Bread Food Bank's Annual Survey of Food Bank Clients.
"This 22-page paper looks at the key housing issues affecting food bank clients. Set against the context of the Welfare Rates cut in 1995 and the Tenant Protection Act in 1998, the paper focuses on rent and income problems many food bank clients are facing now. (...) It is particularly timely given that the Ontario government has just completed its consultation process for new landlord-tenant legislation and is currently engaged in writing a new act in which new rent control guidelines will be established. This paper should be viewed as a contribution to that process."

(PDF file - 766K, 22 pages)
(PDF file - 24K, 2 pages)

(PDF file - 56K, 1 page)
July 20, 2004
"This profile of food bank clients looks specifically at family groups, sources of income, immigration and gender by age. This information is collected from our 2004 Annual Survey."

(PDF file - 39K, 1 page)
June 21, 2004
"This updated fact sheet answers the question Who’s hungry? by examining data provided by Daily Bread’s annual survey of food recipients. The report provides statistics on the issues impacting low-income people in the GTA."

(PDF file - 84K, 8 pages)
June 16, 2004
A submission on the work-for-welfare programs in Ontario to the Provincial Government.

"DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN) Ontario is a cross-disability, feminist organization working towards access, equity, and full participation of Women with disAbilities through public education, coalition-building, self-advocacy, resource development, and information & communication technology."
- incl. links to : Text version - What's New - Resources - Publications - Justice Issues - Health Issues - Inclusion Award - Access Checklist - Online Community - Research Posts - Who We Are - What We Do - Our Vision - Herstory - Fact Sheet - Action Alert - Membership - Join E-List - Guestbook - Feedback - Contact Us - Credits
- Links to hundreds of websites about women and disability - excellent resource!

Selected site content:

June 15, 2006
Former Human Rights Commissioner and member of 1992 Cornish Task Force Advisory Committee Tom Warner joined community leaders at a press conference this morning to release an open letter to Premier McGuinty. The letter was signed by more than 50 organizations representing racialized communities, seniors, gays and lesbians and people with disabilities. It sets out growing concerns over Bill 107, the government's human rights reform legislation, and condemns the Premier's plan to hold public hearings on the legislation in the summer when people are less able to attend and boards are unable to meet to approve submissions. The groups are calling on the Premier to hold the hearings in the fall and be prepared to make the necessary changes.

Source:

Related Links:

May 18, 2006
"(...) summarizes what Bill 107 does, explains what’s wrong with Bill 107, and explains the three changes to Bill 107 we seek."
Source:
===> incl. 18 related links
[ (AODA)]

Related Links:

- from the
- includes links to the August 2005 System Review Discussion Paper, the October 2005 Consultation Report and news release, the Ministry of the Attorney General's February 2006 news release, the Commission's preliminary comments on proposed reforms to Ontario’s human rights system and the letter from Chief Commissioner to the Attorney General, March 7th, 2006

- links to a dozen presentations given at a January 2005 workshop on administrative design and the human rights process in Ontario

(successor of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee since August 2005)

June 24, 2006
[Bill 107 is the Ontario government's human rights reform legislation.]
Put in your Request Now to Make a Presentation to the Standing Committee Hearings
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
- incl. What's New? - What's Next? - An Important Partial Victory - What Should You Do? - Sample Request to Make a Presentation at the Standing Committee

Related Link:

- June 13

June 24
REAL Women of Canada has obtained an additional Access to Information request on feminist groups for through Status of Women Canada. In their latest newsletter (May-June 2006), they've posted budgets to organizations such as LEAF, NAWL and NAC on their website as a part of their Letter Writing Campaign to MPs.

Version française:

Funding for the Treatment of Autism referred to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology for Study and Report
"After all this hard work by so many, it appears that we finally got funding for autism treatment on the agenda! It is on the radar screen..."

Rate Increase July 2006
"The provincial government stopped taking the 2% NCBS increases, as part of the Clawback, a couple of years ago. Thus, as of July, you get to keep 6% of the increases, which are included in the amounts above. If you receive income assistance in Ontario, the provincial government reduces your assistance cheque by 84% of the NCBS you receive, regardless of whether you are working..."

Related Link:

- includes a link to a detailed NCBS Backgrounder
Source:

March 24, 2006
Thanks to Barbara Anello of DisAbled Women's Network-Ontario for compiling (probably into the wee hours, if I know my friend Barbara...) and posting this selection of almost two dozen reactions to the 2006 Ontario budget by non-governmental organizations and individuals.
All on one page (with links at the top), you'll find:
The People have Spoken Loud and Clear - Dalton McGuinty's Budget is another Liberal Letdown:
* Health Care
* Education
* Energy
* New Deal for Cities
* Jobs
* Help for the Vulnerable
* Media Release: Dalton's leaky budget - missed opportunities for people
* Media Release: Dalton McGuinty's Pay More Get Less Budget - Tory says McGuinty should have focused on balanced budget, not reckless spending
* Social assistance payments rise again, but it's not enough, advocate says
Source:
(Disabled Women's Network - Ontario)

NOTE: for more info on the 2006 Ontario Budget, go to the Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm

Major Tide of Opposition Rises in Opposition to McGuinty Government's Plans to Weaken the Ontario Human Rights Commission -- but McGuinty Government Has Not Answered Our Important Questions, and Signals it is Not Listening to Us
March 24, 2006

Related Links:

March 19, 2006
"We, DAWN Ontario: the Disabled Women's Network Ontario, are writing to voice our strong opposition to your Government's plans to weaken the Ontario Human Rights Code, announced on February 20, 2006." [see the link below to the Feb. 20 govt. announcement].

(DAWN-Ontario)
Help Prevent the Gov't from Weakening
Enforcement of the Ontario Human Rights Code
"On Feb. 20, 2006, the Ontario Gov't said it will introduce a law (likely late March or April) to change enforcement of the Ontario Human Rights Code. That system needs reform. It's too slow, frustrating, and hard for many to use. Yet, the Government's proposal will make things worse, not better. It will create new barriers that make it harder for people to get their human rights respected."

-----
From the

February 20, 2006
News Release
"A stronger, faster, more effective human rights system that better serves the public is the aim of changes being proposed by the McGuinty government, Attorney General Michael Bryant announced today."
-----

"On February 8th [2006], the Province of Ontario announced changes to the earnings and employment support rules for recipients under the Ontario Disability Supports Program. "
- includes the two links below PLUS links to the government press release, backgrounders and the actual text of the regulatory amendments that changed the rules

(analysis by the )

- Comparison of the treatment of income from work before and after the ODSP changes.

Source:

[found on the website of
]

August 3, 2004
Article by Jane Smith (a juror in the Kimberly Rogers inquest) and Jacquie Chic (Director of Advocacy and Legal Services at the Income Security Advocacy Centre, which represented two groups at the inquest).
Source:

Related Link:

A coroner's inquest was held, starting in October 2002 in Sudbury into the death of Kimberly Rogers on August ), after being convicted of welfare fraud in the spring of that year for not declaring student loans she received while collecting social assistance. The Justice with Dignity website is where you'll find the most complete and current collection of information about this inquiry.
Source:

See Case Law / Court Decisions / Inquests (a Canadian Social Research Links page where you'll find links to information about the inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers and more.)

United Ways of Ontario's Government Relations Bulletin*
April 30, 2004

" Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has begun consultations aimed at reforming the Province's laws and regulations governing the relationship between landlords and tenants. A consultation paper has been published to help guide the process and frame some of the key issues.(...) Input to the consultation will be accepted until June 15th."

"In late April, the provincial government introduced amendments to the Employment Standards Act to reduce the legal workweek from 60 hours to 48 hours. If passed, the legislation will require employers to apply to the Ministry of Labour and obtain the employee's written consent to work more than 48 hours per week. To make the process as simple as possible, employers will be able to apply without fee and on-line."

"The Province has announced one-time funding of $10 million to establish rent banks that will provide low-income tenants with short-term assistance to deal with rent arrears. In recent years, rent banks have been created in a number of Ontario communities, and have proven successful in reducing evictions."

"The McGuinty government has introduced legislation that will allow workers unpaid leave to care for ill or dying family members.Under the proposed legislation, employees would be entitled to up to eight weeks leave, provided a qualified health care professional has issued a certificate stating that an immediate family member has a serious medical condition and there is significant risk of death within the next 6 months. "

"In its first annual report, the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) found common risk factors were often present that could have led professionals experienced in domestic violence to predict a domestic homicide. (...) The Committee examined 11 of the 25 cases of domestic violence fatalities occurring in 2002. In many cases family, friends, healthcare professionals, counselors or the police were aware of problems, but failed to identify or appreciate the significance of obvious warning signs."

" In late March the Province announced it will double the funding for autism initiatives in the fiscal year. But the funds will continue to be focused primarily on meeting the needs of children under six years of age."

"Recent data released by Statistics Canada sheds new light on people who work for minimum wages. More that half a million Canadians, or 4% of the workforce, earn a minimum wage. Almost all work in the service or retail sectors, two-thirds are women, and most are under 25, a large number of whom are students. But 10% were heads of their households, with half of those being single parents, and the other half being people with spouses who were not working."

*United Ways of Ontario doesn't appear to have its own website...
- the above links point to the website of
--- thanks to Barbara Anello of DAWN-Ontario for coding and posting this info on her site!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Federal Election 2004:

- incl links to : Political Parties in Canada - Federal Ridings & Candidates - Tools & Resources

--- Aboriginal Women --- Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Racism --- Childcare --- Democracy --- DisAbility --- Employment Insurance / Maternity & Parental Leave --- 2004 Federal Budget --- Housing and Homelessness --- Human Rights --- Immigration --- Income Security --- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Transexual Rights --- Poverty --- Student Debt --- Violence against Women --- Women's Equality Rights --- Women & ICTs --- Women & Politics --- Women in Prison

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 28, 2004
"Canadians for Equal Marriage today launched its "Vote Equality 04" campaign at press conferences in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. 'Canadians for Equal Marriage will urge Canadians to vote for equality and against discrimination when they cast their ballots in the upcoming federal election,' said Alison Kemper, spokesperson for Canadians for Equal Marriage (CEM). 'Our Vote Equality 04 campaign is designed to draw supportive voters to our website, which will make it easy for people to get involved in the campaign of supportive candidates.'"
Source:

[ ]

Related Links:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Release
"TORONTO, April 5, 2004 -- A report released today calls on the Ontario government to make substantial changes to Ontario’s welfare system to better protect abused women. The report, Walking on Eggshells: Abused Women’s Experiences of Ontario’s Welfare System, outlines 34 recommendations. The report stems from the Woman and Abuse Welfare Research Project launched in 2000. It was written by York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Janet Mosher (Principal Investigator) and researchers from Carleton and Queen’s Universities in conjunction with the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses and the Ontario Social Safety Network. Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)."
- incl. brief summary and key recommendations

Complete report:

(PDF file - 806K, 129 pages)
Report calls on Ontario to reform welfare system to better protect abused women
April 5, 2004
Source:
(Toronto)

Related Links (from ):
of the complete report

Earlier report:

November 2003 (by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses)
- HTML file (22 pages if printed)
(Posted on the DAWN-Ontario website)

April 5, 2004
Source:

City Editorial
April 6, 2004
"Finding realistic ways to solve major social problems is far more useful than merely identifying them, but too few social scientists seem to realize that. The latest example is a report from three professors, including one at Carleton University, on how poorly Ontario's welfare system treats women fleeing abusive relationships.
Source:

The Ottawa Citizen editorial supports the study authors' recommendations concerning increasing welfare benefits, improving earnings exemptions and not penalizing recipients for 'unproven fraud'. But, the editorial goes on, "there's little in the report to prove that some of their recommendations are based on anything other than ideology." Dismissed as "overreaching" are recommendations concerning welfare rates that are adequate enough to allow for 'equitable participation in society', elimination of the mandatory work requirement, and an increase in subsidized housing units.
The editorial's bottom line?
"These are multibillion-dollar ideas, sung out from an ideological hymnal with no direct evidence that they'd work, or even that they'd be needed if unjust rules were fixed."
------------
[Gee, I wonder how many abused women sit on the Ottawa Citizen's editorial board?]

"Ontario welfare, abused women"
"Ontario welfare, abused women"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 15, 2003
List (19 groups) compiled by Loreen Barbour of Daily Bread Food Bank with amendments by Barbara Anello of DAWN Ontario.

Extensive collection of tools and resources for individuals and groups working in the field of social justice, including:
- Ontario MPP Contact Info - Links to info about the Ontario Disability Support Program (employment & income supports for Ontarians with disabilities) - Ontario Works (Ontario government's welfare-to-work program providing financial and employment assistance to single people, couples with and without children, and sole-support parents - Ministry of Community, Family & Children's Services [now called the Ministry of Community and Social Services] - DAWN Media Kit (Letters to Editor - Op-Eds - Airwaves - How to work the media - Ontario Media Directory - Access to ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program - Action Coalition) - Poverty (Feed the Kids AND Pay the Rent Campaign, Pay the Rent Lobby Blitz Action to raise social assistance's shelter allowance to average rent levels, Pay the Rent (Toronto) Campaign, Implement Rogers Inquest Jury Recommendations, Ban the Welfare Bans,Ontario Needs a Raise Campaign, Leaving Welfare for Work? Questions & Answers, Child Benefits in Ontario, Minimum Wage - Questions & Answers, Housing & Homelessness,Housing Ontario Means Everyone Campaign, Housing & Homelessness Network in Ontario - Fair Wage for Workers - Stats Comparing Social Assistance Rates Across Canada - more....

"In preparation for the upcoming Ontario election, we have worked hard to develop the following resources with updated contact information of Media in Ontario. Use your voice - write letters to the editor!"
- incl. e-mail addresses for letters to the editor and detailed contact information for all major media outlets in Ontario

Released by the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) and the Legal Clinics' Housing
June 5, 2003
"Issues Committee (composed of representatives from legal clinics in each region of Ontario) have jointly released this paper. Topics include: fair eviction application process, security of tenure against forfeiture, what a new tribunal would look like ... This platform will be distributed to the government and both opposition parties, and LCHIC/ACTO will request a meeting with all three parties."

A coroner's inquest started on October ) in Sudbury into the death of Kimberly Rogers on August ), after being convicted of welfare fraud in the spring of that year for not declaring student loans she received while collecting social assistance. The Justice with Dignity website is where you'll find the most complete and current collection of information about this inquiry.

By Tanya Hyland, B.A. Hons.
A research paper submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
(Reprinted on the DAWN Ontario website)
Read the abstract (9 pages) at the above link, or...
(PDF file - 217K, 97 pages)
[Also available as a Word file]

Related DAWN Link:

"In the fall of 2001, the Steering Committee on Social Assistance [SCSA], a provincial organization representing social assistance advocates in Ontario community legal clinics, launched a concerted public law reform campaign to work for changes in the Ontario Disability Support Program [ODSP] disability determination process."
Sixteen forums and focus group meetings were held around the province from March to November 2002.
"These forums and the reports that were generated from them served as the practical underpinning for the ODSP Action Coalition's ultimate recommendations for reform of the ODSP disability determination process."

Housing and Homelessness Network in Ontario

- Update
PM and Martin agree: housing a top priority - August 20, 2002
Housing announcement postponed - August 19, 2002
Money? Rents? Units? - Ontario set to unveil new "affordable" housing plan - August 19, 2002
Average rents are NOT affordable rents: Comparing average rents of tenant households in Toronto
Backgrounder from HHNO on new Ontario housing program - July 31, 2002
Housing in Ontario - July 15, 2002

"A Place in the Sun : Where audacious Women with disAbilities meet to Share Our Stories.
What it was like, what happened, and what it's like today: that's what we intend to share"
- A Yahoo Groups community where women with disabilities can register to share their stories of "the grand expedition from exclusion to inclusion: to shine a light on those doors, open those windows wider, and disassemble those walls."

June 13 , 2002
[This private members bill would index Ontario Disability Support Program benefits to the annual cost of living]

"Jennifer Keck, age 48, passed away Wed. June 12, 2002 in Sudbury, Ontario. Jennifer was a mother, partner, writer, professor, advocate and activist living with metastatic breast cancer who gave the Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers & the Justice with Dignity campaign her intelligence, brilliance, knowledge, principles and driving force."

"...still under construction, but will be used to highlight current litigation, policy initiatives or research projects of interest to the field. "
- incl. links to : Case Law - Litigation Materials - Statutes and Regulations - "Guidelines" and Other Forms of Soft Law - Papers, Presentations, and Reports - Course Outlines, Bibliographies, and Related Material - Related Links - Social Welfare Research News
Source:

MS Word file - 250K, 58 pages
[ by Google.ca]
October 2003
Lorne Sossin
Detailed presentation of Ontario's welfare system administration since the mid-1990s - the Welfare Service Delivery Model, the Business Transformation Project (Accenture), the Consolidated Verification Process, and much more - also includes information about welfare administration in the U.S. since the implementation in July 1997 of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
- special focus on caselaw related to welfare administration in Ontario and the U.S.
Source:
- "...an information and research resource"

[ ]

Related Link:

(PDF file - 1.9MB, 43 pages)
Posted March 2003
Dean Herd and Andrew Mitchell
Workfare Watch Project
Source:
(CSPC-T)

"The Network promotes information sharing on strategies, best practices, research, community development initiatives, self-help and other resources regarding child poverty. (...) The website is aimed at individuals and community groups in Eastern Ontario who are addressing systemic causes of poverty and providing direct services to low-income families and children. Our hope is that the web site will help in breaking down the isolation by providing information and opportunities for networking."
- incl. links to : Home | About EOCPRN | Feature Program | Feature Topic | Fact Sheets | Statistics | Resources-Publication | Contacting your politicians | Media resources | Upcoming events | Related activities & links | For members | Français

End Abuse Now is the website of the Grey Bruce Domestic Violence Coordinating Committee.
It provides information, resources and links for all members of the community on abuse and how we can work together to end it.

Counting Women In: A Toolkit for Rural Action on Poverty is the culmination of eight years of research and community development by the Rural Women Take Action on Poverty Committee. The strategies and tools in the toolkit were developed and piloted in Grey, Bruce, Huron and Perth counties (Ontario) to make the issue of poverty more visible and to build hope for change. The toolkit is a resource to change attitudes and beliefs about rural women and poverty and to support action and change.

(PDF - 1.8MB, 109 pages)
By Colleen Purdon et al.
June 2009

(PDF - 2MB, 43 pages)

[version française : ]
The Family Net web site is committed to providing information and support to those families in Ontario who have a child or children with any kind of special need. Join us here, to find answers to your questions, share stories of your triumphs and to gain support from others who have 'walked a mile in your shoes'. Join us to improve your advocacy skills - individually and as a collective of families. Let's help each other."
- incl. links to : Today's News - About Family Net - Contact Family Net - Education - Parent to Parent - Community Resources - Our Sponsors - Letters and Opinions - News Archives - Rate Our Website - Send a news tip - Ask Lindsay Moir - How to use this site - Search this site - Search for resources - Disability Links - Ministry Links - Advocacy Information - About OACRS

Related Link:

"The Ontario Association of Children's Rehabilitation Services (OACRS) promotes a province-wide, co-ordinated, community-based service system for children and youth with special needs and their families, and supports its member centres to achieve responsive, family-centred care.
OACRS, the Ontario Association of Children's Rehabilitation Services, is a non-profit independent organization representing, with a collective voice, the 19 children's treatment centres in Ontario.

- "Building a Better Toronto"
- incl. links to : Our Programs & Services - Help Us Make A Difference - What’s New - Employment & Volunteer Opportunities - Media Centre - Policy & Research - Resources - Email Newsletter

FCM is a national organization of 1000 plus cities in Canada. Comprised of locally elected politicians, FCM endeavours to support local governments through conferences, research and information and acts as a lobby for the interests of cities with the Federal Government. Over the past 15 years besides issues of local infrastructure, FCM has advocated for a better quality of life in our local communities. To achieve our goals, FCM liaises and works with numerous other Canadian groups and organizations.

Media Release
March 23, 2005
"‘Social inclusion’ reports were released today in five cities -- Saint John, Toronto, Burlington, Edmonton and Vancouver. They are the work of Inclusive Cities Canada, a unique, participatory research initiative that uses a social inclusion framework to build people-friendly cities, promote good urban governance and develop strategies for supporting urban diversity. The federally-funded initiative set up Civic Panels made of community and municipal leaders to conduct social inclusion ‘audits’. Over 1,000 participants contributed to the findings. The research examined important dimensions of social inclusion, such as how cities respond to diversity, levels of civic engagement, living conditions, opportunities for human development and community services."

Download the report for Toronto:
* (PDF file - 287K, 64 pages)
* (74K, 11 pages)
is a not-for-profit community organization. The CSPC aims to promote equitable, effective and inclusive policies for improving the quality of life in Toronto. Collectively, the predecessor organizations have over 100 years of experience in social planning, community development, policy analysis and research, advocacy, and service coordination. The work of CSPC-T is fuelled by the efforts and commitment of highly qualified staff and dedicated volunteers from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. The Community Social Planning Council of Toronto also serves as project sponsor (as an incorporated charitable organization) and provides administrative support for the ICC initiative.

Download the report for Burlington:
* (1.1MB, 138 pages)
* (138K, 16 pages)
is an intermediary organization that through social research, needs identification, volunteerism and education serves the voluntary sector, municipal and regional government and local grass roots organization. Our purpose is to build the capacity of our community to improve the quality of life for all residents of Halton.

Source:

"Inclusive Cities Canada: A Cross-Canada Civic Initiative is a unique partnership of community leaders and elected municipal politicians working collaboratively to enhance social inclusion across Canada. The goals of Inclusive Cities Canada (ICC) are to strengthen the capacity of cities to create and sustain inclusive communities for the mutual benefit of all people, and to ensure that community voices of diversity are recognized as core Canadian ones."
- Inclusive Cities Canada works in collaboration with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

- Go to the Municipalities Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/municipal.htm

The Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations (FMTA) is a non-profit Organization which advocates for better rights for Tenants. Founded in 1974, we are the oldest and largest Tenant Federation in Canada. The FMTA is comprised of affiliated Tenant Associations and of individual Members. We have over 3,000 members and continue to grow.
- incl. links to : * Tenant Hotline * Tenant Hotline * Outreach & Organizing * Tenant Activism * Get Involved * Literature & Links * Recent News & Events * Contact Us

The Foster Care Council of Canada is a non-profit organization made up of people who have lived in foster care and their supporters. (...) The Council's mission is to involve current and former child-welfare service clients and their supporters in the process of improving the quality and accountability of child-welfare services through a strong and united voice.
- includes links to :
* NEWS * About Us * Campaigns * Enforcement * Message Board * Resources * Contact Us

(blog)
The Foster Care Council of Canada, keeping you informed of child-welfare related matters in Canada including enforcement issues, legislative updates, public campaigns and more.

- discussion forum on a variety of issues related to child welfare

Related link:

A program of the National Association for Public and Private Accountability
"Protecting the public's interest in the administration of Justice"
Canada's only independent media source dedicated exclusively to news and information related to the Canadian Justice System and Canada's system of child protection

News Release
December 7, 2004
"Toronto, ON - A new study, Welfare Reform in Ontario: A Report Card released today by The Fraser Institute, gives Ontario praise for its previous welfare reforms but warns that these policies may be under threat. 'Ontario has been a leader in Canadian welfare reform by focusing on employment and diverting potential welfare recipients to alternatives,'said Sylvia LeRoy, policy analyst at the Institute and co-author of the study. 'However, last week, the Ontario Government received a report by Liberal MPP Deb Matthews [see below] which recommended abandoning many of those reforms and returning to policies that were in place pre-1995. Such policies had disastrous effects, including the doubling of welfare use between 1985 and 1995, increasing from 5.2 percent of the population in 1985 to 12.4 percent in 1995 and a substantial increase in welfare spending', she continued."

Complete Fraser Institute report:

(PDF file - 524K, 53 pages)
December 2004
- examination of welfare policies in Ontario since 1985, "evaluating the welfare reforms initiated under the newly elected provincial government in June 1995. These will be compared with reforms of welfare policies in the United States, which have proven abundantly successful in reducing dependency, increasing employment and earnings of welfare leavers, and lowering poverty rates, as well as with reforms of welfare policies undertaken by other Canadian jurisdictions.
- the evaluation of Ontario's welfare reforms is based upon "six principles that research has found to play a prominent role in effective welfare reform" - these principles are: Ending the entitlement to welfare - Diversion - Immediate work requirements and sanctions - Employment focus - “Making work pay” - Competition for the administration of welfare and for program delivery.

Related Link:

(PDF file - 167K, 48 pages)
December 2004
Deb Matthews
Source:

----------------------
Counterpoint:
----------------------

It's important to expose oneself to opposing views on issues as delicate as welfare reform and social justice --- it makes for healthy debate and broader perspectives. That's why, from time to time, I link to reports from organizations that have a different interpretation than mine of society's ills and how to cure them. The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver conservative think tank / lobby group, is one such organization whose site I visit occasionally.
Sometimes, though, the left-leaner in me finds it difficult to post links on my site to reports such as this one (the Ontario welfare reform report card) as if it were the Gospel Truth, without including a rebuttal or a counterpoint.

Welfare Reform in Ontario: A Report Card rates Ontario's reforms against the Fraser Institute's five "principles of effective welfare reform", all of which are focused on ending or severely curtailing welfare entitlement, on ensuring that work is always more attractive than welfare, and on putting both the administration and delivery of welfare up for competitive bidding from the non-profit and private sectors. All of these principles are consistent with the Fraser Institute's view that American welfare reforms are a model for Canada. Not surprisingly, there is not one principle that refers to adequacy of income and employment supports, nor to health or social indicators.

Two observations and a few recommended readings for folks who read the Fraser report (and perhaps even for those who wrote it):

1. Canadian and American welfare systems are different from one another, a fact that Fraser wilfully and consistently ignores in its reports. Unlike the Canadian welfare system, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program excludes both single people and childless couples, who must apply to the national Food Stamp program and to residual programs where they live (if there are any such programs, which is not always the case), as well as people with disabilities (who must apply under the separate American Social Security program. In Canada, singles and childless couples make up close to 60% of the total welfare caseload and households headed people with disabilities account for about a third of the total caseload. These are just a few of the more significant reasons why Canadian welfare shouldn't be compared with American programs under TANF.

A Short Review of the Fraser Institute Report Card: Welfare Reform in Ontario
December 2004
By John Stapleton

2. Welfare time limits are successful? - one of the Fraser Institute's principles of effective welfare reform is "Ending the entitlement to welfare". The Fraser report speaks of the success of the American welfare time limits and, to a lesser extent, the BC welfare time limits. In the case of the American time limit policy, it's still too early to determine the long-term impact of the time limits on welfare recidivism and labour market attachment (see the link to the Welfare information Network studies below), and in the case of British Columbia, perhaps someone should tell the Fraser Institute that the two-years-out-of-five welfare entitlement policy was effectively disabled back in February of 2004. On second thought, perhaps the authors should check this editorial from the Fraser Institute:

Editorial (Vancouver Sun, February 16, 2004)
By Jason Clemens, Sylvia LeRoy and Niels Veldhuis
"In a disastrous U-turn on welfare reform, the BC Government de-legitimized what was one of Canada’s most important social welfare reforms to date; a limit that capped the amount of time employable adults could collect welfare to 2 out of every 5 years. Late on Friday afternoon, February 6th, the BC Liberals announced a series of new exemptions to the time limits, including one that exempts anyone abiding by their work plan. The policy change effectively nullifies the time limit rule and speaks more to the government’s immediate political concerns than any genuine concern for those still struggling to make the transition from a life of welfare dependence to one of self-sufficiency."
Source:

Welfare Time Limits in British Columbia - a Canadian Social Research Links page
80+ links to welfare time limit info from BC and the U.S

- 60+ links from the (U.S.)

Selected content:

Province calling for national standard for accessing
Employment Insurance payments as laid-off workers exhaust their federal benefits
March 15, 2009
By Bill Curry
"(...) Ontario in particular is calling on Ottawa to step in with a further expansion of federal EI so that provinces and workers are treated the same no matter where they live in Canada. Because EI is easier to get in regions of historically high unemployment, the province says many Ontarians who lost their jobs during the recession were left out."

By Roy Romanow (in the Globe and Mail)
August 3, 2009
The Bank of Canada recently declared an end to the recession. There’s a world of difference, however, between an end to economic decline as measured by GDP and a real recovery as felt by Canadians. And when we look behind the numbers, we can’t avoid the fact that the costs of the recession are profoundly unequally shared, as those who suffer most will be those who can bear it least – unemployed and poor Canadians. History has a lot to tell us about the difference between the technical end of a recession and real economic recovery, and about the economic consequences for lower-and middle-income Canadians.

(formerly the Halton Social Planning Council & Volunteer Centre)
- Use the to see everything on this large site...
Some sample content:

The Quality of Life in Halton - Snapshot of a Decade
Summer 2003
(PDF file - 1.9MB, 33 pages)

Joey Edwardh, PhD
October 12, 2000
 The National Children's agenda is an opportunity to develop a policy framework and plan of action to implement a set of services to children,    youth and their families across Canada. The purpose of this memo is to outline the developments associated with the National Children's Agenda, and to identify a role for Halton in supporting an agenda that meets the needs of children and their families.

- December 1998
Updated to February 2000
- incl. : New Rules - Ontario Works as Workfare - Appeals Process - The Consequences and Effects of Welfare Reform - Ontario Works and Families - Ontario Works and Persons 60-64 Years of Age - Ontario Disability Support Program Act - References

- The cost of living increases and concern for families meeting their "basic needs" also increases
September 18, 2000 -- The cost of living in Halton has risen, according to the latest figures from the Cost of Living in Halton 2000 published by the Halton Social Planning Council and Volunteer Centre. Despite appearances of an upturned economy, the Council worries that more families and individuals cannot afford to live in Halton and purchase the basic necessities of life.

(PDF file, 2 pages, 230K)

Related Link:

- incl. an online database of volunteer opportunities in Halton

Gift by gift and donor by donor, Hamilton Community Foundation has been quietly and effectively building a permanent legacy for the people of Hamilton for more than 50 years. Hamilton Community Foundation was the first of its kind in Ontario when it was established in 1954. There are now 148 community foundations in Canada. The Foundation's total assets have grown to more than $100 million, thanks to the many hundreds of donors from all walks of life who have made contributions - large and small - during their lifetimes or through their estate plans, to ensure that this community has a brighter future.

Hamilton, Ontario, is a vibrant community with a proud history of achievement. It’s a city located in an outstanding natural environment, and one that is rich in arts and culture. Hamilton has business, health and educational organizations that are famous world-over. But poverty is Hamilton’s biggest challenge, with 20 per cent of its citizens living at or below the poverty line. As a community, Hamilton is saying this is unacceptable. In spring 2005, a multi-sector Roundtable for Poverty Reduction was formed and the Tackling Poverty in Hamilton initiative began. This web site provides information about Tackling Poverty in Hamilton.February 10, 2006
- incl. links to : Who's Involved - News - Poverty Facts - Process Plan - Links - Contact Us

(PDF file - 38K, 2 pages)
February 10, 2006
- first issue of a newsletter by the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction to report on the progress of Tackling Poverty in Hamilton, and to rally support for it.

(PDF file - 99K, 2 pages)
February 2006

(PDF file - 96K, 1 page)
February 10, 2006

December 18, 2009
By Jennefer Laidley and Deirdre Pike
Whether he meant to or not, the auditor general's analysis of social assistance lets a dysfunctional welfare system off the hook and erroneously lays blame with the people who have nowhere else to turn for basic support. It's not the people who are the problem. The real problem is the patchwork of more than 800 rules that trap people in poverty, limit their options, and compromise their health with punishingly low levels of income support. While some have seized on the report to renew a round of poor-bashing reminiscent of the mid-1990s, what Ontario really needs is swift movement on its promised social assistance review.
[Jennefer Laidley, of the Income Security Advocacy Centre,
and Deirdre Pike, of the Social Planning and Research Council
of Hamilton, are members of the .]

Related link:

December 15, 2009
By John Stapleton and Greg deGroot-Maggetti
Following the sharpest and deepest recession since the 1930s, Ontario now faces a major debate over how governments should respond.
Source:
(Kitchener)

- Supportive Housing Solutions (Toronto)
"The Mission of Homes First Society is to provide affordable, permanent housing and transitional supports for people who are homeless and/or have the fewest options in society.
To achieve its Mission, Homes First Society uses its financial and human resources within an anti-oppression and anti-racist framework to work with the strengths of tenants and community partners..."
- incl. links to : Home | Mission Statement | Donate Now | Contact Us | History & Awards | Board of Directors | Management Staff | The Foundation | Housing Sites | Facts | Faces | Tenant Support | Events | Useful Links

The Honeybadgerpress challenges the tired thinking common in the mainstream corporate media concerning politics, economics and war.

(11 pages)
2004
By Morgan Duchesney
Everything you wanted to know about Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution, and more.
[The author is a Canadian writer and martial arts instructor with an interest in social justice and international affairs.]

- "...a site dedicated to putting affordable housing back on the public agenda"
Putting Housing Back on the Public Agenda is a community group which brings together senior housing government officials, (past and present, elected and nonelected, from all levels of government), community housing proponents, housing developers, and others interested in affordable housing.

Sample reports:

HOUSING AGAIN • Bulletin Number 108 February 2008
"...a monthly electronic bulletin highlighting what people are doing to put housing back on the public agenda in Ontario, across Canada and around the world."
The Housing Again Bulletin is sponsored by as a partner in .

Selected content from Issue Number 108:

* Building Momentum: Affordable Housing Agenda Gets Boost
Ken Dryden's 16-city anti-poverty tour across Canada - the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) recommendations for a National Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness - Community Spotlight on Operation Go Home - What's New on Raising the Roof’s Shared Learnings on Homelessness Web site, etc.

* Nurturing the Next Wave of Housing Professionals
The theme of this year’s Tri-Country Conference, to be held in Toronto , October 14-17, is Creating a Modern Housing Policy: A Legacy for Tomorrow’s Leaders, which includes a sub-theme of tomorrow’s leadership and youth.

* (February 5)
Toque Tuesday is Raising the Roof’s national public awareness day. Buy your classic black or cheerful red toque at any participating Home Depot store in Canada or order online now. Toques are $10 each with proceeds supporting grass-roots homelessness agencies across Canada and Raising the Roof’s national Youthworks initiative, aimed at breaking the cycle of youth homelessness. The National Toque Campaign continues until the end of February 2008.
[ ]

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE:
The Housing Again e-bulletin is distributed by e-mail free of charge monthly.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, log onto the main page at
You'll see the Bulletin's subscribe/unsubscribe box at the bottom right hand of the page.

Our web sites are:

Housing Again

Shared Learnings on Homelessness

Raising the Roof

-----------------------------------------------------

Study shows Ontario losing much more rental housing than is being built; 21 Municipalities Studied: London, Ottawa, Peel and Hamilton lose the most
"A housing study released today provides the first Ontario estimate of the loss of private rental housing units over the last decade (,298 existing private rental housing units were lost, at a rate almost 50% greater than the number of new rental housing units built, leaving Ontario tenants with less available housing in 2001 than existed in 1991."
(PDF file - 138K, 13 pages)

Source: - "a site dedicated to putting affordable housing back on the public agenda"

(ISAC)
"The Income Security Advocacy Centre works with and on behalf of low income communities in Ontario to address issues of income security and poverty. The Centre initiates and conducts test case and Charter litigation, law reform and community development related to federal and provincial income security programs such as Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Program, Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan."
- incl. links to ISAC campaigns (Access to Disability Benefits [Ontario Disability Support Program], Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids, Challenging the Lifetime Ban for Welfare Fraud [info about Kimberly Rogers] ) and legal challenges [see "Inquest into the Death of Kimberly Rogers"], a list of online publications (newsletters, legal documents, policy papers, fact sheets and toolkits) and almost 50 links to sites of interest.

Selected site content:

Ontario Special Diet Allowance Program

Posted April 13, 2010
On March 25, as part of its 2010 budget, the provincial government announced that it will cancel the Special Diet Allowance Program and replace it with a new program. The government has said very little at this point about what the new program will be.

.
The decision is a cut to welfare rates. It means that $200 million will come out of the pockets of people on OW and ODSP. For single people with disabilities who get the maximum allowance, this will mean a cut in benefits of up to 20%.The decision is also equality with a vengeance. This is because it makes everyone on assistance equal by giving nothing to everyone.

The decision to end the Special Diet Allowance program increases insecurity for people on social assistance in Ontario.

This decision responds in part to a recent Order by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which found that the way the program was providing benefits to three individuals with medical conditions violated the Human Rights Code.

Resources:

* (PDF - 37K)
* (PDF - 41K)
*

---

December 11, 2009
Whether he meant to or not, the auditor general’s December 7th analysis of OW/ODSP let a dysfunctional social assistance system off the hook, instead laying blame with the people who have nowhere else to turn for basic support. The ensuing debate risks losing sight of the simple fact that when it comes to social assistance, it’s not the people who are the problem. Instead it’s the 800+ rules that trap people in poverty and powerlessness, fail to provide social and community supports and education and training tools to enable opportunity, and leave people so short of income that living a healthy, dignified life is impossible. As Premier McGuinty recently stated, social assistance “stomps people into the ground” and something must be done to make the system work the way it should. That something cannot come soon enough, as evidenced by the confusing picture painted by the auditor general’s report.

NOTE: the above link includes a detailed backgrounder covering the following points:
* Overpayments and Program Costs: Comparing Apples to Oranges
* What Is An Overpayment?
* The System Routinely Generates Overpayments
* Overpayments are Generated Monthly – Increasing Misperceptions
* Overpayments and Breaking the Rules
* Program Complexity and 800 Rules
* “Temporary” Assistance?
* Special Diet
* Conclusion
* What Can You Do? TAKE ACTION

Source:

[ ]

Related link:

December 7, 2009

Also from ISAC:

(PDF - 26K, 1 page)
- incl. current and new monthly Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefit rate amounts. The changes will appear on ODSP cheques received in November and OW cheques received in December, 2009. Basic Needs and Maximum Shelter rates have been increased by 2%.

---

Ontario Election 2007
Join ISAC in pressuring candidates in the upcoming Ontario election on October 10th, 2007. Use ISAC's election kit to lobby candidates in your community to reduce poverty and improve the lives of low-income people in Ontario.
[ ]
[ ]

Ontario is holding a referendum on electoral reform on election day on October 10th, 2007. Voters will be asked to vote "for" or "against" a new way of holding elections that has been recommended by a citizen's assembly.

--- [ ]
ISAC's Hands off! Campaign against the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) from families on social assistance has ended, although the struggle will continue in other ways. ISAC will focus on getting increases to social assistance rates for everyone on OW and ODSP and getting improvements to the new Ontario Child Benefit.
- May 2007 - PDF file - 82K, 10 pages
[ ]
"(...) The Hands off! Campaign made a difference. The provincial government was pressured to: 1) allow all new increases to the NCBS to flow through to families on social assistance; 2) let families keep the new Universal Child Care Benefit that was announced by the federal government in July 2006; and 3) ensure families on OW and ODSP will benefit from the new Ontario Child Benefit that will be implemented in July 2008.
- More information about the Hands Off Campaign

The implementation of the Ontario Child Benefit, and the resulting restructuring of social assistance that will happen in July, 2008, reduces the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) but doesn't end it. So ISAC's NCBS clawback legal challenge against the provincial and federal governments continues. For more information:

--- [ ]
The Ontario Child Benefit was announced in March 2007 and will go to all low-income families with children between the ages of 0 - 18, whether they are working or receiving Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). In July 2007, all eligible families will receive a one-time only cheque of up to $250 per child. Families will begin receiving monthly cheques in July 2008. The amount will grow gradually from $50 to $92/month/child by 2011.

(PDF file - 47K, 6 pages) [ ]
(PDF file - 22K, 1 page) [ ]

--- (PDF file - 39K, 1 page)
The 2% increase to OW and ODSP rates will appear on November 2007 cheques. The new rates have been released by the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Read ISAC's new social assistance rates sheet to compare the current rates to the new rates for several categories.

October 3, 2006
"Ask why 4.8 million people in Canada are poor — and insist on better. We should all be outraged and ashamed reading the Star's campaign on the working poor, but we shouldn't be surprised. We have chosen to allow poverty to flourish by permitting wages to stagnate, setting welfare rates at dangerously low levels, failing to regulate the growing temporary work industry, failing to provide adequate training for those who do not have marketable skills and refusing to recognize foreign credentials. It doesn't have to be this way..."
Source:

NOTE: This is one in a series of commentaries in the Toronto Star following a series on working poor families that started with the , "one of 650,000 Canadians struggling to make ends meet." If you click the link near the beginning of this paragraph, you'll see that the next page includes both the article and links to six related articles. In my website and newsletter, I rarely provide links to articles in most mainstream media (e.g., The Star, The Globe and Mail) because, for the most part, the links expire after a predetermined period and the article is moved to a pay-per-hit archive. However, I encourage you to explore the media websites and to use their on-site search tools - you'll be able to retrieve and read all articles that are still in the "public" domain.
For example, I did the following sample searches in the Toronto Star's 7-day free search feature:
===> 10 results (+ a link to "Search our paid archives")
But...
===> 20 results using "Search our paid archives" - and all results are free in this case...
And...
===> 6 results

"The Hands off! Campaign asks the Provincial and the Federal government to do 2 things:
* End the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement from families on social assistance, now!
* Fund the reinvestment programs that work for low-income families out of other provincial and federal revenues.
- includes links to : Take Action | Send an e-Card | Lobby MPP / MP | Endorse Campaign | Links | Income Security Advocacy Centre | Contact Us

In December 2004, a legal challenge to the clawback was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by the Income Security Advocacy Centre, the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)and the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues.
NOTE: for more info on the NCBS Clawback challenge, go to the Case Law / Court Decisions / Inquests page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/caselaw.htm

Related Links:

(CERA)

November 18, 2004
"When the rent is $775 and total income is $1,334, an extra $226 would make a huge difference.That's the extra benefit the federal government pays each month to Toronto's Dave Lance, 24 and the father of 2 1/2-year-old twin boys. And that's the amount the Ontario government deducts each month from his welfare payment. The clawback has been controversial since the national child benefit program was introduced by the federal government in 1997 with the stated objective of preventing and reducing child poverty. While all Ontario families with an income of less than $22,615 receive the national child benefit supplement of $126 a month for the first child and decreasing amounts for subsequent children, only working families are allowed to keep it. Parents on social assistance or a disability pension are out of luck Municipalities across Ontario have called for an end to the clawback and Premier Dalton McGuinty, while in opposition, promised he'd get rid of it. Now, a year after McGuinty was elected, anti-poverty advocates say it's time he kept his word.And if he doesn't, they warn, they'll take legal action.
Source:

(Word document - 88K, 1 page)ISAC News Release
Dec. 15 2004
On December 15, 2004 the government introduced changes to the Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program regulations. The changes took effect immediately, and will have an important effect on people applying for assistance after December 15, 2004 and on those already on assistance.

- Ontario
Press Release
December 16, 2003
"Tis the season of food drives, toy drives and charity dinners. Every year at this time thousands of people make donations to assist those in their community who are too poor to be able eat properly or purchase a small gift for their child. 'While such donations are welcome, what’s really needed are hard questions about why more than 1.6 million people in Ontario are living in poverty and why our governments are not doing anything about this harsh reality,' says Jacquie Chic, Director of Advocacy and Legal Services at the Income Security Advocacy Centre."

December 18, 2003

December 17, 2003
Source:

Hansard - Legislative Assembly - Oral Questions
December 17, 2003

December 15, 2003

Related Links:

[ ]

------------------------------------------------

Newsletter of the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC)
Contents:
1. Looking for justice in all the wrong places (ref. to the Kelly Lesiuk case)
2. Low Income People Hit Hardest By Blackout
3. ISAC Persuades Premier To Declare ODSP Offices An Essential Service
4. Ontario Needs a Raise!
5. An Ontario Child Benefit?
6. Regional Updates
7. The "Lifetime Ban" Goes to Court
8. ISAC AGM Notice

Denial by Design ... The Ontario Disability Support Program
John Fraser, Cynthia Wilkey, and JoAnne Frenschkowksi
Released January 28, 2003
35 pages
- on the
Related DAWN Ontario link:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Selected media links to recent social policy news:

Walkom: Expect provincial spending cuts to make matters worse Image

Adam Radwanski says McGuinty’s government will die the death of a thousand cuts:

A comparison of provinces’ deficits:

In Manitoba , the poor sell their meds to get by:

Rising dollar could garner action:

Jack Layton pushes for pension insurance:

Canada’s sub-prime mortgage bomb:

Tax fairness, not the HST:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the federal deficit is ballooning:

From Finance – the Fiscal Update and Economic Outlook:

Note the information about the pre-budget consultations:

Coverage:

Deficit is huge – difficult choices ahead:

Nearly two thousand dollars for each person:

Ontario falls deep into the red:

No exit plan:

Fiscal report:

Eliminate the weak program and properly fund the strong program, and don’t sell assets:

Consultation OK, says OPSEU, but not at expense of people and programs:

In the meantime, Second Career gets capped because of too much demand:

Don’t relax stimulus spending, say professors:

Criminal lawyers boost legal aid boycott:

Restraint looms in Ontario:

And big deficit news expected in Ontario:

But Thomas Walkom says the deficit is a non-issue:

The Conference Board of Canada says we’re moving into recovery:

And Stephen Harper is looking at signs of recovery:

Self employed have no pension safety net:

Tim Hudak and the PCs on the debt and deficit:

An astonishing 1/3 of all people who are homeless in Toronto are immigrants:

Self-employed EI benefits a “tricky task”:

TD report on looming huge deficits:

Ignatieff releases the Pink Book – includes commitment to a federal Poverty Reduction Strategy:

-------

Thanks to Jennefer Laidley of the (ISAC) in Toronto for these link suggestions.

---

Also from Jennefer Laidley:

* Nate Laurie’s fantastic piece August 19 on Ontario's broken social assistance system:

*Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario
says full-day learning is not full-day kindergarten:

* Don Drummond (Chief Economist, TD Economics) reminds us that the recession is not over:

* Canadian Medical Association report linking recession to health problems:

* CIBC says unemployment duration only 15 weeks – means no jobless recovery if they’re right:

* Toronto’s economy in a deep slump:

* Kingston Whig-Standard reports on one of the presentations given at the Queen's International Institute on Social Policy this week:

* Hidden homelessness in the Sault:

* Backpack program in Kingston :

* Backpacks and other efforts to help kids in need in St. Catherines:

* Backpacks also being sought in Edmonton :

* From Nelson, BC, a piece on the HST and its impact on seniors:

* A very short piece on harmonizing GST and PST – from Manitoba , but discusses other provinces:

* The problem of deepening deflation:

* Feds say stimulus cash is to flow this week:

* Info on Feds’ new northern development strategy:

* Inequality in US growing, and worse than in the Great Depression:

* And, a new research report says that, should a zombie attack occur, civilization will likely collapse:

***

Thanks to Jennefer Laidley of the for sharing these media links. Visit the ISAC website for a large collection of Ontario resources.
The Income Security Advocacy Centre works with and on behalf of low income communities in Ontario to address issues of income security and poverty.

---

(MS Word file - 118K, 4 pages)
Fact sheet
June 2009
If you are a parent with dependent children under 18 and are on Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), there are changes to your benefits coming soon. Starting in July 2009, the Ontario Child Benefit will increase to $92 per month per child. However, social assistance rates for families with dependent children are being further restructured.
- includes a description of the changes coming into effect on July 1 along and maximum monthly
Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program rates before and after July 2009 for different family sizes.

---

(PDF - 264K, 4 pages)
- Newsletter
Table of contents:
* ISAC’s upcoming Forum: “Time For a Bold Review of Social Assistance”;
* Final arguments in the lead Special Diet Allowance case at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario;
* LIEN’s work on the new Low-Income Energy Affordability Program from the Ontario Energy Board;
* Advocacy around the start of another round of ODSP disability reviews;
* Unanimous support in the Legislature for poverty reduction legislation; and,
* The Ontario Child Benefit goes up to $92, but OW and ODSP take another hit.

(PDF - 295K, 4 pages)
Income Security Advocacy Centre
(Volume 1, Issue 1)
This edition of ISAC UPDATE includes information on: the lead Special Diet Allowance case at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario; our community-based Ending Poverty Project; Bill 152, the new Poverty Reduction legislation; the Poverty Reduction Results Committee; the upcoming Social Assistance Review; new case-selection criteria recently confirmed by ISAC’s Board of Directors; and, ISAC’s analysis of decision-making at the Ministry’s Disability Adjudication Unit.

(Word file - 95K, 4 pages)
June 2008
The Transition Child Benefit was created to ensure that no family would receive less under the new Ontario Child Benefit starting in July 2008.
For eligible families, the Transitional Child Benefit will make up the difference between current social assistance rates and the new rates that start in July 2008.

In July 2008, the provincial government will launch the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB). This will be a monthly payment to eligible low-income families who have dependent children under 18. Parents who get social assistance (Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program) as well as those who are employed are eligible for the OCB.

(PDF - 48K, 4 pages)

Related link:

- from the

(PDF - 980K, 116 pages)
Spring 2008
This manual has been developed to assist facilitators to hold community-based workshops with low income people and other community members active in ending poverty. The workshop is designed to encourage discussion about what is needed to end poverty in Ontario, and to identify actions that can be taken within your community. (...) Campaign 2000 and ISAC will be working with community partners to deliver these workshops in Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Owen Sound, Windsor, and Toronto, and will be producing a “Call to Action” report at the end of 2008 for government and the community.
NOTE : On the , you'll find links to the Word version of individual sections of the manual, along with over three dozen more Public Education Materials, Policy Papers and Legal Documents
Source:
A joint project of the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) and (a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.)

(PDF - 36K, 2 pages)
- May 2008

(Word file - 60K, 3 pages)
- May 2008

(Word file - 49K, 2 pages)
- May 2008

(PDF - 32K, 1 page)
- April 2008

Related links:

25-in-5: Network for Poverty Reduction is a multi-sectoral network comprised of more than 100 provincial and Toronto-based organizations and individuals working on eliminating poverty. We have organized ourselves around the call for a Poverty Reduction Plan with a goal to reduce poverty in Ontario by 25% in 5 years and 50% in 10 years.
Source:

Related links:
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

(PDF file - 50K, 22 pages)
April 2003
By David Siegel, Department of Political Science - Brock University
- analysis of the change in provincial-municipal relations and responsibilities in Ontario since the Mike Harris Common Sense Revolution
Source :
- Conference
May 9 - 10, 2003
Kingston, Ontario
Institute of Intergovernmental Relations
School of Policy Studies
Queen's University

The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity is an independent, not-for-profit organization that deepens public understanding of macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic progress. We are funded by the Government of Ontario and are mandated to share our research findings directly with the public. The Institute serves as the research arm of the . The mandate of the Task Force, announced in the April 2001 Speech from the Throne, is to measure and monitor Ontario’s competitiveness, productivity, and economic progress compared to other provinces and US states and to report to the public on a regular basis.

(Toronto)

(ISARC)
"ISARC brings together diverse faith communities - mainly Christian, but also Jewish, Unitarian, Muslim and Buddhist - to advocate for fairness and justice for marginalized peoples. It also distributes resources that educate members of faith communities on current issues of social justice in Ontario, especially those affecting low-income people. (...) ISARC was born back in 1986 when Ontario's former Liberal government launched a review of social assistance, and sought the views of religious groups. That led Christian-based faith groups to work together on a response. Out of that grew a realization that problems of poverty were so severe that an ongoing effort was needed to push for action."
- Click on "Current Issues" for links to a brief overview and a [PDF] report on each of the following issues : Ontario Disability Support Program - Child Poverty - Housing - Drug Testing - Ontario Works - Adequacy

"An exciting new project to assess social conditions in Ontario"

Housing Reform in the 80's and 90s, the Feds and the Ontario government:
"What those men did. . .
Federal:
..1984 to 1993 –almost $2 billion cut from spending
..1993 –all new housing spending cancelled
..1996 –transfer housing to provinces / territories

Ontario:
..1995 –all new housing spending cancelled
..1995 –welfare rate cuts
..1998 –housing downloaded to municipalities."
[p. 17 from the report below]
Source:
(PDF file - 1MB, 32 pages)
By Michael Shapcott
April 7, 2005
For:

(Ontario)
Legal Guides to Ontario and Canadian Law
The purpose of the Isthatlegal.ca website is to provide, in one convenient and generally accessible on-line location, detailed and thorough legal guides to areas of Ontario and Canadian law of general importance to the economically
vulnerable in our society, and to their advocates. All users should ensure that they meet the Terms of Use of the site.
[ ]

Click the above link to access the following guides:
* Constitutional, Human Rights and Related (Human Rights Law in Ontario - Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Immigration Law - Canadian Law of International Crimes [War Crimes])
* Animal Law (Animals and the Criminal Law in Canada - Dog and Cat Control Law in Ontario)
* Employment Law (Employment Law in Ontario - Employment Insurance [Canada] - Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board - Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Law
* Property Law (Ontario Residential Landlord and Tenant - Line Fences in Ontario)
* Civil and Administrative Litigation (Small Claims Court in Ontario - BC Tort Law - BC Contract Law - Limitation Periods in Ontario - Charts and Explanations - Ontario Family Law and Family Court Procedures - Administrative Tribunal Procedures - Criminal Injuries Compensation in Ontario)
* Freedom of Information and Privacy Law (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Law in Ontario and Municipal FIPPA - Access to Information Law Annotated [Canada] - Privacy Act Guide [Canada] - PIPEDA [Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada)] Guide
* Income Maintenance and Related (Welfare [Ontario Works] - Ontario Disability Support Program [ODSP] - Auto Insurance in Ontario
* Legislative Process (Ontario Legislative Process - Canadian Federal Legislative Process)
* Miscellaneous Law (Canadian Maritime Law - Charity and Not-for-Profit Law - Church Law)

Recently updated/posted:

Updated to November 2009
Table of contents:
* Overview * Claimants * Basic Assistance*. Benefits * Information Eligibility * Income Rules * Asset Rules * Applications and Procedures * Administrator Decisions * Appeals and Other Remedies * Workfare * Fraud and Prosecutions * Advocacy

Updated to November 2009
Table of contents:
* Overview * Claimants * Income Support * Benefits * Severely Handicapped Children * Information Eligibility * Income Rules * Asset Rules * "Person With a Disability" * Applications and Procedures * Director Decisions * Appeals and Other Remedies * Workfare * Fraud and Prosecutions * Advocacy

30 September 2009
- includes recent amendments to the
Table of contents:
* Overview
SUBSTANTIVE LAW - Protected Activities - Prohibited Grounds - Discrimination - Forms of Discrimination - General Exceptions
PROCEDURAL LAW - The Tribunal and its Powers - Private Applications - Commission Applications - Parties - Motions - Summary Proceedings - Pre-Hearing Procedures - Service - Evidence - Hearings - Remedies and Offences - Commission Role - Reconsiderations
MISCELLANEOUS - Judicial Review - Transition
[ Related link : ]

- direct links to the Decisions page of each of the following:
* Ontario Court of Justice (most family and criminal cases in Ontario)
* Ontario Superior Court (main civil court in Ontario, some family and criminal)
* Ontario Divisional Court (administrative appeals, judicial reviews and smaller civil appeals)
* Ontario Court of Appeal (highest Ontario Court)
* Federal Court - Trial Division (first level court for matters under federal jurisdiction such as telecommunications, intellectual property, rail/air/shipping, maritime, immigration etc)
* Federal Court of Appeal (appeals from Federal Court - Trial Division)
* Supreme Court of Canada
* UK and Ireland Cases (British cases are often relevant to the interpretation of Canadian law)
* Australia and NZ Cases (also useful in interpretation)

Source:

(Toronto)
The Laidlaw Foundation is a public interest foundation that uses its human and financial resources in innovative ways to strengthen civic engagement and social cohesion. The Foundation uses its capital to better the environments and fulfil the capacities of children and youth, to enhance the opportunities for human development and creativity and to sustain healthy communities and ecosystems.

The Legal Aid Ontario Vision :
- To promote access to justice throughout Ontario for low-income individuals by providing high quality legal aid services
- To encourage and facilitate flexibility and innovation in the provision of legal aid services
- To recognize the diverse legal needs of low-income individuals and disadvantaged communities
- To operate within a framework of accountability for the expenditure of public funds

Includes links to : About Legal Aid Ontario - Business Plan - Historical Overview - Board and Committees - Provincial Directory - Job Opportunities - Newsroom - Fact Sheets - News Releases and Announcements - Speeches - Media Contacts - Getting Legal Help - Family Law Services - Criminal Law Services - Immigration & Refugee Law Services - Housing and Income Services - Getting Help in the Courtroom - Financial Eligibility - Other Services - FAQ - Publications & Resources - Newsletter - Reports - Resources - Information for Lawyers - Updates - Resources - Research Facility - Forms - Links - Community Legal Clinics - Government Resources - Lawyer Services - Other Links

February 2004

Related Link:

- Ontario
By Helen Burnett & Gail J. Cohen
23 October 2006
Legal Aid Ontario has announced that its certificate program is $10 million over its targeted expenditures, after a mid-year review of its financial situation. (...) LAO says the problem is partially due to "the additional costs associated with megatrials and large criminal prosecutions and to the very quick account payment timelines that have evolved through the Legal Aid Online billing system." (...) William Trudell, chairman of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, says he knows lawyers who are working on megatrials who are being forced to shut down their practices because they are not being paid for all the work they do. As a result, he says, many lawyers won't take legal aid cases anymore. (...) The Association of Legal Aid Plans of Canada, of which Legal Aid Ontario is a member, (...) is calling on the federal government to commit long-term funding to legal aid "in order to avoid stripping away the legal rights of the poor," specifically through long-term funding for the Federal Investment Fund and by providing funding for civil legal aid, particularly for services that are federally mandated or legislated. It is also looking for an increase in funding to cover the additional demand for legal aid services and costs resulting from the federal government's proposed criminal justice system changes and from increases in federal prosecutions and policing resources.
But so far the Harper government is not coming forward with any cash.
"The problem is there's no commitment from the government to fund the system," says Trudell. "It's the erosion of a wonderful system because politicians won't embrace it."
Source:
(Canada)

(Low-Income Family Empowerment * Sole-Support Parents Information Network)
"...a London grass-roots, non-profit, charitable organization started by sole-support mothers surviving on Family Benefits to share information and help low income people become self sufficient"

- includes links to :  who we are | what we do | our programs | contact us | spincycle | CED | freestore | food security | links | mediation/advocacy | publications | margaret's housing | peer lending circles | women's resource centre

LNO uses a unique future planning process(developed by PLAN,our Parent organization) for people with disabilities. It is a seven step process that families can follow to create a safe and secure future for their loved one. Each future plan is tailor- made to meet your family’s needs

New resource for Ontario parents
of children with physical or developmental disabilities

Ontario parents who are getting on in years and who are caring at home for a child with a developmental or physical disability have a new resource, just released by , a Thornhill, Ontario social services agency established by parents of children with developmental disabilities, as a practical alternative to institutions. The new 34-page brochure, entitled What you can do to enhance the quality of life for a family member with a disability - Consider a Henson Trust, will help those parents who have some savings in setting up a trust fund to cover their child's special or emergency needs without affecting his/her eligibility for government financial assistance.

*(PDF - 972K, 34 pages)
By Harry Beatty, Mary Louise Dickson and John Stapleton
"Caring for a family member with a disability, and planning for their support for a whole lifetime, is a big responsibility. It poses special problems and challenges. A trust can be an ideal solution if you want to provide some money for a relative. With a trust, your loved one can continue to receive Ontario Disability Support (ODSP) benefits [Ontario's needs-tested social assistance program for people with disabilities]. The trust money can help with extra expenses such as items and services they need, and holidays. (...) This booklet is written specifically for families who want to help support a relative who receives ODSP benefits. It explains how you can help your family member without affecting their ODSP benefits."

[* A "Henson Trust" is a trust which gives the trustee or trustees absolute discretion to make decisions on behalf of the beneficiary, following the precedent established by the Henson case decided by the Ontario Courts in the 1980s [from the report's glossary]. Aging parents who are no longer able to care for their disabled child at home may apply on behalf of the child for benefits in his/her own right under the Ontario Disability Support Program. If those parents have some savings that they wish to pass along to cover some of the needs their disabled child, they have to be careful to avoid disqualifying their child from ODSP by exceeding the asset limit exemption levels.]

This brochure will also interest (1) organizations for groups of parents in similar situations in other Canadian jurisdictions, and (2) anyone who wants to learn more about needs-tested social assistance for people with disabilities in Ontario
- incl. links to related resources online

Source:

"...a non-profit social service agency dedicated to integrating individuals who have a developmental disability into the mainstream of society. Reena was established in 1973 by parents of children with developmental disabilities, as a practical alternative to institutions."

Related links:

PLAN is a BC-based non-profit organization, established in 1989 by and for families committed to future planning and securing a good life for their relative with a disability.

- includes (PDF - 541K, 44 pages)

Selected site content:

Ontario Special Diet Allowance:

By Linda McQuaig
May 3, 2010
After inflation, welfare benefits today only have 55 percent of the buying power they had in 1993.
(...) The elimination of the in the recent provincial budget is really just the continuation of the assault on the incomes of the very poorest citizens that began with former premier Mike Harris's 22 percent cut in provincial welfare rates in 1995.

- links to 100+ columns (from the Toronto Star) going back to 2005.
Recommended for your Summer reading list!!

- simple list (incl. publisher details) of Linda McQuaig's nine books, from The Wealthy Banker's Wife (1993) and Shooting the Hippo (1995) to her latest, Holding the Bully's Coat (2007). No links except for short summaries of the three latest books.
[ ]

- 30+ links to progressive websites in Canada and the U.S.
Source:
LindaMcQuaig.com

- from , the free encyclopedia

Low Income Energy Network:

(STW)
(ACTO)
(CELA)
(CSPC-T)
(ISAC)
(TDRC)
(TEA)

September 11, 2004
"Higher electricity prices in Ontario will hammer the poor and leave the wealthy relatively unscathed, a coalition of social activist groups have told an Ontario Energy Board hearing. The lowest income families are far more likely than their wealthier neighbours to use electricity to heat their homes and hot water, Mary Todorow of the Low Income Energy Network told the board yesterday. Because they're far likelier to be tenants, they probably can't curb power use by buying more efficient appliances, heating systems or insulation."
Source:

Related Links:

- written for tenants but provides a comprehensive collection of information for anyone interested in utility costs in Ontario
- over 300 links to information (mainly newspaper articles) about Ontario Hydro privatization, deregulation of electricity in Ontario, electricity rates, and hydro electricity contracts

- over 700 links on this page (mainly newspaper articles)

Source:

- incl. links to : Tenant Protection Act | Apartments for Rent Ontario Landlord and Tenant Q&A | Housing and poverty reports | Other housing links | Tenant rights and social justice | Renters municipal issues | Tenant help & lobbying | Apartment safety & security | Tenant health: Toxic mold, cockroaches | Consumer Information | Tenant association organizing | Utility costs: Ontario hydro, natural gas | Community links.

(LIFT)
"Low Income Families Together began in response to Ontario's review of social assistance during 1986, when a group of single mothers came together to make suggestions for reform of the system. This group later expanded its membership and the scope of its activities to become a voice and an active group for low income families in the province."
- incl. links to : Home - History - Donations - Org Structure - Community Partners - LIFT Forums - Publications - Programs - Photographs - Intl. Solidarity UN Report
-

(PDF file - 449K, 7 pages)
January 2003
Surviving and Thriving in T.O.
Living Initiatives for Tomorrow

October 17, 2007
The plight of the urban poor is one of the Toronto Star's most cherished issues—so much so, apparently, that of late they've taken to cloning them.

Principal funder of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, the Maytree Foundation is a Canadian charitable foundation established in 1982. Maytree believes that there are three fundamental sets of issues which threaten political and social stability: wealth disparities between and within nations; mass migration of people because of war, oppression and environmental disasters; and the degradation of the environment.

The Metcalf Foundation helps Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy, and creative society by supporting dynamic leaders who are strengthening their communities, nurturing innovative approaches to persistent problems, and
encouraging dialogue and learning to inform action.

Selected site content:

Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapleton launched a new report on October 21, 2009
News Release
October 21, 2009
Overly strict welfare eligibility rules are forcing Ontario’s newly unemployed to divest themselves of all their assets, crippling their chances for an economic recovery. Why Don’t We Want the Poor to Own Anything?, by John Stapleton, Metcalf Foundation Fellow and a leading social policy expert, reveals weaknesses in Ontario’s asset limits for those seeking social assistance, disability support, subsidized housing and legal aid.
Source:

Complete report:
(PDF - 983K, 30 pages)
By John Stapleton
(...) 475,000 families receive social assistance in Ontario. They have stripped themselves of their liquid assets. They must wait until they no longer require legal aid, and leave public housing, before they can resume saving for anything, let alone save for retirement. In a society that promotes saving and cherishes self-reliance, there is no good rationale for public policy that almost guarantees people will grow old in poverty.

Related links:

- John Stapleton's website

---

October 21 2009
It is well known that when the Conservatives came to power in 1995 Mike Harris gutted welfare rates – leaving needy Ontarians living far below the poverty line. Less well known is that changes were also made to force Ontarians to divest themselves of almost every cent of savings, including cashable RRSPs, before they could qualify for a welfare cheque. In a report to be released Oct. 21, Metcalf Foundation fellow John Stapleton presents a compelling case for allowing welfare recipients to keep some savings. (...) Asset-stripping is just one of the failings of our outdated and mean-spirited social assistance system. The government's promised social assistance review – still waiting to be launched – will find many other hurdles in the path of those in need of a helping hand.
Source:

- Go to the Asset-Based Social Policies Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/assets.htm

---

The Role of Legislation in Reducing Poverty in Ontario (workshop)
March 23, 2009 (Toronto)
"(...) This workshop is designed to strengthen the understanding of people working in the non-profit sector of public policy, and how non-profits can work with government to influence change. It is part of an ongoing series for those in organizations who want to understand the policy process and would benefit from a forum for candid exchange of ideas. This session will use as a case study the poverty reduction bill that was introduced into Ontario’s legislature on February 25, 2009."

(PDF - 140K, 6 pages)
By Adam Dodek, currently teaching Public Law at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law; former Chief of Staff for Ontario’s Attorney General; has published a number of articles in his areas of research -- constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and legal ethics.

(Workshop presentation, PDF - 1.3MB, 17 pages)
March 2009
By John Stapleton: Public policy expert and Metcalf Fellow with over 28 years of experience in the Ontario Government
* What is Policy? * Where is Policy Announced? * How is Policy Implemented? * Public Policy: Who’s Who in Government --- A Short User’s Guide for Advocates to Understanding Civil Servants * The Civil Servant has Two Masters * The Deputy Minister and the Civil Service * The Minister and Political Staff * Where Two Worlds Converge… * The Legislature vs. the Civil Service * Some Observations about Advocates/Activists * Handle with Care
NOTE: I recommend this presentation for non-profits everywhere, not just Ontario.

(PDF - 7.9MB, 18 pages)
March 2009
By Dr. Vivian Labrie, Centre for Studies on Poverty and Exclusion in Quebec, key researcher and community leader in the development of Quebec’s 2002 Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion

Co-sponsors of the workshop:

Funder:

The goal of the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation is to enhance the effectiveness of people and organizations working together to help Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy and creative society.

(PDF - 220K, 18 pages)
John Stapleton
November 2008
- incl.: * A Short History of Income Security Programs in Canada * The Evolution of Income Security for Seniors * The Evolution of Child Benefits * What Do Seniors' and Children's Programs Have in Common * Do We Have Similar Programs for Working-Age Adults? * A Note About CPP and EI * A New Model for Income Security for Working-Age Adults * Building a Strategy to Reduce Poverty Among Working-Age Adults * How Would the Account-Based Model Work? * Making the New System Transparent for Canadians * What If We Took Poor Working-Age Adults Off Welfare?

"The paper builds upon the recommendations outlined in John’s 2007 Metcalf report, [PDF file - 1MB, 62 pages]. It also expands upon a framework for income security reform put forward to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology Subcommittee on Cities investigating urban poverty (see June 2008 Senate report entitled [PDF - 696K, 96 pages])."

Social policy expert John Stapleton believes new federal tax programs for working-age adults may one day be as important as today's pensions and child tax benefits.
New U.S. leader has vowed to cut poverty. Now it's time to see what Canada can do.
November 8, 2008
Laurie Monsebraaten
As part of his compelling "Yes We Can" campaign to make meaningful change in the lives of average Americans, President-elect Barack Obama promised to cut poverty in half within a decade. Canada has no plan to fight poverty. And Stephen Harper's Conservatives didn't offer one during our recent federal election. But with Obama's historic win this week, many anti-poverty activists here believe new pressure is on Ottawa to address social and economic inequality. However, social policy expert John Stapleton argues in a new report that the foundation of a Canadian plan is already in place.
Source:

- non-profit network of 230 organizations committed to promoting social and economic justice for everyone in the City of Toronto (formerly Metro Toronto)

Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults ("MISWAA")
- this link will take you further down on the page you're now reading to "TASK FORCE on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults"

(BC)

By Andrew MacLeod
June
"When Ontario announced in April it was entering a contract with WCG International for a JobWave-modelled program called JobsNow, that province's social services minister, Sandra Pupatello, told the Windsor Star that the company has succesfully run a similar program in British Columbia." According to a report in the Victoria Business Examiner, the former B.C. human resources minister, Stan Hagen, had vouched for the program. (The Ontario program makes a key change from the B.C. program, by the way. Participants are only referred to the program after they've spent a year on welfare, unlike in B.C. where references are made before a person has even seen a welfare cheque. This likely means people referred to the program in Ontario may be more in need of the extra help, unlike here, where the majority would likely find work on their own.) The company has also pitched its program to the Alberta government, and it now has a website for JobWave America, though there's no indication that it has yet succeeded in selling its program anywhere other than Ontario and B.C..." (Excerpt from )

British Columbia's JobWave program is a model for the McGuinty Government's welfare-to-work initiative, and WCG International Consultants is the BC-based company that won the contract. According to this article, BC JobWave pays WCGI a cash incentive of four to five thousand dollars per case for taking people off welfare and putting them into jobs --- even where the participant gives up on the program and finds a job himself, as in the situation profiled in the article. The Americans perfected the welfare exit strategy known as the "Jobs First" approach, where getting people off welfare is the primary goal, as opposed to offering them meaningful employment opportunities or training and supports to allow them to find and keep a decent job. Followup evaluations of the U.S. Jobs First approach have shown that a few years after they leave the program, many people were still jobless or employed in jobs that paid relatively little and offered few benefits, and there was little change in participants’ total income.

Related Links:

News Release
April 20, 2005
"TORONTO – The McGuinty government is launching an innovative pilot project that will help people move from working for welfare to working for a living, Minister of Community and Social Services Sandra Pupatello announced today. JobsNow will provide ongoing, individualized employment counselling, job placement and retention support to help people find jobs so that they can leave welfare for good. 'Social assistance recipients are not statistics – they are real people who want to work. It's time our welfare programs worked, too,' said Pupatello. 'Our plan will get thousands of people into the workforce, and that's good for our clients, our economy and our taxpayers.'"

"JobsNow begins in April 2005 and continues to May 31, 2007, with a target of 12,000 participants referred to the JobsNow service."

Source:

WCG International will run the JobsNow pilot in six pilot communities in cooperation with municipal Ontario Works offices.

(WCG International)
"JobWave™ is the most successful employment program in the history of British Columbia, continually bringing innovation to the field of job placement."

The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation is an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank. We were established in 2009 with seed money from the Ontario government. We undertake applied public policy research and engage in public dialogue on federal issues important to the prosperity and quality of life of Ontario and Canada. The Mowat Centre has a mandate to propose innovative, research-driven public policy recommendations that work on behalf of Canadians in all regions of the country, including Ontario

The Mowat Centre has seven research streams:

* Employment Insurance and income support
* Immigration
* Economic transformation
* Cities
* Federal fiscal transfers
* Democratic Institutions and Processes
* The Environment
Our early research will focus on approaches to providing income and training support to the unemployed, options for improving federal-provincial cooperation on immigration policy, supporting innovation and economic transformation through effective economic development strategies, and improving representation in the Canadian Parliament.

Another Look at Welfare Reform (Autumn 1997)
- an in-depth analysis by the National Council of Welfare of changes in Canadian welfare programs in the 1990s.
The report focuses on the provincial and territorial reforms that preceded the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan and those that followed the implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer. 
- large file (300K+) but well worth the wait for detailed information on welfare reforms in the 1990s in each Canadian jurisdiction, as well as a national overview of the broad issues of welfare reform and the setting for welfare reform in Canada.
NOTE: there's a whole chapter focusing on each Canadian jurisdiction

December 14, 2009
By Rebecca Ryall
Toronto's welfare caseload is stabilizing as unemployment dips, but there are warnings the city's struggling economy isn't out of the woods yet.

(PDF file - 360K, 9 pages)
April 2000
"Andersen Consulting is a huge US-based job-slasher and consultant on privatization. Their revenues in 1999 were $16.3 billion, much of it earned at the expense of public employees and the poor around the world. Andersen Consulting has made its biggest bucks by providing governments with the 'professional services' to help them privatize and contract out as well as slash jobs and replace staff with automated phone systems. This publication exposes Andersen Consulting and provides insight into the following questions: What are Andersen Consulting's favourite ways to profit from welfare reform? What is at stake for Canadians? What's wrong with the sweetheart deal signed between the Ontario government and Andersen Consulting and why was that deal slammed by the Ontario Auditor General in a recent report? Finally, this publication reveals Andersen Consulting's Top 10 major screw-ups around the world."
Source :
Related Andersen/Accenture Links :
See the Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Government Sites page

"Nellie's is a non-profit women's organization (in Toronto) helping women and children in crisis locate safe affordable housing, support services and a bridge to a better future. We operate a 36 bed emergency shelter for women and children who are homeless and women and children leaving violence. The Community Support Program provides aftercare and follow-up support and service to women and children who have left the shelter and are now living in the community."
- excellent collection of online resources --- incl. links to : Women's Shelters (Toronto and surrounding area | Ontario | Canada) - Issues (Poverty | Housing/Homelessness | Violence against women | Health | First Nations women | Consumer/Survivor) - Projects | Feminist | Children | Immigrant women | Lesbians | Women and the law |Transgendered women
Research (Reports | Statistics) - Action (Useful e-mail addresses | Marches and vigils)

By Joe Nocera
October 16, 2009
- review of a new book dealing with the 1930s Depression, and a cautionary note about assuming that the worst of the current financial crisis in the U.S. is over...

- incl. links to : Ridings and Candidates - Provincial Election History - Premiers of Ontario - Party Leaders - Links

Source:

Related Links:
- Go to the Political Parties and Elections Links in Canada (Provinces and Territories) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_prov_terr.htm

"No Excuse is a blog managed and mostly written by Hamilton Spectator poverty beat reporter, Bill Dunphy, and is part of the paper's larger Poverty Project. Look here daily for news items, events, resources, and a chance to engage in discussions with the paper, Dunphy and each other."

Related Link:

(Toronto)

Movement will get burned if it doesn't start hooking up with other social causes
August 2, 2007
By Wayne Roberts
The broken promise seems long ago, but Campaign 2000 is on the case, calling two weeks ago for all parties in the October Ontario election to update the commitment they made in the 80s to end child poverty by the new millennium the last one, that is. The Campaign's proposal has merit, ethics and logic on its side. But something in the strategy feels stale-dated. It's easy to imagine the project will be stuck on the remainder self with other single-interest group campaigns that made headway during the 20th century but are sputtering and stalling today.

NOTE: In the July 15/07 issue of the Canadian Social Research Newsletter, you'll find links to two Toronto Star articles about the Campaign 2000 initiative calling for all three provincial political parties to commit to developing a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy: the first article offers contextual information about the initiative, and the second contains reactions of each of the provincial parties. In the same section of the July 15 newsletter, you'll find links to the July 2007 Campaign 2000 Poverty Reduction Strategy Discussion Paper, along with links to 50+ Toronto Star articles in their recent War on Poverty series.

The Ontario Network of Employment Skills Training Projects (ONESTEP) is a province-wide umbrella organization for organizations that sponsor community-based training projects. Our member agencies provide over 450 programs throughout Ontario to help people prepare for, return to and/or maintain employment. More than 100,000 people use our members' programs each year. Services include career and personal counselling; literacy, ESL and numeracy programs; lifeskills courses; job-finding clubs; labour market adjustment activities; computer courses; and job placement.

"...a voluntary coalition of individuals and community organizations who have united to secure the passage in Ontario of a new law which would achieve a barrier-free society for persons with disabilities."
- - updated to September 30, 2002
- - links to almost a hundred documents related to the ODA...

Related Links:

September 30, 2002

Source:

All activities of the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) are guided by a clear vision : to help food banks relieve hunger in Ontario.

All OAFB reports: OAFB releases a number of key research studies throughout the year, including their annual Ontario Hunger Report. OAFB provides the provincial government with thoughtful research and policy solutions on a regular basis related to issues important to food banks and those they serve across the province.

Selected reports:

(PDF - 1.2MB, 24 pages)
We can end hunger. Think about it.
Source:

Related links:

Just how well should students expect to live while in school?
By Jeff Rybak
March 8, 2010
Okay, I’ll be the one to say it. I have no problem at all with. Apparently students funding their studies entirely on government loans are expected to survive on $7.50/day for food. And my reaction, mainly, is a big “so what?”
(...)
Source:

---

By Louise Brown
March 7, 2009
Source:

NOTE: Don't forget to click the "Comments" link at the top of the article to access 100+ reactions.
The most pathetic comments are the well-intentioned food shopping suggestions from frugal shoppers ().
The commenter who said "My family of 5 lives on about $4 per day for food" should be summarily dispatched to the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) to help them re-draft their food cost reports. Case studies in a 2008 OAFB study (see the link below) show that the cost of healthy food purchased from the grocery store was almost $40 per week for a single person and, for a family of two adults and a 7-year-old child, $85 weekly. Maybe the commenter's "family of five" consisted of one adult and four cats. Curiously, though, the $40/wk. amount for a healthy diet for a single person would actually leave $12.50 in the OSAP student's pocket at the end of each week.

---

(PDF - 2.9MB, 16 pages)
October 2009
(...) There can be no doubt that Ontario’s food banks are struggling to respond to the collateral damage caused by the global economic downturn. The challenge of hunger was already staggering before we were hit by the Great Recession: hundreds of thousands of our neighbours were turning to food banks. We are now faced with an even greater challenge: tens of thousands more Ontarians are turning to us for support, and many food banks are faced with a decline in donations.

---

Press Release
March 12, 2009
Toronto - Recession could push Ontario’s poverty rate up by four per cent in 2010 if the provincial government does not make key investments in this month’s stimulus budget, says a report released by the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB). Fighting Poverty: The Best Way to Beat the Recession proves that the provincial government must make strategic investments in social infrastructure, such as affordable housing and income supports, for the poorest Ontarians in order to stimulate the economy and contain poverty rates.

Complete report:

(PDF - 587K, 20 pages)
March 2009

(PDF - 2MB, 24 pages)
December 2008

(PDF - 1.3MB, 36 pages)
November 2008

Related link:

500,000 in Ontario facing poverty without budget help, report finds
March 12, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Toronto construction worker Mark Merner has been struggling to support his young family since his hours were slashed in half last fall. And he's worried it could get worse. "The construction industry is really slowing down and I've been told there might not be much work this summer," says the father of five children age 5 and younger, including a baby and a set of twins. The Merners are among about 500,000 Ontarians who will be driven into poverty by the recession unless this month's provincial budget boosts incomes and expands programs that support low-income families, says a report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
Source:

---

(PDF - 1.3MB, 36 pages)
November 2008
By Nathan Laurie
Key Facts:
* Poverty disproportionately affects certain populations, and has a complex mix of institutional and individual causes.
* Poverty has a price tag for all Ontarians.
* The cost of poverty is reflected in remedial, intergenerational, and opportunity costs.
* Reducing poverty with targeted policies and investments over the life course generates an economic return. This return is equal to a proportion of the assessed cost of poverty.

Related link:

Toll of health care, crime, social assistance $2,900 per household, economic analysis finds
November 20, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Poverty costs Ontario a staggering $38 billion a year – and we all pay the price, says a new report that offers the first-ever analysis of the problem's economic impact on everyone. Although the province's 905,000 poorest households bear the brunt of the cost, everyone feels the pinch, says the report written by a group of leading economic and public policy experts to be released at Queen's Park today.
Source:

News Release
August 19, 2008
The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) released a new report today, entitled Our Choice for a Better Ontario, in response to a call for submissions from the provincial government's Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction. The report sets a goal of cutting poverty in half by 2020 through a renewed investment by the federal and provincial governments.

Complete report:

(PDF - 1.4MB, 64 pages)
August 2008 (PDF file date)
"(...) Our challenge is great. Hunger and poverty disproportionately affects certain populations and places in Ontario. Ontario’s economy is also in a period of significant transition. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians lack the basics of life, including food, shelter, and education. We believe that our universal goal must be to cut poverty in half by 2020, with a focus on reducing the deepest poverty. In order to meet this goal, we have established twelve supportive goals focusing on key sectors, people, and places. "
- goals cover the following areas:
* Housing * Education * Financial Inclusion * Employment & Enterprise * Energy * Health * Neighbourhoods and communities * New Canadians * Single parents * First Nations * Ontarians with Disabilities * Children

Related link:

Low-fee credit unions for the poor and a plan to help low-income households pay for heat and hydro are among a broad series of initiatives needed to fight poverty in Ontario, say the province's food banks in a report released recently. Cutting poverty in half by 2020 would lift more than half a million Ontarians out of poverty and should be the McGuinty government's "commitment of a generation," says the report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
Source:

September 2, 2008

Government must act as prices rise, report says
June 26, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Ontario's weakening economy coupled with the rising cost of food, fuel and energy should be a "wake-up call" to action on poverty reduction in both Ottawa and at Queen's Park, say the province's food banks. The federal government must increase employment insurance benefits and expand eligibility for Ontarians, where currently just 27 per cent of unemployed workers qualify, says the report to be released today by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.

Complete report:

(PDF - 1.2MB, 24 pages)

Related OAFB links:

(1.2MB, 32 pages)
November 8, 2007

(PDF - 736K, 40 pages)
September 13, 2007

Source:

We unite over 100 communities across Ontario in a network of food banks from Windsor to Ottawa and Thunder Bay to Niagara Falls to relieve hunger.

- includes a plethora of position papers and briefs to the Ontario government; this is a must-see site.

(March 1998)
In this all-encompassing brief to Hon. Janet Ecker, OACL addresses reinvestment needs in areas such as aging families, individualized funding, the Special Services at Home program, the Ministry's restructuring efforts ("Making Services Work for People"), Individual Service Agreements (ISAs), Levels of Support (LOS), social assistance reform, deinstitutionalization, education. OACL also identified several immediate service delivery cost issues, such as escalating rates for workers compensation, pay equity shortfalls, etc.

- Submission by the Ontario Association for Community Living to the Standing Committee on Social Development

(OAYEC)
OAYEC is a non-profit, charitable organization providing supportive services to a network of 50+ youth employment counselling centres across Ontario.

(OCAP)
OCAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We mount campaigns against regressive government policies as they affect poor and working people.

- by John Clarke (Nov 9, 2001)

Selected site content:

The Province and the City of Toronto
Team up to Attack the Special Diet
March 19, 2010
By Liisa Schofield and John Clarke
Since 2005, a large part of OCAP's (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) work has involved organizing to obtain and defend access to a benefit known as the Special Diet Allowance (SDA). Under this, people living on the Province's sub poverty social assistance system who obtain the appropriate diagnoses from a medical provider, can receive up to an additional $250 a month for food. Access to the Special Diet has had to be fought for tooth and nail. Medical providers interested in helping poor people access this benefit are few and far between. (...) As this is being written, the prospect that the Liberals will use their upcoming Budget to abolish the Special Diet outright is looming very large ( - Feb. 3, 2010).
[ Liisa Schofield and John Clarke are organizers with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. ]
Source:
E-Bulletin No. 329
[ ]
The Socialist Project does not propose an easy politics for defeating capitalism or claim a ready alternative to take its place. We oppose capitalism out of necessity and support the resistance of others out of solidarity. This resistance creates spaces of hope, and an activist hope is the first step to discovering a new socialist politics.

Related link:

(OCAP)
OCAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We mount campaigns against regressive government policies as they affect poor and working people.

By John Clarke
August 22, 2008
A drastic reduction in the adequacy of income support payments is key to the neoliberal agenda. (...) The Toronto Relief Committee (TDRC), a working committee of union activists, social agency representatives and community organizers is planning for a September rally at the Ontario legislature. Demands will focus on social assistance rates, the minimum wage and housing.
Source:

John Clarke, author of the above article, is with OCAP.

Read about OCAP in :
-

by John Clarke
June 30, 2008
"(...)Clearly, the present round of Ontario Government consultations on poverty can't be wished away. It is dominating the political landscape in Ontario at the moment. In OCAP, we deplore this fact but have to recognize it. At present, we can only present our point of view and realize that we are not able to transfer community energy from talking with Liberals to mobilizing against them. However, there is one obvious limitation to the government's consultation strategy. At a certain point, the talking has to stop and the results of the process must be revealed. At that time, the striking lack of progress on poverty reduction is going to hit people in the face."
Source:

The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) is an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists. Based in Montreal, the CRG is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec.

[ ]

- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

(PDF file - 46K, 4 pages)
January 21, 2008
Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs Pre-Budget Hearings
Queen’s Park, Toronto
Presented by Jacquie Maund, Coordinator, Ontario Campaign 2000

The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care was founded in 1981 with a mandate to advocate for the development of high quality, non-profit child care services in the province of Ontario. The organization includes representatives from: education, health care, labour, child-welfare, injury prevention, rural, First Nation, Francophone, social policy, anti poverty, professional, student and women’s organizations. In addition, we serve community based child care programs and 15 local coalitions across the province.

5 July 07
The Ontario government today accounted for how it is spending $142.5 million in previously announced child care funds. The allocations mean that existing child care programs will have the funding to keep current spaces open for Ontario children and families, but does not expand the child care system.

News release
January 8, 2004
"Yesterday Minister Bountrogianni announced that this year's federal Multi-lateral Framework money - 9.7 million dollars - will go to non-profit, regulated, child care centres for capital repairs and upgrades. This is the first announcement of new funding for child care in Ontario for some time and is welcomed by the child care community. It meets an important need and is an encouraging sign that the new Liberal government recognizes the value of not-for-profit and regulated care.

See also the Canadian Social Research Links Early Childhood Development Links page

"The Ontario Coalition for Social Justice is a coalition of provincial and national groups promoting social and economic justice in Ontario.
The OCSJ is committed to:
- expanding the quality, accessibility and universality of health care, education and social welfare programmes
- promoting anti-racism
- advocating economic policies that protect the rights of workers and lead to fair employment with compensation at a liveable wage
- protecting the programmes and services that ensure our quality of life in Ontario."

- incl. links to : Media Releases - Campaigns - Resources - Newsletter & E-bulletin - Our Network - Become a Member - About Us

Media Release
Posted May 14, 2004
Endorsement by Ontario economists and labour policy experts of improvements to Ontario's minimum wages and income security programs.

The ODSP [Ontario Disability Support Program] Action Coalition is made up of community clinic caseworkers, agency staff, and community activists. We undertake campaigns and activities designed to raise awareness of issues affecting persons in receipt of Ontario Disability Support Program benefits. The ODSP Action Coalition was formed in 2002 as a coalition of lawyers, community workers and consumers. The coalition is leading the campaign to document and publicize problems with ODSP and has engaged in lobbying and advocacy to encourage solutions to those problems.
- incl. links to: * About Us * Campaigns * Resources * Coalition Activities * Help for Recipients * Links * Contact Us

---

Selected site content:

By Mike Creek (25 in 5 Network for Poverty reduction),
Adrianna Tetley (Association of Ontario Health Centres),
ODSP Action Coalition
March 20, 2010
Ontario is about to face one of the biggest tests of its commitment to poverty reduction. Will it comply with an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruling that says it must end discrimination in its special diet allowance program, or will it target the program for cuts as part of its deficit reduction plan? At stake is not only Ontario's "25-in-5" poverty reduction target but also the very lives of the many Ontarians who have nowhere else to turn for support. The special diet program is a long-standing part of Ontario's social assistance system. It provides additional allowances for people with higher food costs due to prescribed medical dietary treatment.(...) In 2008, Ontario committed to a five-year poverty reduction strategy. All parties in the Legislature agreed to take public action to reduce poverty by 25 per cent by the year 2013 – the 25 in 5 target. We celebrated the turning of the corner on the poverty debate in Ontario. We would be the first to applaud the government's decision to maintain the special diet program and, in keeping with the tribunal's ruling, enhance allowances accordingly. Eliminating the program, however, could erase all the goodwill the government has built on poverty reduction.
Source:

*
*
*

Related link:

March 18, 2010
"...the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario and Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario strongly urge you to withdraw the directive and respect the professional opinion of authorized health professionals, including nurse practitioners, in those cases where, in their clinical judgment, a social assistance recipient’s condition entitles them to the Special Diet Allowance.
Source:

---

January 28, 2010
The Coalition had an opportunity to meet with members of the Social Assistance Review Advisory Council (SARAC) in late January, and to present them with a list of quick changes that could be made to some of the "stupid rules" in ODSP. This Council was recently appointed by the government to give advice on two things: some "quick fix" changes to counterproductive rules, and the mandate and scope of a more comprehensive social assistance review to be carried out later this year.

Related link:

(Word file - 127K, 16 pages)
The ODSP Action Coalition is made up of community clinic caseworkers, agency staff, and community activists. We undertake campaigns and activities designed to raise awareness of issues affecting persons in receipt of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits.

---

October 6, 2009
The ODSP Action Coalition is requesting individuals and groups to endorse our Disability Declaration. The Declaration sets out some of the rights that people with disabilities have according to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and then states what changes the Ontario government needs to make to ODSP to fulfill those rights. Although Canada has not yet ratified the Convention, the Coalition believes it is important for people with disabilities and organizations that work with them to use it in articulating how and why their needs must be met.

News Release
February 12, 2009
TORONTO – A report by the 25 in 5 Poverty Reduction Network shows how the Ontario government could get three-quarters of the way towards its goal to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent. A Blueprint for Economic Stimulus and Poverty Reduction in Ontario – the result of consultations in 30 Ontario communities – lays out a plan that could reduce the number of poor Ontarians by 197,420 (15 per cent) and reduce the number of poor children in Ontario by 62,000 (19 per cent) within the next three years.

Complete report:

(PDF - 157K, 28 pages)
February 2009

*
* (Sheila Block of the OFL wrote the report)

Related link:

February 12, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten
If Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to protect Ontario's faltering economy, he should give more money to people like René Adams so she can buy her daughters healthy food and pay for swimming lessons, poverty activists say. The Toronto single mother, who volunteers at a local food bank while she looks for full-time work, says every extra penny she receives goes back into the local economy. (...) In addition to cutting poverty, putting money into the hands of those who need it most is the best way to stimulate the economy at a time of global economic uncertainty, says a report by the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction. (...) The proposed economic stimulus and poverty reduction package calls on Ontario to spend $5 billion over the next two years to beef up welfare and other social supports and build new child-care spaces and social housing units.
Source:

- Campaign to Save Medicare

Ontario Health Coalition
Media Release - May 27, 2002
Source :

Ownership Matters: Lessons from Ontario's Long-Term Care Facilities
"On May 27, 2002 the Ontario Health Coalition released Ownership Matters: Lessons from Ontario's Long-Term Care Facilities. This is a report prepared for the Hospital Employees' Union of British Columbia by the OHC which examines the effect of the Ontario Tory government's privatization of Long Term Care on the quality of care and patients."
(25 printed pages)
Boomers beware* - this report contains some disturbing information for those of us who will be unfortunate enough to require care in a long term care facility in Ontario in our waning years. Here's a short list of the findings contained in the report :
"- Ontarians in long term care facilities receive extremely low levels of service compared to other jurisdictions.
- Ontarians in long term care facilities are among the oldest and the sickest but receive the least therapy, rehabilitation and nursing care.
- Basic accommodation costs in Ontario' s long term care facilities are among the highest in the country.
- Staff workloads, overtime and accident and injury rates are on the increase.
- Minimum standards and facility inspections have decreased in the last half decade.
- The "second tier" - percentage of beds held for residents who pay a surcharge - has increased while the percentage of beds held for those who can' t afford the premium rates has decreased.
- Connections between government and private owner/operators are unprecedented."
(*not just Ontario boomers either...)

[Gilles' comment:] My own mother had a stroke in the fall of 1995, leaving her paralysed on her left side and with some cognitive difficulties. I don't have any cognitive difficulties, however, and I've seen the steady erosion of the quality of care in the three long term care facilities where my mother has lived since then. Reduced levels of care, downsizing, lack of adequate training for new staff, morale problems, more residents suffering from depression, and, oh, yeah --- increasing demand. In April 1998, the Ontario government announced a $1 billion investment to create 20,000 new long-term care beds across the province. Read the report to find out why this turns out to be a building bonanza for the private sector.("The corporations that helped to bring the Conservatives to power were eager to capitalize on that desperation. It now seems they'll been given their chance - at the taxpayer's expense.")

August 5, 2008
Economic inequality translates into limited access to health-care for province's poor
Source:

NOTE: The co-authors of this article, Dr. Michael Rachlis, Dr. Gary Bloch and Dr. Itamar Tamari,
were also involved in writing the following series of three articles in the May 2008 issue of the Ontario Medical Review:

Poverty and Health: article series
The Ontario Physicians Poverty Work Group has prepared a series of articles that provide physicians with an overview of the issues related to poverty and health, indicators and resources that can be used in practice, along with strategies to help mitigate the health effects of poverty in individual patients and communities.

* (PDF - 157K, 6 pages)

* (PDF - 143K, 5 pages)

* (PDF - 2MB, 5 pages)

Source:

[ ]

Related link:

New report shows how poverty impacts health and what doctors can do to
help address this growing health-care crisis
TORONTO, July 29 /CNW/ - A new report by a group of Ontario doctors highlights the ways in which poverty affects the health outcomes of adults and children and the role health-care professionals can play in reducing the impact of poverty on people's health. The report, "Why poverty makes us sick," authored by The Ontario Physicians Poverty Work Group, reveals that poverty substantially raises the rate of chronic illness, infant mortality and lowers life expectancy.
Source:
(formerly Canada Newswire)

OMSSA is a non-profit municipal social services association formed in 1950 to collect and share information on social services and to provide professional development and consulting services.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

(PDF file - 1.3MB, 25 pages)
September 18–20, 2007
Toronto, Ontario
"(...)The theme for this year’s forum, “It Starts with Us”, is reflected in the main message within the keynote addresses and workshops being offered over the two-and-a-half- day forum. Delegates who deliver municipal social housing and homelessness services as well as shelter and hostel representatives from across Ontario can expect to come away from this forum with tools, resources and concrete examples of partnerships, as well as a renewed sense of the importance of collaboration as they pursue the goal of healthy communities and a home for all Ontarians."

ONPHA is an association of non-profit housing organizations which provide high quality affordable housing for low and moderate income people in communities across Ontario. Our membership includes 694 private and municipal non-profit housing providers.
Great resource for non-profit housing associations! Membership (limited to non-profit housing groups) gives access to a large body of information, but there's lots here for non-members too. Here's just a sample of what you'll find on this site: ONPHA's Services - Management Tools - Publications - Non Profit Housing - Tenant Access Info - Public Affairs - Government Relations - Tenant Protection Act - Program Issues - Municipalities - Media Releases - Connections - Links (large collection of Canadian and international housing links)

Media Release
March 14, 2007
Toronto – There are not enough apartments to rent in Ontario and those that are available are unaffordable for the average worker. These are the findings of “Where’s Home? 2006: A Picture of Housing Need in Ontario.” The report is produced by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) and the Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF).

(PDF file - 262K, 45 pages)
March 2007
This latest in a series of reports co-produced by ONPHA and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, Ontario Council finds that there aren't enough apartments available in Ontario, and those that are available are unaffordable for the average worker

(PDF file - 17K, 1 page)
Undated (PDF file is dated March 14/07)

- back to 1999

Sources:

The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada) is the organized voice of the Canadian co-operative housing movement. We exist to unite, represent and serve the community of housing co-operatives across Canada and member organizations that support their operation and development.

ONPHA is the voice of non-profit housing in Ontario. ONPHA unites 770 non-profit organizations providing housing in 220 communities across Ontario. Our members include municipal and private non-profits of all sizes, with all types of funding.

Related links:

The Wellesley Institute advances the social determinants of health through rigorous community-based research, reciprocal capacity building, and the informing of public policy.

- incl. links to key online resources, presentations and blog entries on this issue

- from the

For more info on the 2007 Ontario Budget, go to the Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Government Links page

"The Ontario Project for Inter-Clinic Community Organizing - OPICCO - grew out of the Toronto community legal clinic training session in April 2002, the theme of which was 'Community Development for Changing Times'. A number of Toronto clinic workers indicated an interest in meeting on an ongoing basis to continue the exciting dialogue begun at the conference.
The purpose of the site is to provide community organizations & community legal clinics in Ontario with tools for organizing.
This website is an outcome of the collective desire to continue the networking online and thus expand collaboration and resource-sharing throughout the province of Ontario and beyond..."

- incl. (Un) Employment Insurance Campaign - Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids - Justice With Dignity Campaign - Review of Social Union Framework Agreement - Access to Disability Benefits - It's Time for a Fair Wage, Not a Poverty Wage! - Housing & Homelessness - Miscellaneous

- incl. Advocacy & Activism - Forms and Applications - Media Resources & Contacts - Technology Toolkit - Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) - Ontario Government ODSP & OW Links - Ontario Legislative Links - Online Legal Workshops & Information - Publications available Online - Resources on Board Development & Meeting Management - Community ICT & Networking Resources - Proposal Development - PovNet U - Organizers Database

- large collection of links to local social advocacy and activist resources in ~ 50 locales in Ontario (cities, towns, regions) - includes contact info and (if applicable) website URLs. Also includes similar info on 17 province-wide networks...

- links to dozens of reports organized under the following themes : Advocacy - Communications & Media - Housing /Landlord & Tenant - Social Assistance - Work and Employment Insurance - Worker's Compensation - Income Security - Disability - Vulnerable Workers - Virtual Volunteering - Women and Poverty - Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) Brochures - Proposal Writing - Fact Sheets on the Growing Gap (CSJ)

Related Link:

The Ontario Social Development Council is a province-wide, charitable organization which proposes and responds to social and economic policies and programs to ensure the protection and enhancement of fundamental human rights, dignity and well-being.

[from ]
"The OSSN is an Ontario-wide coalition of low income individuals, anti-povery groups, persons with disabilities, labour groups, legal clinics, social agencies and faith-based groups
committed to addressing poverty and inequity by working on issues of concern to low income communities and vulnerable groups."

- incl. the following content: How to raise funds locally for your group - A reflection on participation by the Ontario Social Safety Network in the Rogers Inquest - ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) Coalition on the move - It's time for an income security system that works! - Campaign update: Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids - Regional report: Northumberland Coalition Against Poverty

[from ]
(includes OSSN content up to January 2001)

In this Issue:
Changes to Ontario Works/Ontario Disability Support Program - Changes - Calls for Raise in Welfare Rates - Mandatory Drug Testing - "A Politics of Hope : Renewing the Public Good" ISARC Forum - Government Appeal of Spouse-in-the-House Charter Case - Information about the most recent and the forthcoming OSSN meetings.
- Source: website

FIVE YEARS LATER: Welfare Rate Cuts Anniversary Report
Ontario Social Safety NetWork
Nov. 29, 2000


Toronto--Welfare recipients must get by on a welfare cheque that buys 30% less than when the Mike Harris government was elected in 1995, according to a report released today by the Ontario Social Safety NetWork. In real value, welfare benefits today are the lowest that they have been for 35 years.
- Includes the following sections : The real value of welfare benefits - Evictions - Ontario versus the other provinces - Poverty and Health - Rent costs - Poverty Index - Food - Harming Women - Food bank use -
Click on the "Welfare Cuts" link to see the Workfare Watch list of changes to welfare in Ontario under the Harris Government from 1995 to date.

In this Issue:  Next OSSN Meeting - Violence Against Women Lobby - Women Win Charter Challenge - Community Update - THE "STAY" IS LIFTED; WHAT ABOUT  OW/ODSP? New Income and Housing Clinics - Two Stage Application Process - OSSN Meeting Report

In this issue: Next OSSN Meeting - Getting Money Owed by ODSP - Life Sentence for Welfare Fraud - People’s Inquiry into ODSP Planned for Ottawa - Welfare Rates Need to be Raised to a Livable Level - Human Rights Project Update - Beep..Beep...Beep...Your Benefits Have Just Been Terminated

Table of Contents 1. Recent OSSN News 2. Next OSSN Meeting 3. October 2nd: National Actions to End Homelessness
4. November 24th: Blow the Whistle on Child Poverty 5. Newsflash: Step Program Cuts Stalled 6. Changes Promised to Disability Application 7. A Few Questions for Mike Harris on Workfare and Farm Labour 8. Liens on Houses of Welfare Recipients 9. Proposal for a Social Welfare Law Centre 10. New Tenant's Survival Manual 11. Quebec Welfare Case Headed for Supreme Court? 12. Workfare Watch Report Released 13. Membership Form

Press Release
Ontario Social Safety NetWork
November 22, 1999
"When Minister Baird brags about reduced welfare rolls, he should also tell Ontarians how many fewer children receive benefits..."

- Ontario Social Safety NetWork (August 14, 1998)

- incl. links to : Ontario Tenants homepage | Residential Tenancies Act | Finding an apartment | Ontario Landlord and Tenant Q&A | Housing and poverty reports | Other housing links | Tenant rights and social justice | Renters muncipal issues | Rent Control | Apartment safety & security | Tenant health: Toxic mold, cockroaches | Consumer Information | Tenant association organizing | Utility costs: Ontario hydro, natural gas | Ontario MPP list | more...
- also includes resources organized by municipality for the largest three dozen municipalities in the province (under "Community Information" in the right-hand margin of the home page.)

The goal of the Ontario Women's Justice Network (OWJN) is to promote an understanding of the law with respect to the issue of violence against women and children. We provide accessible legal information to women and their supporters in a manner that reflects the experiences and realities of women. We review and analyse written law (legislation) and case law (court decisions).
Check the for links to the following information : Justice Issues - Legal Info - Online Resources - Archive
The section includes links to sites in the following areas : Crisis Services (Shelters, Sexual Assault Centres and Transition Houses) - Woman Abuse Issues - Legal Resources - Research - International Links

- Ontario Public Interest Research Groups
- includes links to PIRGs at the following Ontario universities : Brock - Carleton - Guelph - Kingston - McMaster - Ottawa - Peterborough - Toronto - Waterloo - Windsor - York

John Stapleton's personal website.
John is a Policy Fellow with the Metcalf Foundation and St. Christopher House in Toronto.

Selected site content
from Open Policy:

May 8, 2010
By James Daw
A funny thing happened on the way to regulating payday lenders in the midst of a recession. Owners of the only public company based in Canada that specializes in high-cost, short-term loans have seen their shares triple in price. (...) John Stapleton, a consultant and expert in social assistance policy, says some consumers will pay dearly to cash a cheque or get a payday loan rather than risk having a deposit seized by a lender. “You can’t (easily) find out if you have a lien against you that could result in money being seized from an account,” he said Friday. Welfare recipients he has interviewed are refused a bank account for lack of official identification. So they pay high fees to a cash their meagre monthly cheques from Ontario Works.
Source:

-----------------------------------

We may not be out of the economic storm yet.
By John Stapleton
Social Policy Consultant.
April 29, 2010
(...)
Living in the “perfect calm,” what others call the “eye of the storm,” is disarmingly placid. Interest rates have almost reached zero, an historically low standard. If you can borrow, money costs next to nothing. The financial system is awash in credit, which it is using to back both good bets and bad. We are awash in liquidity.
(...) Let's remember that after the two big recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, interest rates were high and governments could predict recovery because all they had to do was lower the rates and the skies cleared. This time around things are very different as monetary and fiscal policy can only get tighter while governments will be tapped out. This recession isn't over, it's just taking a breather.
Source:
- News and perspectives daily

-----------------------------------

If all taxes are bad, surely getting rid of them would make the country a much better place.
April 14, 2010
(...) there already are a few countries where people pay very few taxes and government is very small. Haiti, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Afghanistan lead that list. They have it figured out. What are we waiting for? Our leaders have seen the light. What's wrong with the rest of us?

-----------------------------------

If increased welfare [dependency] rates after the crisis don’t surprise you, who’s on that welfare might.
By John Stapleton
April 14, 2010
With every recession in the past, welfare caseloads peaked after the immediate crisis was over. The recession of the early 1980s hit Canada hardest in 1981, but the number of welfare recipients in Ontario topped out in March 1983. The Canadian economy suffered another blow in 1991 and 1992, but the number of Ontarians on welfare was at its highest in March 1994 as the long recovery was beginning. The reason for this lag effect can be spelled out very simply: Employment Insurance or EI.
(...)
With the implementation of a , a 37.5-hour work week for a person earning minimum wage will result in gross income of $20,000 a year, while the single welfare rate pays just over $7,000 a year in maximum benefits. This means single people who choose or are forced to choose welfare are settling for an income that’s just over one third what they would make with steady work.

-----------------------------------

March 31, 2010
With the recent increase in Ontario's minimum wage, the gap between the minimum wage and the welfare rate is as wide as it was during the Depression....

-----------------------------------

February 24, 2010
Economists measure economic recovery using statistics that ignore the reality faced by the majority of the population....
Source:

The Mark is a national movement to record Canadian ideas and propel the people behind them. It is a collection of thoughts and a tool for facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue and debate between outstanding Canadians.

-----------------------------------

(PDF - 173K, 6 pages)
By John Stapleton
Toronto, March 2 – Reform is required for social program rules that prevent the poor from saving in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), according to a study released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Down but Not Out: Reforming Social Assistance Rules that Punish the Poor for Saving,” author John Stapleton says that encouraging asset accumulation, even in small amounts, is crucial in helping to lift people out of poverty. Yet most Canadian welfare, disability and social service programs deny or cancel benefits if applicants or recipients place a modest level of savings in an RRSP or TFSA. Barring a province-led effort at reform, says Stapleton, the federal government should take the lead by calling on provinces and territories to exempt meaningful RRSP and TFSA amounts from their welfare asset rules, leaving individual jurisdictions to decide the appropriate levels

NOTE: this paper includes a table entitled
"Treatment of Registered Instruments in Provincial Social Assistance Programs in Canada, 2010"
Recommended reading!!
March 2010
For each Canadian province and territory, you'll find information about how the welfare system treats income from Registered Instruments (including Registered Retirement Savings Plans, Registered Education Savings Plans, Registered Disability Savings Plans and Tax Free Savings Accounts). The table also includes current liquid asset exemption levels for selected family types and sizes in each jurisdiction.
Source:

--------------------------------------

Economists measure economic recovery using statistics
that ignore the reality faced by the majority of the population.
February 24, 2010
By John Stapleton
"... for everyone who is not an economist (or a journalist who reports the findings of economists), a recessionary period is generally defined as “bad times,” meaning lower living standards, unemployment, lower spending, and lack of opportunity. And as the present recession proves, the economy can grow while the lives of the great majority of people who inhabit the economy do not improve at all."
Source:

The Mark is founded on the idea that thousands of credible Canadians have important things to say but cannot reach a national audience. (...) The Mark will be their platform. At its core The Mark is a national movement to record Canadian ideas and propel the people behind them. It is a collection of thoughts and a tool for facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue and debate between outstanding Canadians.

--------------------------------------

February 20, 2010
A single mother earning $15,000 a year could get about $8,000 extra income from tax, child and other benefits. She would then have about $23,100 to spend. Single mothers earning much more could also qualify to raise their income. (...) John Stapleton, a consultant who works with the Metcalf Foundation and a volunteer tax preparer, recalls a study conducted before he retired from the Ontario government. One hundred welfare recipients who were not collecting child benefits included 95 who had never applied for those benefits, or had not completed a tax return. Only five were not eligible for benefit. (...) There are many reasons for missing out on benefits: Lack of awareness, lack of reading or mathematical skills, bad experiences in other countries, fear of abusive spouses who demand the benefits. (...) Most Canadians are proud we have social benefits for low-income earners, young parents and the elderly. If you have good reading skills and know someone who could be missing out, you could do some homework.Consider visiting the websites of the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada, Ontario Ministry of Revenue and Service Ontario.
Source:

--------------------------------------

Welfare historians and number-crunchers, Rejoice!

(PDF - 159K, 1 page)
This graph shows the steady increase in ODSP cases since the recession began
Source:

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(PDF - 159K, 1 page)
This graph shows the steady increase in OW cases since the recession began
Source:

---

(Excel file - 52K)
This excel worksheet shows the steady increase in ODSP and OW cases since January 2008
Source:

---

(PDF - 64K, 1 page)
This graph shows the monthly change in income of a single person and a single mother with one child on social assistance in Ontario from 1935 to 2009
Source:

---

(Excel file - 26K)
This excel worksheet shows a comparison of incomes between a single person working at minimum wage and a single person on social assistance since 1967
Source:
NOTE: If you're having a problem accessing this file, try this:
1. Go to
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page; this Excel file is the fifth link from the bottom of the page (on May 21, 2010)

The source of these files is the website.

---

Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity and Open Policy Ontario
call for improvements to Working Income Tax Benefit design in Ontario to help low-income earners escape welfare.
September 2, 2009
Press Release
Toronto – The government of Ontario should accept the invitation from the federal government to modify the design of its Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB). WITB benefits should be re-oriented to support low-income earners when they work more, thereby easing their move from social assistance onto full-time employment when welfare benefits are lost.

Complete report:

(PDF - 897K, 28 pages)
September 2009
Open Policy Ontario
John Stapleton, Principal
"Low-income Ontarians who are attempting to break out of poverty to achieve financial sustainability often find barriers in their way. In fact, many who try to break away from welfare and find employment face strong disincentives to work. They continue to struggle with insufficient work, low wages, and little-to-no wage progression. (...) This report is not about addressing the full range of welfare reform; rather, it seeks to merge the WITB and Ontario’s welfare system and thus provide greater incentives for low-income Ontarians to achieve full-time employment by reducing the barriers created by the welfare wall. (...)

The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity is an independent, not-for-profit organization that deepens public understanding of macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic progress. We are funded by the Government of Ontario and are mandated to share our research findings directly with the public. The Institute serves as the research arm of the . The mandate of the Task Force, announced in the April 2001 Speech from the Throne, is to measure and monitor Ontario’s competitiveness, productivity, and economic progress compared to other provinces and US states and to report to the public on a regular basis.

---

Forget trying to reform the current system and build a new one that is both simpler and fairer
June 2, 2009
By John Stapleton
When Ontario's long-promised review of welfare begins this spring, the provincial government faces a stark choice. Does it spend years trying to unravel a set of 800 social assistance rules that make up the current outdated system? Or will this government take the bolder road and build an entirely new and improved income security system? (...) The social assistance system in Ontario was rebuilt during the 1990s with the introduction of the Ontario Works Act and the Ontario Disability Support Program Act. The purpose was to provide a basic welfare program in Ontario Works whose success was predicated on the principle that only the neediest of the needy would receive assistance. Success was defined in terms of leaving the program. Reliance on the program was considered dependency. That system does not work. It needs replacing.
Source:

John Stapleton is a Metcalf Innovations Fellow, and Community Undertaking Social Policy Fellow at St. Christopher House in Toronto.
This article is based on his report on Ontario's new income architecture, The 'Ball' or the 'Bridge': The stark choice for social assistance reform in Ontario (see below).
[ - John Stapleton's personal website ]

Complete report:

(PDF - 243K, 5 pages)
May 2009
By John Stapleton
"(...) If Ontario chooses to keep the ‘ball’ (the 800 rules that guide welfare in Ontario) stuck together and loosen eligibility rules (as it has historically done during recessions), caseloads will climb and peak approximately three years following the end of the recession at tremendous cost to the province while thwarting human potential in a significant portion of Ontario’s adult population. The choice is stark for social assistance reform in Ontario. We either can risk more than doubling Ontario’s social assistance population as we did in the early 1990s or we can build the new bridge. The choice is ours to make."

Source:

[ ]

Press Release
February 12, 2009
TORONTO – Without government action, the lack of adequate income security programs could plunge Ontarians suffering the worst of the current recession into dire straits, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).Silence of the Lines: Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Crash of 2008 shows how the economic downturn is already worse than the Great Depression but predicts different results for Ontarians who end up down on their luck.
Source:
Ontario Alternative Budget
[ ]

Complete report:

(PDF - 135K, 5 pages)
February 2009
By John Stapleton
"(...) people who once could successfully apply for welfare during a rough patch (along with all the people turned away from EI) are going to be turned away at the welfare office. The reason for this is that since the last major recession, governments have brought in four significant sets of changes:
• Lower social assistance rates;
• Much lower assets limits;
• Earning exemptions policies that do not apply to new applicants; and
• ‘Workfare’ — now called ‘community participation’.
The confluence of these four sets of changes has not been tested in a recession but when the ‘new poor’ make a welfare application, they will be turned down to live off lower paid jobs or their dwindling savings. When they re-apply later on, they will be told that ‘any job is a good job’ and will be pointed in the direction of the relatively plentiful low paid jobs that will be available.

December 24, 2008
Obituary
By Gay Abbate
"(...) Dorothea Crittenden was a trailblazer who devoted her life to helping build Ontario's welfare system. She was also a key player in the creation of the Canada Assistance Plan, a federal-provincial cost-sharing plan that guarantees all Canadians equal access to social assistance."

As a rule, I don't include links to obituaries on my site or in my newsletter. In this case, however, I've made an exception based on the valuable historical insights that I've found in the obituary, and moreso in the paper below by John Stapleton, and that I wanted to share with Canadian social historians --- more pieces of the puzzle, as it were...
[...and no, I won't link to your Aunt Bertha's obituary. Don't even ask.]

The above obituary by Gay Abbate appeared in The Globe and Mail on December 23, and it's based in part on information provided by Dr. Crittenden in the course of interviews with John Stapleton in 1991.
The content of those interviews appears in the paper below, which provides valuable historical information about Canadian social policy from the Depression to the mid-1970's when she was Ontario's Deputy Minister of Community and Social Services. Of particular interest to Canadian social historians, I'm sure, will be sections like * What Ontario gave up for CAP * Project 500 in the 1970s * the cap on CAP (I should note that the cap on CAP was in the early 1990s and not the 1980s, as noted in the above obituary. John's paper has the correct info on that.)

(PDF - 355K, 22 pages)
January 2007

December 24, 2008
John Stapleton
With the adoption of , Ontario plans to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent in five years. It will be tough for the Ontario government to meet this commitment as poverty usually increases during recessions and welfare caseloads grow. Poverty and its attendant costs increase a lot in major recessions. Just like the Great Depression, we started the present recession with a liquidity crisis, a debt bubble and a crisis in confidence. By 1932, Ontario's relief expenditures had tripled while old age pension costs had doubled. Governments are now bracing for a new onslaught but we will not see these spectacular cost increases in the current recession.
Source:

Related links:
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

-------------------------

Spooked by the prospect of recession?
Toronto-based social policy analyst John Stapleton teaches us a valuable history lesson with his new piece The ‘Last Recession Spook’: A Very Curable Disease, released by the CCPA as part of its Ontario Alternative Budget technical paper series. This paper looks at the history of public investments during economic downturns and finds the ghost of the last recession (in the 1990s) still haunts Canadians, limiting our thinking of what’s possible to modest terms. Exhorting Canadians to start real change and improvement, he writes, “The last recession was unlike all others and rather than reducing government programs during recessions, we used to increase them.”

(PDF File, 157K, 5 pages)
By John Stapleton
April 2008
Source:

By John Stapleton
January 04, 2008
"...there are some straightforward solutions (to the problem of families caught in the cycle of poverty).
I offer four:
- Reduce Marginal Effective Tax Rates for adults with low incomes
- Stabilize households in transition to greater self-reliance
- Support children in their transition to adulthood through a "Time-out"
- Create a new government responsibility centre to promote accountable interactions: A new government responsibility centre created from existing government ministries should be tasked with resolving the multiple barriers that now result from pro-gram overlap and duplication."
Source:

-------------------------------------------------------

(PDF file - 1MB, 62 pages)
John Stapleton
November 2007
[ -(in PDF format - 7.2MB, 24 slides]
This report documents the disincentives to achieving greater self-reliance within Ontario’s welfare, housing and social support system. It aims to make understandable to policymakers and the public how removing subsidies from poor Ontarians in an uncoordinated way makes it impossible for recipients to achieve greater self-reliance. Research was undertaken with members of the Somali, Vietnamese-Chinese and St. Christopher House communities. The issues of disincentives are viewed through the lens of first generation poor immigrants receiving benefits from multiple sources, and youth who have grown up in public housing in households with social assistance as the main income source.(...) The report outlines a series of recommendations for policy solutions that can be taken right away to eliminate some of the barriers thrown up by multiple subsidies and program policies. The ultimate goal for this report is to call attention to the need for a new governance model – one that enables governments and their agencies to forge policies and procedures in a coordinated way so that the transition to self-reliance is a healthy, supported process for people.
Source:

The goal of the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation is to enhance the effectiveness of people and organizations working together to help Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy and creative society.

(PDF file - 100K, 12 pages)
2005
Article by John Stapleton and Catherine Laframboise
"(...) The report of Wallace R. Campbell and the Advisory Committee on Direct Relief to the Provincial Government of Ontario resulted in the first standardized welfare policy in Ontario and laid the foundation for welfare as we know it today — cash assistance to needy families and individuals."

(PDF file - 356K, 22 pages)
January 2007
By John Stapleton and Catherine Laframboise
Dr. Crittenden was Deputy Minister of Community and Social Services from 1974 to1978. In the early sixties, she was Ontario’s chief negotiator during the development and implementation of the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), which came into effect in April 1966. She offers valuable historical insights on life during and after the war, on the development of social assistance in Ontario, and on the federal-provincial aspects of welfare in Canada's largest provinces.

(Toronto)
"Parkdale Community Legal Services is a community legal clinic located on Queen Street in the west end of Toronto. We provide free legal advice, assistance and representation to low income residents living in the Parkdale area. We are funded by Legal Aid Ontario and Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Since 1971, Parkdale Community Legal Services has delivered poverty law services to low-income residents of Parkdale. We cover a wide variety of subject areas, including social assistance, workers' rights, tenants' rights, immigration and refugee claims, mental health law, and domestic violence issues."
- incl. links to : A Bit of History - Law Reform Briefs and Reports - Our Community - Get Involved with PCLS! - Activism at PCLS - Psychiatric Survivor Issues - Right to OHIP Coverage - Special Focus: Homelessness - Our Osgoode Connection - Law Links - Social Justice
Related Link:

PeacockPoverty is a Canadian collective of individuals with an experience of poverty who join together to share knowledge, strength, talent and wisdom with each other and friends. The collective is autonomous, independent of agency affiliation, by and for poor people and friends.

From Reuel Amdur
in Peacock Poverty:

December 14, 2009
by Reuel Amdur
Social worker and freelance writer Reuel Amdur asks some pointed questions about the 2009 Ontario Auditor General's report.

Related link:

December 7, 2009

-------------

Also from Reuel Amdur
in The Canadian Charger:

October 22, 2009

By Reuel S. Amdur
The voice is the voice of Dalton McGuinty, but the hands are the hands of Mike Harris.

June 29, 2009

By Reuel S. Amdur
Overview and critique of Ontario's two social assistance programs, Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

Source:
- "Canada's National E-Weekly"

"Through research, community development and public education the Peterborough Social Planning Council works to build a strong community."
- incl. links to : Annual Report - Membership and Donations - Volunteer Opportunities - Publications - Projects - Newsletter - Events - Funders - Boards and Committees - Staff Profiles - Links - Contact Information - Employment Opportunities

November 2008
This PollutionWatch study examines the links between reported industrial air releases and income throughout the Great Lakes basin.
- incl. short abstract of the study and links to the complete report and fact sheets (all of which appear below)

New study examines links between pollution and poverty in Great Lakes basin and Toronto
News Release
November 27, 2008
Toronto, ON – People living in poverty in the Great Lakes basin may be experiencing an increased burden of high air pollution from industrial facilities in their communities, says a new study released today by the Canadian Environmental Law Association and Environmental Defence through the groups’ PollutionWatch project. The study, An Examination of Pollution and Poverty in the Great Lakes Basin, found 37 communities, known as census subdivisions, in the Great Lakes basin have high poverty rates at or above the national average (11.8%) and high releases of toxic air pollutants (over 100,000 kg) from industrial facilities.

Complete report:

(PDF - 12.3MB[*see note below], 69 pages)
November 2008

Fact sheets:

(PDF - 5.2MB, 19 pages)

(PDF - 2.1MB, 17 pages)
November 2008

Related link:

Study finds low-income families, already facing low levels of health, are placed at further risk
November 27, 2008
By Moira Welsh
Many of Toronto's poorest residents live near industries that spew the highest levels of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air, a groundbreaking report has found. Low-income families, many already facing diminished health from stress, bad nutrition, diabetes and poor dental care, are placed at further risk because they breathe air contaminated with pollutants suspected of causing cancer and reproductive disorders, say the authors of the report.
Source:
The

*COMMENT re. filesizes:
According to the , a 12.3MB file will take just over 30 minutes to download on a 56K dialup connection.
Sure, most of us who surf the Net using a broadband Internet connection will only wait three minutes or so (!?!) for this file to download, but it's possible to optimize PDF files for the Web so that they're smaller and easier to download for everyone, but especially for people with slower connections. Here's (PDF - 96 pages) that's just over 2MB in size to prove that even complex pages can be converted into PDF without bloating the file size. My gratuitous advice to website administrators : if you see that your PDF file is larger than a few megs, try to strip down some of the fluff (colours, special fonts, etc.) to reduce the size of the final product.

Community Information Weblog on "This community is for those who are Torontonians, considering being Torontonians or are interested in Torontonians. The original focus was (is still) on: The Working Poor and The Hardly Working. The idea is to offer a playground of information regarding: assistance in getting by, information about advancing ones career and enjoying life more - with little to no money. However, people who do not consider themselves either of the above have shown interest in this community and I believe they can also contribute to the group. Social Workers, Activists, Recent Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, Discount Shoppers, Students, Penny Savers, Discount Shoppers, Penny Savers, and others are also more than welcome to join the group if they believe they can add to the community objectives."
NOTE: this is a weblog that you can browse or, if you register, post your thoughts to share with others.
Check it out, even if you aren't poor in Toronto...

- "To monitor and inform on cross-Ontario activity on the poverty reduction agenda"
Poverty Watch Ontario is keeping an eye on the provincial poverty reduction consultations and poverty reduction events in Ontario.
Poverty Watch Ontario is a joint venture of the , , and the .

- links to websites and reports

Partners:

25-in-5: Network for Poverty Reduction is a multi-sectoral network comprised of more than 100 provincial and Toronto-based organizations and individuals working on eliminating poverty. (...) We are asking our government for a plan to reduce Ontario poverty levels by 25% in 5 years and by 50% before 2018

The Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) is a coalition of social planning councils (SPC), community development councils (CDC), resource centres, and planning committees located in various communities throughout Ontario.

Ontario Campaign 2000 is a provincial partner in Campaign 2000, with 66 member organizations across the province.
[ ]

The Income Security Advocacy Centre works with and on behalf of low income communities in Ontario to address issues of income security and poverty.

Source:

Poverty Watch Ontario is a joint initiative of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, Ontario Campaign 2000 and the Income Security Advocacy Centre. These organizations have partnered since early 2008 to promote a cross-Ontario community dialogue on a poverty reduction strategy for the province.

NOTE : To avoid repetition of links on multiple pages, I've moved most links concerning the
Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy to the Canadian Social Research Links Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

Will Premier McGuinty favour the interests of the poor and insecure in Ontario over those in the business sector who profit from poverty?
By Dennis Raphael
October 29, 2007
Despite Premier’s McGuinty’s promise to produce a poverty reduction plan, and the earnest hopes of editorial writers and anti-poverty activists, I am of the belief that the next four years will see little if any action on poverty reduction. I base this prediction on my analysis of poverty and its public policy antecedents in Canada and what we know about the forces that create poverty and maintain its presence.

May 21, 2002
"Secret video from a Toronto homeless shelter shows people packed into spaces tighter than United Nations standards for refugee camps."

"Raising the Roof is the only national charity in Canada dedicated to finding long-term solutions to homelessness"
Here are but a few samples of the comprehensive up-to-date information on homelessness  you'll find on this site :

"Practical tools, resources and information sharing for frontline staff, managers and volunteers working to address the problem of homelessness in their communities. Use this site to find out about initiatives in cities, towns and rural areas across Canada. Link to others working within the homelessness sector, share your experiences and learn from theirs."

(Formerly the Recession Relief Fund Coalition )
The Recession Relief Coalition is a broad-based group of organizations and individuals concerned about the impact of the recession on Canada’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents. Over 260 organizations and over 1,100 individuals across Canada have endorsed the coalition’s call on the federal government to create a recession relief fund to prevent cuts to public and private not-for-profit agencies serving vulnerable communities, and to increase funding to support vital social services including homelessness programs and settlement services.
- incl. links to:
* * (no content yet) * * * * * * * * *

- read the declaration, then scroll down the page and add your name to the growing list of supporters.

Selected site content:

(PDF - 161K, 8 pages)
Research Bulletin #1
- calling for immediate government action on: * Social Assistance Reform * Unemployment Income (EI Reform * Funding for Non-Profit Sector, including Housing and Homelessness Programs
- incl. Key Facts & Trends in this Recession
Source:

Related link:

Jun 11, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
As Canada's federal government is set to release its first major report on its economic initiatives (including the multi-billion dollar economic stimulus package that was part of the January federal budget), the Recession Relief Coalition has released its own report on "what the recession looks like" this morning. The coalition is a broad-based group of more than 260 organizations and 1,100 individuals across Canada.
Some key findings from the coalition's research report:
* the number of single people on Ontario Works (provincial welfare) reached an all-time record of 130,180 in April, 2009
* Ontario's real unemployment rate (the official unemployment rate, plus people who are "discouraged" and have dropped out of the labour market, plus involuntary part-time workers) is now well into the double digits at 13.6% and is a staggering 28% for youth aged 15 to 24.
* Credit Canada (which helps people deal with debt) has had a 42% increase in new clients in the past year.
* Non-profit and community-based programs and services are being over-whelmed with growing demand; foodbanks in Toronto report that a record one million people were forced to line up for food last year.
The Recession Relief Coalition sets out a policy agenda that includes increases to federal and provincial income assistance programs (including welfare and employment insurance); plus increased funding for the non-profit sector, including housing and homelessness programs.
Source:

[ ]

---

[NOTE: the content below is still located
on .]

(PDF - 65K, 7 pages)
By Cathy Crowe (Street Nurse and Atkinson Economic Justice Fellow)
June 1, 2009
"(...) Canadians need and want a peace dividend that is an investment in people not destruction. In the meantime however, this recession further necessitates program spending that will provide emergency recession relief – monies to expand Employment Insurance benefits, bolster provincial social assistance rates, prevent evictions, and expand emergency life saving services such as food and shelter."

(PDF - 83K, 3 pages)
Submission to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills, Social Development
and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
By the
May 31, 2009 (in connection with appearance on June 2, 2009)

(PDF - 146K, 7 pages)
June 1, 2009
By John Stapleton
(on behalf of the )
Topics:
* Federal Government Role in Canada's Social Safety net
* Disparity in responses to poverty and social policy at the Provincial and Territorial level
* Needlessly Prolonging the Recession

(Word file - 24K, 3 pages)
by John Andras
Co Founder Recession Relief Coalition and Chair of
"(...) The need for emergency funding to be made available to the agencies feeding, clothing, sheltering and counseling the victims of the recession is clear and pressing. Governments need to respond to the reality that demand is growing and non-government funding is falling. "

Ronzig

Reflexions and digital photo art by Ronzig depicting homeless people and their environment.
[Ronzig was homeless in Toronto for ten years ending in 2005.]
- incl. links to:
* What it means to be homeless * Poverty is the Primary Cause of Homelessness * The Political Scene * War * Death and Disease * Drugs Addiction * Society * Chat with Ronzig * Public Speaking * Videos * Contact-and-links * Our Best Hope * Events * Media

NOTE: The images that appear on the pages of the above site are, in the words of the artist, "...a multimedia merging of photography, computer manipulation and acrylic painting producing unique artwork". If you're impressed as I was with the originality and beauty of Ronzig's photographic art, the link below will take you to a whole collection of similar work by the same artist.

- incl. links if you wish to order prints
[ - samples of Ronzig's photos]
[ ]

---

about homelessness & related issues
- incl. links to a collection of YouTube videos created by Ronzig for the Recession Relief Coalition covering public forums rallies, protests and media release meetings. Recession Relief Coalition videos that are longer than the YouTube 10 minute limit are on the Vimeo multi player just below the YouTube player and below that is a second YouTube multi player with all of Ronzig's YouTube videos on it.

(Toronto) - (Rooming houses, boarding homes) "...to create new housing and ensure upgrades to existing housing for low income people"

(Toronto) --- [ see my beautiful St. Chris T-shirt! ]
"Established in 1912, St. Christopher House is a non sectarian social services agency located in west central Toronto, with six facilities and a wide range of programs, including : programs for older adults, people with disabilities and their care givers; the Woman Abuse Program; the Settlement and Adult Education Program; the Programs for Children and Youth; the Music School; Employment Programs; a drop in for socially isolated adults; a supportive housing project; and Parkdale Focus Community Project."

- History - Our Locations

- incl. links to : Music Room - Alcohol & Drug Prevention Programs - Toronto Youth Job Corps - Graffitti Transformation Project - Parent Support to Newcomers

- incl. links to : Learning - Employment Services - Newcomer Services - Financial Advocacy and Problem Solving - The Meeting Place - Violence Against Women and Children - Toronto Youth Job Corps - Alcohol & Drug Prevention Programs

- incl. links to : Alzheimer and Frail Elderly Day Programs - Alcohol & Drug Prevention Programs - Caregiver Counselling/Groups - Caregiver Training - Client Intervention and Assistance (CIA) - Elderly Persons' Centre - Friendly Visiting - Group Effectiveness and Leadership (GEL) - Health Action Theatre - Home Help/Homemaking - Meals on Wheels - Personal Care - Respite Care - Supportive Housing - Telephone Reassurance - Transportation - FAQ - Intake

- incl. links to : Volunteering - Community Development - Donations

- Community Development - Income - Health - Immigration and Settlement - Contact Information

(CUSP)
- the St. Chris work of Richard Shillington and John Stapleton

This St. Christopher House project is a three-stage process involving diverse stakeholders "to develop practical, responsive and 'modern' strategies for income security for working-age people in Ontario."
- incl. detailed info about the project and related papers, including the final report (see the link below under "selected reports")

- (October 2004, PDF file - 164K, 24 pages)
- (Draft) (October 2004, PDF file - 96K, 13 pages)

Selected St. Chris reports:

Enabling Families to Succeed:
Community-Based Supports for Families
By Susan Pigott, C.E.O. and Lidia Monaco, Director of Children, Youth and Family Services
St. Christopher House, Toronto
Presented at Making Children Matter Conference
October 2004
"How can we improve children’s lives? Susan Pigott and Lidia Monaco from St. Christopher House in Toronto argue society must first recognize that children are a part of families. Therefore, to improve the lives of children, our policies and actions must consistently work to enable families to succeed. Pigott and Monaco report on the conditions which disable far too many families and outline four prerequisites for family success."
Complete Text:

(39K, 5 pages)
Source:

["Voices for Children promotes the well-being of children and youth in Ontario by disseminating information to influence policy, practice and awareness."]
- links to two dozen reports from 2002 to 2004

(PDF file - 204K, 30 pages)
Project Report
June 24, 2004
"Income Security Strategies for Working-Age Adults (...) explores options for developing practical, responsive and modern strategies for income security for working-age people in Ontario and Canada."
- incl. analysis of the treatment of assets under provincial-territorial welfare programs and, among the the proposed strategies for working-age adults, suggests that assets should be protected and allowed to grow beyond current levels within welfare programs.

(PDF file - 107K, 5 pages)
January 2004
"The purpose of this commentary is to build support for assets based approaches to poverty reduction such as those proposed by Social Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI) in the context of Learn$ave and St. Christopher House in its Registered Development Savings Plan (RDSP) proposals. It was prepared by John Stapleton, Community Undertaking Social Policy (CUSP) Fellow at St. Christopher House and Massey College.

For more info on RDSPs, see the Asset-Based Social Policies Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/assets.htm

(PDF file - 150K, 1 page)
by Susan Pigott and John Stapleton
November 6, 2003

(PDF file - 319K, 26 pages)
November 2003 (Revised Dec. 2003)
- Pre-Budget Submission to the House of Commons Committee on Finance

(PDF file - 75K, 3 pages)

(PDF file - 467K, 11 pages)
Personal impressions by John Stapleton, retired Ontario government bureaucrat, after his first seven months at St. Christopher House.

(PDF file - 103K, 6 pages)
Richard Shillington offers "a very unstructured list (...) of various flaws, problems, screw-ups in the design of support programs which could be corrected" --- 14 specific 'fixes' for programs like Old Age Security, the Canada Pension Plan, provincial-territorial welfare programs and the income tax system, to help improve the financial well-being of people with low income. Several of the suggestions focus on asset retention strategies for people on low income and households on welfare. This list originally appeared on Richard's website early in 2002.
[ ]

(PDF file - 131K, 2 pages)
December 3, 2003
Carol Goar (Toronto Star)
"Their instincts were bravely right, their plans pathetically wrong. Three single parents came to John Stapleton at St. Christopher House, asking how to start a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). He told them they'd be crazy to do it."

- "Providing newcomers with information and answers to settle in Ontario, Canada"
- links to a wealth of information, including : Community and Recreation - Education - Health - Immigration & Citizenship - Legal Services - Consumer Information - Employment - Housing - Language and Literacy - Social Services - Discuss - Events - FAQs - First Days - Forms - Organizations - News - Quizzes - Reference Shelf - and more...

"SHORT is an organization of and for the people who live in the homeless shelters, the men's and women's hostels, and many other housing arrangements supplied by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, and a wide variety of charitable organizations, non-profit agencies, and even the private sector."

Who or what is SHORT?
Anyone who lives in a:
SHELTER,
HOSTEL or
OTHER
RESIDENCES, or is
TRANSIENT.

- incl. links to : Introduction to SHORT - Local Ottawa Homeless Resources - More Homeless-related Links - The Shelter System Explained - Danger: The "Shelter Trap" - Homeless-Related Issues - Homelessness in the News - Task Force on Homelessness - Email the National Housing Minister!

(sane
[Ernie Lightman, Andy Mitchell, Dean Herd]
The Social Assistance in the New Economy (SANE) project, established in 2002, is a multi-year, multi-disciplinary inquiry into the changing nature of social assistance in Ontario and its relation to precarious employment and health in a globalizing economy. Funded primarily by the (SSHRC) through five major grants to date, the research program comprises a number of complementary projects which are investigating the welfare and post-welfare experiences of social assistance recipients, as well as the labour market experiences of those precariously employed. Our methodologies include primary data collection through qualitative in-depth interviews, ethnographic research, and secondary analysis of large data sets such as the SLID, CCHS and NPHS. Aside from publishing extensively in the academic literature, SANE has advised various non-profit community-based agencies and governments on policies towards income support for those with low incomes.

*
*
*
*

Source:

Selected SANE papers and reports:

(PDF - 177K, 18 pages)
2008
By Andrew Mitchell, Ernie Lightman and Dean Herd
Andrew Mitchell
ABSTRACT.
This article explores the impact of welfare reform in Ontario, Canada, by reporting on three rounds of annual, in-depth qualitative interviews with a longitudinal panel of current and former welfare recipients in Toronto. Two years after they were first interviewed, participants continued to live precarious lives, both on welfare and off. Whether “welfare poor” or “working poor,” most respondents reported compromised hunger status, fear of, as well as actual hunger and monotonous diets lacking necessary nutrition. These findings provide valuable insight into longer-term impacts on labor market restructuring and welfare reform on health and hunger among the vulnerable and marginalized and offer direction to policymakers in response.

(Word file - 114K, 26 pages)
2008
By Dean Herd, Ernie Lightman and Andrew Mitchell
This paper examines time limits on the receipt of welfare, based on experiences in the United States and, since 2002, in British Columbia, the only province to have introduced time limits in Canada. In effect, time limits start a 'clock' running and when the time has expired, welfare recipients become subject to penalties, up to lifetime exclusion from welfare.
The paper begins by describing the introduction of time limits in the US and Canada, detailing the often complex policies themselves. It then reviews the research evidence, drawing primarily on the US experience which has been more fully evaluated. Overall, the research shows that time limits are both philosophically flawed and a blunt and ineffective policy tool. Proponents of time limits advocate their use as part of a package of measures designed to change the behaviour of individuals and to reduce welfare "dependency". Instead, the research shows that those who reach time limits face multiple barriers to employment.
NOTE: recommended reading - this paper contains an excellent overview of the evolution of the welfare time limit rule from bad idea to non-issue in BC.

(PDF - 522K, 39 pages)
By Ernie Lightman Ph.D, Andrew Mitchell and Beth Wilson
December 2008
"(...) the poorest one-fifth of Canadians, when compared to the richest twenty percent, have:
• more than double the rate of diabetes and heart disease;
• a sixty percent greater rate of two or more chronic health conditions;
• more than three times the rate of bronchitis;
• nearly double the rate of arthritis or rheumatism."
Source:
Partners in this report include:

Related Toronto Star article:

December 2, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Poverty is making Canadians sick, robbing thousands of their health and creating huge costs to the public health-care system, says a new report to be released today. But boosting incomes of the poor – even by $1,000 per year – can lead to significant health improvements, says the report by the University of Toronto's Social Assistance in the New Economy program. (...) The study, based on the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey, found that every $1,000 increase in income for the poor resulted in nearly 10,000 fewer chronic health care problems.
Source:

[ part of the ]

(PDF file - 81K, 13 pages)
December 2005 - Manuscript accepted for publication by the .

(PDF file - 105K, 21 pages)
2005 - Manuscript accepted for publication by the .

(PDF file - 182K, 27 pages)
February 2005--- in , 39, 1: 65-79.

(PDF file - 47K, 6 pages)
Spring/Summer 2003 --- in , 51, Spring/Summer: 114-120.

(PDF file - 51K, 7 pages)
2002 --- in Benefits, 34, 10, 2: 105-110.

Reports

* (Word file - 91K, 15 pages)
December 2004
Prepared for the of the

* (PDF file - 224K, 48 pages)
2002

Also from the same authors (but on a different website):

(PDF file - 71K, 17 pages)
Dean Herd, Andrew Mitchell and Ernie Lightman
Social Assistance in the New Economy (SANE)
Faculty of Social Work (University of Toronto)
Prepared for
November 16-18, 2003, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

- "A monthly social justice and faith magazine"

Article by Reuel S. Amdur
April 2002
"While there is something to be said for implementing programs that replace social assistance, ODSP [the Ontario Disability Support Program] is not such a program. It is still a social assistance program, and it still embodies the prejudiced notions about the worthy and the unworthy."

"...the SPC uses modern research and communication methods and works with Ottawa's social agencies, concerned residents and decision-makers to understand and advocate the social needs of our new city. The SPC is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, charitable organization run by an elected Board of Directors. "
- incl. links to : About SPC | Research | Mapping | Membership | What's New | Networks | Publications | Newsletter | Donations | Contact Us | Français | Site Map

(PDF file - 380K, 4 pages)
May 16, 2006
"It is widely reported that 20 percent or 95,000 Hamiltonians are living in low income. Less understood, however, is that poverty is not gender neutral. Poverty in Hamilton has a female face that often goes unreported. Women are far more likely to live in poverty than are men. In Hamilton, women make up 52 percent of the adult population but they represent almost 60 percent of those living in poverty. "

November 2004
"The Report:
* describes changes in average incomes for families
* charts the growing income gap in Hamilton
* estimates the number of residents living in poverty
* notes the crisis in poverty for lone parent families
* maps the distribution of low income persons across the city
* documents the inadequacy of Ontario Works benefit rates.
The SPRC of Hamilton invites community members to use this information as a basis for discussion about the growing gap in incomes, the impacts of poverty and actions needed to address these conditions.
(PDF file - 1.8 MB, 4 pages)
(PDF file - 375K, 20 pages)

- links to almost three dozen reports on a range of topics, including homelessness, children, seniors, the Hamilton City budget, etc.

Related article:

November 18, 2004
"HAMILTON, ONTARIO -- Almost 20 per cent of people living in Hamilton, a city that has seen many of its factories shut down in recent years, live below the poverty line, a new report says. The study by the city's Social Planning and Research Council found that 95,370 residents, including 25 per cent of children under 12, are unable to make ends meet."
Source:

"The Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) is a coalition of social planning councils (SPC), community development councils (CDC), resource centres, and planning committees located in various communities throughout Ontario. Each of the individual organizations has their own mandates but are connected in the cause of effecting change on social policies, conditions, and issues."
- incl. links to : a definition of independent community-based social planning - a list of all SPNO member organizations with website and e-mail links - a list of SPNO projects and some project descriptions - links to various government sites and other sites related to social planning.

For more on SPNO and poverty reduction, see Poverty Watch (higher up on this page)

(formerly the Toronto Social Planning Council) is committed to independent social planning at the local and city-wide levels in order to improve the quality of life for all people in Toronto. It is committed to diversity, social and economic justice, and active citizen participation in all aspects of community life.

Sample site content:

(PDF - 51K, 8 pages)
Submitted by: Social Planning Toronto
February 3, 2010
In this submission, we focus on initiatives that will promote economic recovery and advance the provincial government’s commitment on poverty reduction.

Source:

Social Planning Toronto (SPT; formerly the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto) is a nonprofit community organization engaged in research, policy analysis, community development and civic engagement aimed at improving the quality of life of Toronto residents. SPT’s work focuses on poverty reduction with an emphasis on income security, good jobs, affordable housing and strong public education.

Related links:
(links to presentations to Committee by SPT and other groups in January/February 2010)

This link gives you access to all transcripts of this Committee right back to 2007, including (but not limited to) pre-budget consultations that preceded the Ontario Budgets from 2007 to the upcoming 2010 budget expected late in March. The top seven links in the right-hand column are all 2010 pre-budget consultation transcripts.
Source:

RESEARCH TIP:
I highly recommend government pre-budget consultation websites as a rich source of information on Canadian social programs in an economic and fiscal context.
I'm using Ontario as an example here, but every jurisdiction in Canada has a pre-budget process in place for organizations and people to make their pitch about the best way to allocate budget dollars. There's usually a link to the pre-budget process on the main budget page for each province/territory.

If you click the Ontario "Committee Transcripts" link above, you'll note (on the next page, at the top of the right-hand column) links to seven transcripts of submissions made to the Committee by interested organizations and individuals. You'll have to click on the link for each transcript to see a list of the groups and people whose presentations are included in that day's transcript. The seven transcripts cover the Committee hearings from January 25 to February 3 (2010), and they include presentations from a wide range of intervenors, from the National Citizens' Coalition and social advocacy groups, to municipal councils and labour unions. If you've read this far, I think you'll want to check all seven daily transcripts for compelling presentations (and a wealth of program information) by the ODSP Action Coalition, the Ottawa Poverty Reduction Network, the Wellesley Institute, the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, Ontario Campaign 2000, Social Planning Toronto, the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, the Income Security Advocacy Centre, and many more...

RESEARCH TIP WITHIN
A RESEARCH TIP:
The Committee transcripts are just that - a written record of what was presented at Committee hearings. But hearings are time-limited, so the accepted practice is for groups to submit a brief in support of their oral presentation. It's sometimes a challenge to find those submissions on the government consultation website, but if you go to the website of any organization whose presentation is included in any Committee transcript, I'll bet you dimes to doughnuts that you'll find a link to that group's official pre-budget submission, as in the case of the SPT presentation by John Campey, whose oral presentation appears in the .

[ Use the same technique to find pre-budget submissions for any jurisdiction by any organization that has a presence on the Internet. It's a slow and cumbersome process, but it offers insights into our social programs and our social policies that you often can't find elsewhere...]

- Go to the 2010 Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets_2010.htm

- blog format - the content at the above link changes each time a new blog entry is posted.

Posted August 4, 2009
Low-income tenants and affordable housing advocates raised their voices in support of a meaningful, long-term plan to address the housing crisis in Ontario at four consultations held in the past week in Scarborough, downtown Toronto and Ottawa. Housing Network of Ontario members and supporters came out in force, with capacity crowds at each of the housing consultation meetings.

---

Submit a Brief to Federal Pre-Budget Consultations
Posted August 4, 2009
The federal budget consultation process is accepting briefs from individuals and community organizations until August 14th. This is a great opportunity to speak out for EI reform and pensions. The deadline to submit a written brief is August 14, 2009 and they can be sent to Jean-Francois Page, Clerk of the Standing Committee on Finance, at

---

Toronto’s Social Landscape – 10-Year Trends,
June 2009
(PDF - 4.2MB, 49 pages)

Toronto’s Social Landscape is a new resource for organizations and community groups that use demographic and socio-economic data in their work – to assist in program planning, needs assessments, funding submissions, advocacy initiatives, public policy development and research projects. This report draws on 10 years of Census data, and additional data sources, to paint a picture of Toronto’s population and the major trends impacting its residents and institutions.

---

Source:
is committed to independent social planning at the local and city-wide levels in order to improve the quality of life for all people in Toronto. It is committed to diversity, social and economic justice, and active citizen participation in all aspects of community life.

Posted August 4, 2009
Low-income tenants and affordable housing advocates raised their voices in support of a meaningful, long-term plan to address the housing crisis in Ontario at four consultations held in the past week in Scarborough, downtown Toronto and Ottawa. Housing Network of Ontario members and supporters came out in force, with capacity crowds at each of the housing consultation meetings.

---

Submit a Brief to Federal Pre-Budget Consultations
Posted August 4, 2009
The federal budget consultation process is accepting briefs from individuals and community organizations until August 14th. This is a great opportunity to speak out for EI reform and pensions. The deadline to submit a written brief is August 14, 2009 and they can be sent to Jean-Francois Page, Clerk of the Standing Committee on Finance, at

---

Toronto’s Social Landscape – 10-Year Trends,
June 2009
(PDF - 4.2MB, 49 pages)

Toronto’s Social Landscape is a new resource for organizations and community groups that use demographic and socio-economic data in their work – to assist in program planning, needs assessments, funding submissions, advocacy initiatives, public policy development and research projects. This report draws on 10 years of Census data, and additional data sources, to paint a picture of Toronto’s population and the major trends impacting its residents and institutions.

---

2009 Research Roundtable Proceedings
June 14, 2009
On Tuesday, March 3, Social Planning Toronto hosted its 2009 Research Roundtable: “Research for Social Change”. The event brought together more than 125 community-based, government and academic researchers, policy analysts and activists to share information on current research initiatives, discuss opportunities for collaboration, and exchange ideas for using research to advance social change and challenge poverty in Ontario. The Roundtable provided an opportunity to share perspectives on poverty-reduction research from our various vantage points – inside and outside of government – broadly focused around Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS).
(Microsoft Word format - 381K, 39 pages)

News Release
Posted May 25, 2009
(...) In 2008, approximately 1 in 5 unemployed workers in Toronto were eligible for EI. While unemployed workers were struggling to make ends meet, the accumulated surplus of EI premiums soared to over $54 billion.

Complete report:

(PDF - 2.7MB, 25 pages)
May 2009

Source:
is committed to independent social planning at the local and city-wide levels in order to improve the quality of life for all people in Toronto. It is committed to diversity, social and economic justice, and active citizen participation in all aspects of community life

(SPON)
This site is designed as a tool for public reporting about social programs in Ontario. Initiated with the help of SSHRC funding, and support from the Ontario Social Development Council, the Online Guide to Social Policy in Ontario combines the resources of faculty and students at Laurentian University to generate a 'macro' view of the human service system. It is intended to facilitate access to information and analysis, and to encourage debate about the adequacy of social programs in Ontario.

- incl. links to resources in the following areas:
* Child & Family * Education * Employment * Equality * Governance * Health * Inclusion * Social Security
- includes links to Provincial Social Planning Councils and Organizations in Ontario and to other social planning and research resources (national/international).

At a meeting in Toronto in the fall of 2000, some 750 activists responded to a call to “rebuild the left” by developing a structured movement against capitalism. (...) The Socialist Project does not propose an easy politics for defeating capitalism or claim a ready alternative to take its place. We oppose capitalism out of necessity and support the resistance of others out of solidarity. This resistance creates spaces of hope, and an activist hope is the first step to discovering a new socialist politics.

January 3, 2009
By Peter Graefe
"(...)what should we make of the McGuinty strategy, and of the 25in5 campaign around it? Is a strategy of positive engagement a wise one for making gains, or will it only deliver thin gruel?"

Also from The Socialist Project:

December 8, 2008
By John Clarke
Now that the crisis of the financial markets has become a crisis of the 'real' economy, it is obvious that those who already face poverty (or live on the edge of it) will be hit extraordinarily hard in the days ahead. Over the last three decades, social programs that served to partially redistribute wealth or limit the disciplinary power of unemployment on the working class were massively reduced. With this 'social safety net' seriously compromised, we can expect a rapid and deep process of impoverishment to take effect as the downturn unfolds. The scale and severity of this will pose major challenges but open up huge possibilities in terms of mobilizing poor communities.

- 200+ online resources for social activists!

"The Sparrow Lake Alliance, founded in 1989 [by the late Dr. Paul Steinhauer], is a voluntary coalition of professionals from all Ontario sectors that work with children, including educators, social workers, lawyers, physicians, and many others. The Sparrow Lake Alliance fosters a vision of inter-sectoral collaboration and integration to produce better outcomes for Ontario’s children."
NOTE for the uninitiated: this site is not about Sparrow Lake, as you might think.
It's about better outcomes for Ontario's children, but its content will be of interest to anyone working in the field of family and children's services.
- this is a huge site; I recommend using the site map to get an overview of the rich content you'll find here...
- incl. links to : | What's New | Events | Forum | Alliance | Task Forces | Publications | Links | Site Map | Contact Us | Help + much more
Here's just some of the information you can find here: Current Issues (Ontario's "Clawback" of the National Child Benefit Supplement - The Youth Criminal Justice Act -
Social Inclusion) - The Sparrow Lake Alliance Task Forces - Alliance Resources - Conferences of Interest Conferences of Interest - Archived Conference Proceedings - Key People - Open Discussions - Forum - Donation Form - History of Sparrow Lake Alliance - Tribute Dr. Paul Steinhauer - Children in Limbo Task Force - Education Task Force - Children, Youth & the Law Task Force - Major Papers - Task Force Reports - Address and Contacts - much more

Stable and Affordable Housing in Ontario

Welcome to stableandaffordable.com – an initiative of the Wellesley Institute and many partners across Ontario. Here, you’ll find plenty of facts and figures about housing in Ontario, along with stories from people around the province, and tips for actions that you can take to ensure everyone in Ontario has a stable and affordable home. Stableandaffordable.com is an initiative of the Wellesley Institute and the Ontario Housing Network. We are a network of organizations dedicated to one goal: stable and affordable housing for all Canadians.
[Note: the Housing Network of Ontario doesn't appear to have its own website per se.]

- incl. links to selected key resources on housing and homelessness in Ontario:
*Where’s Home 2008 * National Housing Report Card 2008 * Housing and Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy * Key elements of an Ontario housing strategy: A policy dispatch from Poverty Watch Ontario * Consultation principles * Ottawa report card: The Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness fourth annual report card * Blueprint to End Homelessness in Toronto (Wellesley Institute, 2006)

Selected site content:

The Housing Network of Ontario has released its
"Five Tests for a Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy"
April 19, 2010
Building the Foundation for Ontario’s Future: 5 Tests for Success of Ontario’s Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy, summarizes what thousands of low-income Ontarians and advocates expect of the government’s promised Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy, due to be released in June.

Download the report:

(PDF - 195K, 2 pages)
April 2010
The five tests:
* Bold targets and sustained funding
* A solid measuring stick
* Accountability
* Make housing truly affordable and accessible
* Reform housing legislation to build stronger communities

May 31, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
The Housing Network of Ontario is continuing to prepare for the Ontario's government's consultations for a comprehensive new provincial housing plan. The government is expected to announce details of the provincial consultation in the next few days. The Wellesley Institute is a founding member of the Housing Network of Ontario and we have launched a new web site to help people and groups across the province learn about the key issues and get engaged in the consultation. The Toronto Star's Laurie Monsebraaten has set out some of the key issues in a recent article .
Source:

[ ]

Related links:

May 30, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten
"(...) Across the province, almost 130,000 households are waiting for provincially subsidized housing with wait times that run from several years to several decades, depending on the location. It's a problem the McGuinty Liberals promised to address during the 2007 provincial election. But their pledge to develop a long-term affordable housing strategy was put on hold while they crafted a poverty reduction plan. With a provincial plan now in place to cut child poverty by 25 per cent in five years and poverty reduction legislation enacted last month, housing activists are gearing up for the government to turn its attention to people [who are on provincial subsidized housing lists]."
Source:

-------------------------------------------------
A related link about the
"Ontario Housing Measure":
-------------------------------------------------

(PDF - 313K, 11 pages)
This report is ONPHA’s contribution to assist the government in defining the “Ontario Housing Measure” – one of eight key measures to be used in determining the effectiveness of the Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Author: ONPHA
May 11, 2009
Source:

ONPHA gives non profit-housing tools to do the best possible job. ONPHA offers a comprehensive list of programs and services. We are advocates for our members with all members of government; we deliver courses, workshops and resources for volunteer boards, staff and tenants; help members save money through our Best Deals program; work toward building networks locally and provincially to ensure that non-profit housing has a respected voice in the community; and we fight to get more new affordable housing built in Ontario.

- Canada's consumer and news watchdog
Straight Goods is a watchdog working for Canadian consumers and citizens. The purpose of Straight Goods is to help you save money, protect your rights and untangle spin with investigative reports, features, forums, archives, and links to many others who share our values.

When times get tough, politicians deflect attention by blaming social assistance recipients.
January 06, 2010
by Jamie Swift
Sobering facts about social assistance:
1. Our most vulnerable neighbors, relying on social assistance, would need a 55 per cent benefit increase to regain the meager incomes that public provision offered in 1993.
2. The welfare system has more than 800 rules and regulations that by law must be applied before a needy person's eligibility and benefit level can be determined.
3. In 2003 a report for Ottawa's Justice Department pointed out that every year corporate crime, white collar fraud and tax evasion cost Ontario more than its entire welfare system.
(...) We are again living through difficult economic times, with high unemployment and low benefits for the jobless. Two of five working women have precarious, poorly-paid jobs with no security or benefits. Women make up 60 percent of minimum wage workers. Meanwhile, only 39 percent of unemployed women are getting Employment Insurance. No wonder the majority of social assistance claimants are women!

(Toronto)
... an innovative, community-based health care organization providing services to address a wide range of physical, mental and emotional needs in those who are homeless, poor and socially marginalized. Support, education and advocacy are key components of our services.

(PDF file - 2.4MB, 66 pages)
September 2007
"(...) The Street Health survey was conducted over a three-month period between November 2006 and February 2007. We surveyed a representative sample of 368 homeless adults at meal programs and shelters in downtown Toronto about their health and access to health care."
- includes "an action plan consisting of realistic solutions to immediately improve the health of homeless people and to ultimately end homelessness."

March 12, 2009
With the Ontario economy expected to further deteriorate in the coming months, large holes are being exposed in the province's main safety nets, one of Canada's leading economists told an audience of local businesspeople Thursday. Don Drummond, TD Waterhouse senior vice-president and chief executive, said only 40 per cent of unemployed people in Ontario are eligible for employment insurance due in large part to the tie-in to regional unemployment levels that determine eligibility across Canada. Furthermore, he said, it is difficult for those who are ineligible for EI to rely on the welfare system. "It is very, very difficult to get onto welfare in Ontario," he told the audience of more than 160 people at the Ottawa Business Journal's .
Source:

Related link:

(PDF - 184K, 16 pages)
March 11, 2009
Powerpoint Presentation by Don Drummond
Senior Vice-President and Chief Executive
Source:

---

(<=== this page includes links to more TD Economics reports)

(PDF - 954K, 58 pages)
Andrea Baldwin/John Stapleton/Don Drummond
July, 2008
Source:

(video - this may not work for you if you're behind a corporate firewall)
From Welfare to Work: Still the Road Less Traveled
December 08, 2005
Gillian Manning, economist, TD Bank Financial Group
Susan Pigott, chief executive officer, St. Christopher House
NOTE: this is a weekly half-hour television show on Toronto business TV.
The December 8 program focused on the work of the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults ("MISWWA").
Click the link above, then (on the next page) scroll down to the December 8 show and click the "PLAY" button under that date to watch the whole half-hour show.

Related Links:

(PDF file - 119K, 8 pages)
Press Release
September 8, 2005
"TORONTO – A new report prepared by TD Economics on behalf of the Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) highlights the need for broad-based income security reform in Canada. The MISWAA Task Force, of which TD Bank Financial Group is a member, was launched last year by the Toronto City Summit Alliance (TCSA) and Toronto’s St. Christopher House to identify failings in the present income security system and recommend a road map for change. The Task Force is composed of leaders from the business, academic, government and non-profit sectors, including those with first-hand experience dealing with income security issues."

(HTML)

Complete report:

(PDF file - 467K, 54 pages)
September 2005
"Ontario Works and other provincial/territorial welfare systems have been turned into "providers of first resort" for too many people and too many things - for a path into work, for more income when work doesn't pay enough, for sundry health benefits, and for child care. And, not surprisingly, welfare programs have responded to this surfeit of demands on their systems by raising entry barriers, with the result that a growing number of low-income adults are at risk of falling through the cracks." [Excerpt, page 33]

Thomas Walkom
National Affairs Writer
The Toronto Star
September 9
"The worm turns. Old ideas gain currency again. Now, even hard-headed business people are beginning to realize that taking a sledgehammer to the welfare state was a bad, bad idea. The latest evidence is a remarkable paper released yesterday on how Canadian governments should deal with welfare, poverty and unemployment. (...) What is remarkable is the report's provenance. It was written by the TD Bank Financial Group, a big, rich bank. And it appears destined to form the basis of recommendations that a joint panel of business, labour and anti-poverty activists is to present to federal and provincial governments next month."
Source:

On a personal note...
I find it SO refreshing to see this kind of information produced by a financial institution --- makes me feel that there's some hope for us yet!
Thanks, TD Economics!

Also from TD Economics:

(PDF file - 19K, 3 pages)
July 17, 2007
Press release
(TORONTO) A report published today by TD Economics states the relative decline of the Greater Toronto Area’s standard of living against competing jurisdictions during the past five years poses a serious threat to the region’s future prosperity (www.td.com/economics). Cohesive and coordinated action is required by all regional players, but future policies must be underpinned by efficiency and innovation rather than public money.
Among the GTA’s challenges, co-authors Don Drummond and Derek Burleton cite:
· The region’s eroding competitive position due to economic forces such as the rising dollar;
· The limited flexibility of the City of Toronto due to its structural deficit; and
· The rising number of low-income families among newcomers and the self-perpetuating cycles of poverty.

Complete report:
(PDF file - 301K, 33 pages)

(PDF file - 440K, 3 pages)

Link to the 2002 GTA Report:

(PDF file - 673K, 37 pages)
May 2002

Source:
(<=== this page includes links to more TD Economics reports)

Related link:

July 17, 2007
By Michael Shapcott
Toronto and the surrounding Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are "a powerful economic locomotive which produces nearly one-fifth of the entire nation's GDP", along with many other economic advantages, according to a new report from TD Economics called "Canada's Primary Economic Locomotive in Need of Repairs". But the economists working for one of Canada's largest banks warn that despite the economic good times, "deep pools of poverty persist - a problem that is exacerbated by an inadequate supply of social housing".
Source:

[ ]

- incl. links to : In the News · Press Releases · Task Force and Working Group Members · Contact Us · Papers · Frequently Asked Questions

"The Toronto City Summit Alliance is a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region. The Alliance was formed to address challenges to the future of Toronto such as expanding knowledge-based industry, poor economic integration of immigrants, decaying infrastructure, and affordable housing."

“St. Chris has 92 years of experience working with diverse individuals, families and groups. We provide support to people of all ages, including immigrants and people who are lower-income. We are not a religious organization in any way. St. Christopher House is strongly committed to community development in all aspects of our work.”

With politicians in election mode, now is the time to secure a decent living for all
Sep 16, 2007
By John Stapleton
Earlier this year, an impressive list of community leaders – including three former premiers from all parties – united with other leaders in an open letter calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to follow the "fair deal" road map (first related link below) laid out by the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults (second related link below). In a full-page newspaper plea, they urged senior levels of government to ensure "a decent living for all Ontarians." Announcements on new income security measures surfaced soon thereafter. But with a provincial election and a new federal session on the horizon, now is the time to review expectations for the fall and to encourage governments to achieve the goal of ensuring a decent living for all.
Source:

Ontario Budget Aftermath:

By John Stapleton
March 23, 2007
Upon closer inspection, the Conservative finance minister's Working Income Tax Benefit falls way short of the original proposal first floated by his Liberal predecessor Ralph Goodale, notes John Stapleton.
Source:

Family falls behind trying to get ahead
December 1, 2006

"(...) Social workers, labour experts and academics have long decried the lack of incentives in the system to help working-poor families lift themselves out of poverty. It's a system designed on giving with one hand while taking with the other, leaving impoverished families no further ahead, said income-security expert John Stapleton." There is no governing agency that looks at the overall effect of these programs," he said. "You need employment insurance, the tax system and Canada Pension Plan working together with public housing, child care, social assistance and the child-benefit system to bring in large-scale solutions. Many families are suffering the "unintended consequences" of rules that kick in when people's income levels hit an amount that nobody would think was excessive, said Susan Pigott, co-chair of a Toronto task force report calling on Ottawa and the provinces to overhaul the country's income-security system."
Source:

(PDF file - 119K, 8 pages)
Press Release
September 8, 2005
"TORONTO – A new report prepared by TD Economics on behalf of the Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) highlights the need for broad-based income security reform in Canada. The MISWAA Task Force, of which TD Bank Financial Group is a member, was launched last year by the Toronto City Summit Alliance (TCSA) and Toronto’s St. Christopher House to identify failings in the present income security system and recommend a road map for change. The Task Force is composed of leaders from the business, academic, government and non-profit sectors, including those with first-hand experience dealing with income security issues."

(HTML)

Complete report:

(PDF file - 467K, 54 pages)
September 2005
"Ontario Works and other provincial/territorial welfare systems have been turned into "providers of first resort" for too many people and too many things - for a path into work, for more income when work doesn't pay enough, for sundry health benefits, and for child care. And, not surprisingly, welfare programs have responded to this surfeit of demands on their systems by raising entry barriers, with the result that a growing number of low-income adults are at risk of falling through the cracks." [Excerpt, page 33]
Source:

Employment Insurance: Research Summary for the
Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults
Ontarians Can No Longer Count On Employment Insurance To Provide Temporary Income Between Jobs
Toronto and Ottawa Have Lowest Coverage in Canada
October 6, 2005
By Jill Black and Richard Shillington
Highlights
- EI coverage has declined precipitously for a number of reasons, many to do with changes in the labour market that the program wasn't designed to handle; new initiatives should therefore be considered to fill the gap.
- Toronto and many other Ontario cities have extremely low EI coverage, likely due to high employment and high immigration; there is no comprehensive or definitive assessment of what is driving low coverage, but program changes in the 1990s clearly contributed to EI coverage becoming increasingly unbalanced. This needs to be understood better, and part of the solution may lie in EI program changes.

Complete report:

Word version ( 428K, 11 pages)
(613K, 11 pages)

(PDF file - 68K, 2 pages)
Press Release
October 6, 2005
"The Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults released its review of Employment Insurance (EI) today, revealing that EI no longer fulfils its role of providing temporary
income to most unemployed Canadians who are between jobs."

News Release
"TORONTO, Oct. 28 - Compared to their peers, youth exiting, or leaving the care of child welfare agencies are often consigned to a cycle of persistent poverty, are more dependent on adult social assistance, and are overly represented in the mental health and criminal justice system according to Youth Leaving Care: How do they Fare?, a study released today by the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA).

Complete report:

(PDF file - 242K, 31 pages)
September 2005
By Anne Tweddle
"This discussion paper was prepared for the Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) Project in order to support and inform short- and long-term recommendations respecting challenges facing youth leaving care."

Source:
("MISWAA") - they produced the report
More MISWAA content (further down on the page you're now reading)
(they funded the report)

Related Links:

October 28, 2005
By Carol Goar
Trying to be gentle, social workers coined the phrase "aging out of care" to describe what happens to adolescents who reach the end of the child welfare system. In an earlier, less tactful era, they were simply terminated. But no amount of semantic cushioning can soften what, in real life, is a brutal transition. At the age of 18, crown wards, whose only parent has been the state for most or all of their lives, suddenly have no parent. They're on their own. In Ontario, some are eligible for extended care and maintenance payments of $663 per month until they reach 21. But many — usually those least able to cope — are cut off completely. They're alone in the adult world.
Source:

- from the

- from the

"The National Youth In Care Network exists to voice the opinions and concerns of youth in and from care and promote the improvement of services for them. We help our members find their voices and regain control over their lives through support, skill building, and healing opportunities."
- incl. links to : our bio (mandate, history, leadership, operational philosophy) - our work (consulting services, ken dryden scholarship, healing and training intensives, primer, our issues and sensitivity training
research and development) - our people (youth in care, members and supporters, board of directors, staff, youth in care networks) - our resources (stories, youth in care rights and resources, education, supporting youth in care networks, research, tools and manuals, links)

Press Release
February 18, 2005
"Toronto - Government policies and programs aimed at assisting low-income Canadians to escape poverty are not working. A Task Force made up of some of Toronto’s most prominent citizens met today to launch a process to discover why the current system is failing and to recommend a new roadmap for reforming income security in Ontario. Called the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA), it is spearheaded by the Toronto City Summit Alliance (TCSA) and Toronto’s St. Christopher House, with prominent members from Canadian business, academia and public life, including those with first-hand experience dealing with income security issues. The Task Force is an unprecedented response from leaders across the spectrum of civil society to tackle one of the most critical issues facing our cities."Recommended reading (from the "Reports" page):

(PDF file - 440K, 39 pages)
- contains excerpts from the materials used at the first meeting of the Task Force on September 22, 2004 and its second meeting on December 13, 2004.

(PDF file - 204K, 30 pages)
Spring 2004
"St. Christopher House brings the results of its recent efforts to develop 'modern strategies' for income security for working age adults in Ontario, including an in-depth understanding of the issues, and ideas for potential solutions that have been tested with front-line agencies and people directly affected by problems with the system. The MISWAA Task Force will build on the final report of that effort." (Description from the "Reports" page)

Related Links:

Media coverage:

By JOE FRIESEN
February 18, 2005
"Ontario's social safety net is full of holes that make it difficult for the poor to get off welfare and back to work, say the co-chairs of an ambitious task force on income security that is being launched today. David Pecaut, chairman of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, and Susan Pigott, CEO of St. Christopher House, are co-chairs of a group of more than 50 prominent economists, academics, business people and civic leaders. They aim to produce a report they hope will encourage Ottawa and Queen's Park to act on an issue that has major economic ramifications for Toronto (...)"
Source:

By ROYSON JAMES
February 18, 2005
"Toronto is faced with the creation of a permanent underclass in the next recession, says a dream team task force bent on repairing the country's fraying social safety net. Programs that paid out billions of dollars during the last recession in 1992 have been changed and amended to such a degree that thousands of people will be left without help if the hard times return, they warn."
Source:

The next article is relevant, but not related to the launch of the task force (or is it?):

By CAROL GOAR
"... there is a missing voice in this incipient debate: that of the economically marginalized.For the 675,000 Ontarians who depend on social assistance, there is a more urgent need than health services or post-secondary education. They can't afford life's basic necessities. All of the support systems they rely on — welfare, social housing, subsidized child care — have been chopped, dismantled or frozen in the last decade. Their incomes have slid from 62 per cent of Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off in 1995 to 45 per cent today (...)"
Source:

Thunder Bay

A Community of Acceptance: Respect for Thunder Bay's Diversity
March 2002
This study is a multi-method assessment of racism and race relations and social cohesion in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- 392 surveys and interviews with 45 residents form the basis of the study.
"The study concludes that while blatant racism is occasional, far more relevant are a number of racializing social practices which are subtle and pervasive. This study is contracted by Diversity Thunder Bay, an organization comprised of representatives of many stakeholder organizations. Funded by Canadian Heritage, the study is about race relations and social cohesion in this Canadian city."
(PDF file - 1114K, 130 pages)
(PDF file - 76K, 6 pages)
- includes a description of Diversity Thunder Bay and an overview of the study.

"The Toronto City Summit Alliance is a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region. The Alliance was formed to address challenges to the future of Toronto such as expanding knowledge-based industry, poor economic integration of immigrants, decaying infrastructure, and affordable housing.

"At the present time there are six projects underway or completed. They are:

The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council - working to improve the employment outcomes of skilled immigrants in the Toronto region through internships, mentorships, public campaigns and advocacy, improved licensing and accreditation processes, and increased government coordination.

The Toronto Region Research Alliance - bringing public and private institutions in the Toronto region together to build research excellence in our areas of strength, increase the commercialization of our research, increase venture capital financing to all areas of research and development, and market the Toronto region internationally as a premier R&D location.

The Toront03 Alliance - dedicated to post-SARS tourism recovery through a marketing campaign to bring tourism, especially Americans, back to Toronto. The mandate of Toront03 ended March 31st, 04 at which point it partnered with the city, the province and Tourism Toronto to fund and launch a branding strategy for the city which will be completed by the end of this year.

The Affordable Housing Coalition - uniting the private and community sectors to advocate for greater access to quality affordable housing through government lobbying and public education campaigns.

The Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force - articulating a vision for strong neighbourhoods in Toronto, recommending the principles, potential scope and purpose of a tripartite agreement between all levels of government to mobilize investment in community infrastructure in Toronto's neighbourhoods, advocating for change.

New Deal for Toronto"

- incl. links to : About TCSA - TCSA Initiatives (Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council - Toronto Region Research Alliance - Toront03 Alliance - Affordable Housing Coalition - Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force - New Deal for Toronto) - Issues Facing Our City (Affordable Housing - Arts & Culture - Community Services - Early Childhood Development - Economic Integration of Immigrants - New Fiscal Deal for Cities - Post Secondary Education - Public Education - Regional Transportation and Planning - Research and Development - The Waterfront - Tourism - Search for Policy Reports - Additional Web Resources - Event Listings - Community Resources - Take Action - FAQ's - Media - Contact Us

- best way to see everything on this site!

(PDF file - 579K, 36 pages)
April 2003

Community economic development (CED) involves initiatives that attempt to strengthen the community by building equitable and inclusive economies. It is about building a sustainable economy through a process that is driven by and for the community. CED is about the full economic participation of marginalized communities such as people experiencing long-term poverty, consumer/survivors of mental health services, ethno-racial groups, youth, women and disabled people. The Toronto CED Learning Network is a group of over 350 organizations and individuals who are interested in CED in the Toronto area.
Excellent resource! incl. links to over 750 sites touching a wide variety of topics related to CED, background information on community economic development, research papers, Internet resources, reference material, a weekly newsletter (with archives back to July 2000), and a whole lot more...

- "...one of the largest social housing providers in North America and home to about 164,000 tenants in communities across Toronto.We work with tenants, the community and other stakeholders to create strong, healthy neighborhoods."
- incl. links to : About Us - Our Communities - Tenant Life - How to Rent at TCHC - Revitalization - News - Events - Business Opportunities - Job Opportunities - Contact Us - Search - Sitemap

(Anti-homelessness coalition)
Visit this site for links to pages on homelessness in Canada - United States - United Kingdom - Australia - United Nations - International

See also Homelessness Links (a separate page of this site)

John Bonnar, Independent Journalist

I just stumbled across this social issues blog that appears to be a couple of years old, but it's quite current and informative.
Recommended reading!

Links to articles about poverty (2006, 2007) - from
- dozens of links to articles by various Star writers and columnists about the plight of Canada's needy and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them.
NOTE : this link takes you to another page of the Canadian Social Research Links website.

- incl. links to 30+ articles and features related to the 2006 Census
Selected content:
* Speak Out: Is marriage important? * Voices: Marriage vs. common law * Census highlights * Flash: Canadian population breakdown * Flash: Immigration and language * video reports on trends in the 2006 Census: income, immigration, divorce rates, gender imbalance, population growth, Quebec's baby boom and declining towns * population profile * much more
-----------------------------
Related link:

- links to several dozen articles based on Statistics Canada's 2006 datasets, covering a wide range of themes, including :
* visible minorities * the wealth gap * income inequality * interracial relationships * Canada's aging work force * immigrants and education * baby boomers, retirement and the spectre of a labour shortage * ethnic origin and minorities * families and work * Canadians helping the seniors in their lives * public transit use * immigrants living and working in their mother tongue * Canada's changing work force * families * Population of Indian, Métis and Inuit tops one-million mark * population * Canada's tenuous French connection * more...
Source:

-----------------------------

For more info on the 2006 Census of Canada, go to the Social Statistics Links page of this site:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm

-------------------------------------------------------------

Selected articles from :

March 16, 2010
By Robert Benzie
Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals will have to win two more elections – in 2011 and 2015 -- before Ontario’s record deficit is eliminated under a plan to be unveiled in the March 25 budget.

March 15, 2010
By Carol Goar
"(...) As budget day approaches, anti-poverty groups aren't expecting much. They know times are tough. They know education, not poverty reduction, is McGuinty's priority. They know the poor are always told to wait when there is a deficit. They'd like to trust the premier. But all the harbingers look bleak.

By Laurie Monsebraaten
December 2, 2009
Ontario has appointed the head of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank to head a panel of anti-poverty advocates to advise the government on a long-awaited review of its welfare system, the Star has learned."If this group can't make the proper recommendations, then nobody can," said food bank executive director Gail Nyberg. Almost 800,000 Ontarians – including about 236,000 children and about 260,000 disabled people – live on provincial welfare and disability supports that leave most of them trapped in grinding poverty and despair. (...) The advisory panel, which will meet with Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur before Christmas, will help the government finalize the scope of the review and start work in the New Year on both short- and long-term changes, the source said. The review is expected to be complete by the end of 2010. Other members of the advisory panel are Pedro Barata of the Atkinson Foundation; Colette Murphy of the Metcalf Foundation; former senior provincial social services bureaucrat John Stapleton; Michael Oliphant of the Daily Bread Food Bank; Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute and Kira Heineck of the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association.

August 4, 2009
Editorial
The premiers gather tomorrow in Regina for their annual conference. With federal politics devoted mostly to name-calling and finger-pointing these days, the premiers' conference can perform an important agenda-setting function for the whole nation by refocusing debate on neglected issues of public policy.

June 16, 2009
Opinion
By Jim Grieve and Bill Hogarth
We know for certain that every dollar we invest in children before they are 6-years-old saves us up to $17 in social service costs. So why does Canada shamefully spend so little in support of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens? What will it take to change the status quo – to move from talk to action and make a difference for children, families and our communities?The good news is we finally have an opportunity to make that difference. A new report entitled With Our Best Future in Mind by Charles Pascal, early learning adviser to Premier Dalton McGuinty, presents a clear and powerful blueprint for Ontario. The report calls for sweeping, collaborative action to place early learning firmly on the public agenda for Ontario and the rest of Canada. With Our Best Future in Mind calls attention to the need to build on best practice and embed proven strategies uniformly toward a total transformation of our approach to early learning. The report proposes expanded Best Start Child and Family Centres and introduces early learning programs as the enhanced full-day model for 4- and 5-year-olds.

- includes links to a number of articles on the report on early learning:
* `Seamless' program urged for kids (by Andrea Gordon) - June 16, 2009
* The case for full-day learning (by Kenyon Wallace) - June 16, 2009
* Can teachers, daycare staff play together? (by Laurie Monsebraaten) - June 16, 2009
* Not known which schools will get kindergarten program: Premier (by Rob Ferguson) - June 15, 2009
* Full-day learning starts next year (by Laurie Monsebraaten) - June 15, 2009
* Take over daycares, Ontario schools told (by Kristin Rushowy) - June 14, 2009
* Single system for child care encouraged Laurie Monsebraaten - November 4, 2008
*
Fraser Mustard, Charles Pascal and Lorna Weigand were all
instrumental in the Ontario plan to make elementary schools full-day hubs for 4- and 5-year olds

May 25, 2009
By Carol Goar
One of the defining characteristics of an effective social agency is that it never stays still. It changes as the population of a community changes. It creates new programs when the existing ones don't meet the needs of its clients. It constantly looks for better ways to do things and better tools to help people. Governments, on the other hand, lock their programs in place with rigid rules. They demand conformity. They manage change by imposing limits and off-loading responsibilities. This clash of visions leads to stifled creativity and half-solved problems. That is the message a Senate delegation heard when it came to Toronto this month, seeking solutions to urban poverty. Three members of the subcommittee on cities – Senators Art Eggleton, Jane Cordy and Hugh Segal – spent a morning at Woodgreen Community Services, one of Toronto's leading social agencies...
Related link:

At WoodGreen we believe that everyone should have access to
the essentials of life whether that means a roof over their head, a stable job or child care they can trust.

Requires the province to create goals to cut numbers living in need
May 7, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten
and Tanya Talaga
Fighting poverty is now the law in Ontario.In a unanimous vote yesterday, Queen's Park passed legislation that commits the province to become a leading jurisdiction in the battle against poverty. The Poverty Reduction Act, hailed by advocates as "historic," requires successive governments to draft poverty-fighting strategies with specific goals every five years and to report annually to the legislature on progress.

Editorial
May 07, 2009
It is significant that a bill committing the Ontario government to a plan to reduce poverty was passed with all-party support in the Legislature yesterday. It suggests there is widespread agreement among the politicians that it is no longer acceptable – either morally or economically – to leave more than a million Ontarians in poverty. That acknowledgement – and the law now on the books – is a wonderful beginning. But it is just a beginning. We ought not to forget that in 1989 our federal politicians voted unanimously to "achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000." Sadly, two decades after that resolution, the number of poor children is nearly the same.

May 07, 2009 04:30 AM
By Greg deGroot-Magetti and Sarah Blackstock
The historic Poverty Reduction Act passed this week with the support of all three political parties. This important legislation requires the Ontario government, now and for years to come, to create and implement poverty reduction strategies. No longer can poverty be ignored.

Editorial
April 20, 2009
Unemployment numbers are soaring, welfare cases are rising and food banks are reporting shortages. The economic downturn has made Ontario's plan to reduce poverty even more crucial than when it was first promised by the Liberals. The initial target is to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent within five years. We have seen targets like that before, and they have been missed. But what makes this plan somewhat different is the accompanying legislation, which would make poverty-reduction an ongoing government responsibility. Children's Minister Deb Matthews, who designed the province's anti-poverty strategy, states: "The only way we're ever going to succeed in the fight against poverty is for it to become a core responsibility of governments now and in the future." Political interests and governments come and go, so the anti-poverty bill – now before a legislative committee – would be a tool to hold politicians to account.

NOTE: For more links to information about the Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy,
see http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

Editorial
March 24, 2009
The number of Ontarians living on welfare is rising. Another 18,000 cases were added in the last few months, bringing the total to more than 214,000 cases. That's nearly 400,000 people living on welfare. The hard truth is that even these numbers understate the real need for social assistance, given the effects of the economic downturn. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians who have lost their jobs will soon run out of severance pay and exhaust their Employment Insurance benefits. Yet many of these recent victims of the economic downturn will discover that they face even more hurdles – and humiliations – because of the punitive welfare rules still in place.

March 18, 2009
By Don Drummond (Chief Economist, TD Bank Financial Group)
and John Stapleton (Metcalf Foundation Fellow)
Our welfare system provides Ontarians with a false sense of security. Many assume it has been designed to offer temporary protection to individuals who are ineligible for Employment Insurance, or no longer able to participate in this program. But this so-called safety net has some large holes. It does not catch all those it should. And the ones it does catch often become entangled in the web, finding it difficult to get back out. In short, it has a way of keeping the destitute down. (...) We have argued that the asset limits for welfare eligibility need to be raised substantially. A particular aspect of this is to exempt certain amounts in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and the new Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs). The Ontario government has an opportunity to do this in its March 26 budget. It would be an important step forward in its poverty reduction strategy. (...) The end game is to provide temporary support for individuals who lose their job and then help them get back into the labour market as soon as possible, when the economy turns around. Under present welfare rules we are destined to repeat the patterns of the past when too few are protected and those who are become entangled. By creating a better future for those who need it most, the government can help make sure we don’t repeat history.

Editorial
March 17, 2009
When Premier Dalton McGuinty committed to reduce poverty, just four months ago, his plan spoke passionately about alleviating the suffering of families living in poverty and, in doing so, improving the economic future for all Ontarians. The need is even greater now. Yet, just days before the provincial budget that could elevate the plan from nice words to concrete action, there are troubling signs that the government is backing off...

Timely investments will reduce poverty but also stimulate local economies
March 17, 2009
By Sarah Blackstock, Pat Capponi and Janet Gasparini
"(...)These are challenging economic times and, historically, it has been during such dark moments that previous governments did the most for the poor and the jobless. Abandoning the poor during an economic downturn is not the kind of leadership Ontarians envision for their government. Now is not a time for cold feet. It is a time for bold action.Now, more than ever, we turn to our government to meet its commitment."
(Sarah Blackstock is a policy analyst with the . Pat Capponi is facilitator of . Janet Gasparini is chair of the .)

[ See also : ]

- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

March 13, 2009
By Joanna Smith
OTTAWA–The economic crisis could disrupt an Ontario government strategy to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent over the next five years, provincial Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews said yesterday. (...) The provincial government released its anti-poverty blueprint – which aims to lift 90,000 Ontario children above the poverty line by 2014 – last December. Matthews says she has always been upfront about its dependence on economic growth and co-operation from all three levels of government. Matthews said worsened economic conditions could result in an interruption in implementing the strategy but insisted the government can still succeed. "I am optimistic we can achieve it and I can assure you that kids will be better off as a result of this strategy regardless of the economy," she said.
Source:

Related links:
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

Ottawa gave province fiscal breathing room but did little to help poor and unemployed
Opinion
March 4, 2009
By John Stapleton, Janet Gasparini and Neethan Shan
Two important questions faced Ontario's poverty reduction plan after its December release:
- How much further would Ontario's economy deteriorate?
- What would the federal government do in its winter budget to support Ontario's goal to reduce poverty by 25 per cent in the next five years?
Well, we now have the answers. Ontario lost 71,000 of the 129,000 jobs lost in Canada in January 2009. And Ottawa intends to do just about nothing at all about poverty. (...) It's disappointing, to say the least, that the federal government chose to ignore its important role in supporting provincial moves to reduce poverty. But Ontario's finance minister still has plenty of options to demonstrate his own government means business when it comes to reducing poverty. There is no doubt that we live in difficult times and the economic parallels to the Great Depression are striking. But unlike the 1930s, we do not need to wait for years before we do something about it.

Recent columns by Carol Goar
(Toronto Star):

Opinion
February 20, 2009
By Carol Goar
"One of Dalton McGuinty's favourite phrases is "shared responsibility." In his first term as premier, he applied it to everything from curbing gun violence to keeping seniors healthy and independent. But since his re-election 16 months ago, he has used it chiefly to explain, affirm and defend his pledge to reduce poverty. "There will be part of the (upcoming provincial) budget that speaks to our shared responsibility to help those Ontarians who have been most affected by this recession," he promised last week. This is a welcome departure from the blame-the-victim language that prevailed at Queen's Park for more than a decade. But anti-poverty groups are withholding their applause. The premier's rhetoric is encouraging, but Ontario's welfare system still operates on the assumption that recipients should be hounded and lectured about their responsibility to become self-supporting. The government's desire to tackle poverty seems genuine, but its actions have been modest and its plans are vague. It would be nice to believe that Ontario is returning to its tradition of protecting the vulnerable and supporting the disadvantaged."

February 18, 2009
"(...) a coalition of 350 anti-poverty organizations, known as the 25 in 5 Network, is asking Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to include a $100 monthly Healthy Food Supplement in monthly welfare cheques. The extra $25 a week wouldn't enable people who depend on social assistance to follow the Canada Food Guide, which calls for five daily servings of fruits and vegetables, three daily servings of milk or cheese and two daily servings of meat or high-protein substitutes.But it might mean an apple or a banana a day. It might mean a glass of milk at dinner. It might mean chicken instead of macaroni on Sundays."

February 16, 2009
"(...) The Heart and Stroke Foundation is calling on the government to monitor food prices and issue regular reports to Canadians. It also wants Ottawa to sit down with food producers, wholesalers, retailers and marketing boards to find out why there is so much inconsistency in the price of healthy foods. It is asking the agri-food industry to promote equitable food pricing within and between communities. And it is advising Canadians to shop carefully, choose frozen vegetables when fresh produce is unavailable or expensive, and learn more about healthy eating."

[ ]

Source:

Also from The Star:

Pressure mounts on province to introduce $100-a-month benefit for welfare recipients
February 20, 2009
By Megan Ogilvie
The call for the Ontario government to introduce a $100 healthy food supplement for all adults on social assistance is getting louder. Yesterday, Toronto's medical officer of health added his voice to the campaign for the introduction of the monthly food supplement in the upcoming provincial budget. A coalition of 350 anti-poverty organizations, called the 25in5 Network, along with the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, has mounted the drive for more nutrition dollars.

October 17, 2008
By Carol Goar
Today, people of conscience in every country will take time to mark International Day to Eradicate Poverty. Canadians will meet in council chambers and classrooms, homes and churches to renew their commitment to fight poverty. The tradition began 15 years ago, when the United Nations designated Oct. 17 as a day for humanity to stand together against the most ruthless killer and greatest cause of suffering in the world. It has been observed – usually by a devoted few – ever since. For Canadian anti-poverty campaigners, this year's anniversary comes at a particularly challenging time.
(...)
Although the Conservatives won Tuesday's federal election, the three opposition parties captured more than half of the seats in Parliament. The Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois all want Ottawa to tackle poverty. Their policies are very similar. If they are prepared to use their combined strength to advance policies that will help struggling Canadians, they have the votes to make headway. It will take political maturity and a strong prod from the Canadians who voted for them. But there is potential for progress under a minority government. (...) For those working tirelessly to lift their fellow citizens out poverty at home and abroad, promising glimmers and isolated success stories don't provide a lot of sustenance. Luckily, they don't need a lot.

But provincial rules blunt the impact of new tax-free savings plan for people on welfare
July 25, 2008
For eight straight years, the number of welfare recipients in Ontario has remained unchanged, with an approximate caseload of 200,000. This puts into question the current system's ability to effectively transition high-risk groups, including working-age adults, to the labour force. There are enormous social costs to bear when such a large number of people rely on the welfare system. It can place serious strains on recipients, their families and the communities they live in. However, enabling individuals to become self-reliant is not just a social imperative – it's also an economic priority. That's because, in an era of tight labour markets, our province relies on a greater participation in the workforce. We all have something to gain when an individual makes the successful journey from welfare to work.

July 18, 2008
Carol Goar
Canada has been through seven recessions since 1950. It looks as if we're heading for an eighth. Past contractions have varied greatly in length and severity. Some have been highly localized, others have been all encompassing. Some have destroyed governments, others have scarcely registered on the political scale. Despite this variation, they've all had one thing in common: The poor have fared worse than the rich.

June 10, 2008
(...) Some 1.3 million Ontarians live in poverty and the Liberals have promised to have a poverty-reduction strategy – and targets to measure the government's progress – in place by year's end. Ontarians had their first chance to publicly air their views on the government's plans at three meetings yesterday across the city of Toronto attended by Liberal MPPs.

Editorial
June 2, 2008
The late June Callwood was a tireless activist who until her death last year fought and won many battles. Her last great crusade was to eradicate child poverty in Canada. So it is fitting that her birthday today has been declared June Callwood Children's Day in Ontario. As Premier Dalton McGuinty sees it, we should take the opportunity "to commit ourselves to action."

May 23, 2008
Carol Goar
Expectations are running high. Revenues are running low. And Premier Dalton McGuinty has decreed that there will be no deficit and no tax increases. Yet Deb Matthews, who heads the cabinet committee drafting Ontario's poverty reduction strategy, is defiantly sanguine.

See also:
- Canadian Social Research Links Antipoverty Strategies and Campaigns page

February 20, 2008
By Tanya Talaga
News that 20,000 Ontario foster children were left out of an anti-poverty plan proves how flawed Premier Dalton McGuinty’s child benefit program is, the province’s NDP leader says. In 2003, McGuinty promised he would end a clawback of the national child benefit supplement, which takes about $1,500 a year out of the pockets of families on welfare and disability support, Howard Hampton charged yesterday. However, parents who receive Ontario disability support or Ontario Works payments are still having the national child benefit deducted from those cheques, Hampton said.

February 18, 2008
NDP Children and Youth Services critic Andrea Horwath slammed Dalton McGuinty for once again failing Ontario’s poor and most vulnerable by forgetting to include foster children in his child benefit program.
Source:

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Province tells children's aid societies to put cash from federal child care benefit into education plan
April 23, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten and Tanya Talaga, Social Justice Reporters
Queen's Park is ordering Ontario children's aid societies to set up registered education savings plans for all kids in foster care younger than age 6 receiving Ottawa's $100-a-month child-care benefit. An annual contribution of $1,200 from birth to age 6 would trigger $340 a year in matching federal funds and $1,000 in Canada Learning Bond payments up to age 6. After that, the RESP would grow by $100 per year in Canada Learning Bond payments, until age 16, according to the Royal Bank, which was chosen by the province to manage the RESPs at no charge to the societies.
Source:

April 5, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
More than 66,000 individuals and families in Toronto are on the list for subsidized apartments in these buildings – a number city officials say would take 66 years to serve at the current rate of affordable housing construction. They are the tip of a veritable iceberg of need in a city where an estimated 200,000 low-income households spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent and another 4,000 sleep in homeless shelters every night.

April 5, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
A Toronto plan to provide safe, affordable homes for more than 200,000 vulnerable families and individuals in the next 10 years may never get off the ground if Ottawa doesn't contribute, warns Ontario Housing Minister Jim Watson.

April 2, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
When Andrea Duffield's youngest child started Grade 1 last fall, the single mother of three got a part-time job in the hope of pulling her family out of poverty. But the extra income caused her subsidized rent to double. And after taxes and work-related expenses, her Toronto family wasn't any further ahead.

Editorial
February 25, 2008
When the provincial government introduced its new five-year, $2.1 billion Ontario Child Benefit in its budget last year as the cornerstone of its pledge to fight poverty, it did not extend the program to the 20,000 Ontario children in foster care. The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies pointed out the apparent oversight during the budget lock-up last March. But the problem, which cost each child $250 last year, still has not been fixed.

Related links from the

File Your Income Tax Return To Qualify For New Monthly Ontario Child Benefit
News Release
February 22, 2008

(OCB)
In July 2007, eligible families received a one-time down payment of up to $250 for each dependent child under 18. Beginning in July 2008, the Ontario Child Benefit will be delivered to eligible families each month. In July 2008, about 460,000 families will receive a monthly Ontario Child Benefit payment of up to $600 per child annually. When the program is fully implemented in 2011, more than 600,000 low-income families will receive up to $1,100 per child annually.

- from the
- from the (March 22/07)
- from the

February 23, 2008
By Les Whittington
OTTAWA–Ontarians facing the threat of a recession will keep a nervous eye on Tuesday's federal budget to see if the Conservatives will deal with an Employment Insurance program that leaves the province's jobless lagging far behind other Canadians.

---

February 23, 2008
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Premier Dalton McGuinty wants the federal government to use next Tuesday's budget to fix a problem that is keeping $1.7 billion out of the hands of Ontario unemployed workers. But the chances are it won't happen, despite a $50 billion surplus in the Employment Insurance program. McGuinty has been vociferous in complaining about how Ontario's unemployed workers are treated differently than those in other provinces.

A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty
February 17, 2008
Comment by Reginald Stackhouse
Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country – no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned.

Related links:
- Go to the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm

Only a socially inclusive strategy can overcome the twin `paradoxes of globalization'
January 20, 2008
In the past few months, two major reports have delivered a disturbing message to everyone concerned about Toronto's future. In November, the United Way's Losing Ground documented growing income inequality across the city with more than 30 per cent of families living in poverty, rising to more than 50 per cent for single-parent families. Still digesting the implications of that report, Torontonians' holiday spirits were dampened by the University of Toronto study, The Three Cities within Toronto. It mapped the new geography of the economic gap. Since 1970, Toronto's renowned mixed-income neighbourhoods have become harder to find, squeezed between an opulent inner city and deteriorating suburbs. The overall conclusion: Toronto is Canada's richest city, but also becoming its poorest and most divided.
Source:

January 11, 2008
By Ann Decter*
When Canada's First Ministers meet over dinner tonight in Ottawa, they'll sit down to the unusual opportunity to chew on an issue that has support from premiers of all political stripes. Along with dinner, they can take a big bite out of poverty. Any meeting focused on the economy and labour force requirements should take a hard look at the statistic that almost 12 per cent of Canadians under 18 are living in poverty. Meeting labour force requirements will mean ensuring all Canadian youth are prepared for the working world, and none are left behind with inadequate skills.
Source:

[ * Ann Decter is national co-ordinator of , a coalition working to end poverty in Canada, and interim director of social reform at the . ]

Related links:

January 10, 2008
Reducing poverty should lead the agenda of today’s First Ministers’ Meeting in Ottawa, says Campaign 2000, the national non-partisan coalition working to end child and family poverty. In an open letter, the coalition urged the First Ministers to use the meeting to take initial steps toward creating a national Poverty Reduction Strategy with targets and timetables.

(PDF file - 32K, 3 pages)
January 11, 2008

Stéphane Dion's strategy of targeting low-income Canadians looks starry-eyed.
It might just be a hard-nosed play for the middle class
January 5, 2008
Susan Delacourt
OTTAWA–The next federal election campaign could spark an intriguing form of Liberal-Conservative class warfare: the Liberals, putting poverty front and centre, while the Conservatives continue their quest to own the middle-class vote in Canada. So is it food banks versus tax breaks in the expected election campaign of 2008? The homeless versus the suburban dwellers? The battle lines may not be that clear-cut, but it's worth asking why Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and his party have decided to embrace the anti-poverty fight so intensely – at the same time as many strategists argue that successful election campaigns are fought in the middle of Canada's income spectrum.

Editorial
January 02, 2008
If our political leaders muster the will to act, 2008 could very well mark the year in the history books when the appalling but silent enemy of poverty in Canada was finally engaged. It has been a year now since the Star launched its War on Poverty in a continuing series of editorials and news stories aimed at documenting the toll poverty takes on one in every 10 Canadians and nearly one in five of the children living in one of the richest countries in the world.

September 4, 2007
Some 18 years ago, Parliament voted unanimously to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000. Today, the percentage of children in Canada and in Ontario living in poverty is higher than it was back in 1989. As well, the percentage of all Canadians in poverty is as high as ever. In a country and a province so rich, it is a disgrace that so many Canadians are living in poverty – estimates run up to 5.3 million people. In Ontario, the child poverty rate is 17 per cent, or one in every six children. Food banks served 330,500 Ontarians in 2006. (...) In Ontario, the provincial branch of the national anti-poverty group Campaign 2000 is challenging all three major political parties to devise a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy before the Oct. 10 election. It has set out a credible multi-year strategy that includes defining poverty, setting targets and timetables, making long-term financial commitments and providing ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the results – all things that Britain and Ireland did.

July 16, 2007
Excerpt re. anti-poverty strategies and targets:
"(...) In the United Kingdom, the government set a target to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent by 2004, missing it only by a small margin. The target is twice as ambitious for 2010, with a total elimination of child poverty by 2020. With similar goals, Ireland reduced its child poverty rate from 15 per cent in 1994 to less than 5 per cent and aims to hit zero. Here at home, Newfoundland has set a goal to be the province with the least poverty within a decade. And Quebec hopes to have one of the lowest poverty levels among the industrialized nations by 2013.

July 13, 2007
By Kerry Gillespie
"(...) More than 330,000 Ontarians rely on food banks to survive – and 40 per cent of them are children. Today, a group dedicated to ending child poverty in Canada is releasing a blueprint for reducing child poverty in Ontario in the hopes of setting the agenda for the Oct. 10 provincial election. The Campaign 2000 report, obtained early by the Star, calls for all three political parties to commit to developing a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy. The goal should be to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent within five years and by 50 per cent within 10 years, the report states."

The Discussion Paper:

(PDF file - 425K, 14 pages)
July 2007.
By Jacquie Maund (Campaign 2000), Sarah Blackstock (Income Security Advocacy Centre), Greg deGroot -Maggetti (Citizens for Public Justice), Sara Farrell (Toronto Public Health), Elizabeth Ablett (Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care).
This report calls on all Ontario political parties to commit to a “Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario” as they finalize their party platforms for the October election.
Source:

[ ]

Ontario's political parties respond:

July 14, 2007
By Kerry Gillespie
"Ontario's political parties yesterday would not commit to the firm targets for reducing poverty that have been proposed in a new report by the non-profit coalition Campaign 2000. Liberal officials said they appreciate the suggestions and the dedication of the group, which yesterday called on Ontario politicians to commit during the upcoming election campaign to cut child poverty in half within 10 years. The Liberals also talked about improvements they've made, including raising the minimum wage and welfare rates and introducing a child benefit for low-income families."

December 15, 2006
CAROL GOAR
According to the Toronto department of public health, a single mother with two school-aged children needs $412.70 a month to feed her family properly. She has to be a thrifty shopper. She has to prepare most meals from scratch. And she has to be able to get to a decent grocery store. If she is living on social assistance, all of that is difficult. But there is a bigger problem. She has an income of $1,184 a month. That includes $582 for housing and $602 for everything else. The trouble is, there is no housing in Toronto for $582 a month. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,052 a month. So she has $132 a month left for food, clothing, toiletries, transportation, utilities and possibly heat. For this mother — and thousands like her — the health department's "nutritious food basket" is a cruel joke.

- links to almost three dozen recent columns dealing with social justice themes like poverty, welfare, housing, immigration, etc.

Making poverty a priority: What Ontario should - and should not do - as it designs its poverty reduction program.
March 3, 2008 (taped program, view on demand on your computer)
Recommended viewing!
Steve Paikin of TV Ontario's The Agenda parses the Ontario poverty reduction initiative
of Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government along with the following guests:
* Deb Matthews (Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services)
* Jacquie Maund (Coordinator of Ontario Campaign 2000)
* Finn Poschmann (Research Director, C.D. Howe Institute)
* Shawn Skinner (Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment in Newfoundland & Labrador)
[NOTE: you won't likely be able to watch this 20-minute video clip if you're behind a network firewall, but it's definitely worth viewing from home.]

Click the link above, then (on the next page) click on the tab in the top- middle of the page that says "Ontario's War on Poverty"- only then can you click on the link to the video or the podcast (in the top right corner of that page)
NOTE: - includes an extensive discussion and debate about the measurement of poverty in Ontario and elsewhere, perspectives on poverty reduction strategies in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand and panel members' recommendations concerning the best direction for Ontario's poverty reduction strategy.

Source:

$8 million job training contract cancelled; work goes to B.C. competitor.
August 29, 2008
The company that pioneered private job placement services in B.C. for people receiving welfare has lost an $8 million government contract in the province's Interior. A message sent on Aug. 8 by ASPECT-B.C.'s Community Based Trainers to its members working in the sector said the Ministry of Housing and Social Development had cancelled the Interior region contract with WCG International Consultants Ltd., which runs the JobWave program. The company continues to provide B.C. Employment Program services in other regions of the province.
(...)
WCG won a contract in 2005 to provide a pilot project, , in Ontario. The pilot ended over a year ago and has not been renewed. The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services prepared an evaluation of the project but has not released it. Originally scheduled for a fall 2007 release, the ministry's website now says it will be released in summer 2008.
Source:

- - Check out this section of the United Way site - it's got links to the Social Services Bulletin (""(small PDF file), the speeches and writings of Anne Golden and United Way reports.  I've provided links to some sample reports below.

November 2007

Despite economic prosperity, high employment and strong job growth Toronto’s
family poverty rate at 28.8 per cent, compared with 19.5 per cent across Canada
Media Release
TORONTO, November 26, 2007 –The number of low-income families in Toronto continues to grow at an alarming rate, opening up an ever-widening gap with families in the rest of Canada, according to a research study released today by United Way of Greater Toronto. The study also chronicles a number of startling symptoms of the persistent growth of poverty in the city, including signs of growing debt such as insolvencies, rising eviction applications, and a rapid expansion of quick-fix money solutions targeting low-income neighbourhoods across the city.

November 2007
* (pdf - 1 MB)
* (pdf - 705 KB)
*
*
*
*
*
*

This report builds on and updates the findings of several groundbreaking reports:

*** (2005)

*** (2004)

*** (2002)
Source:

*** (2007)
Source:

*** (2006)
Source:

-------------------------------------------------------

(PDF file - 119K, 2 pages)
Plan calls on governments to coordinate resources to invest in neighbourhoods
Press Release
June 30, 2005
"TORONTO– United Way and the City of Toronto today unveiled a plan to strengthen social services in neighbourhoods facing the greatest need throughout Toronto, particularly in the city’s inner suburbs. The plan identifies nine Toronto neighbourhoods where social services are most out-of-step with growing need. The Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy was released today after a year-long City of Toronto-United Way task force began looking for ways to strengthen the social infrastructure of Toronto neighbourhoods, identify community investment models, and advocate for change."

(PDF file - 101K, 1 page)
Investments include community development programs to identify local issues
Press Release
June 30, 2005

Complete Report:

(PDF file - 2.6MB, 44 pages)
June 2005

(PDF file - 579K, 36 pages)
April 2003
The represents a coalition of over 40 civic leaders from the private, labour, voluntary and public sectors in the Toronto region.

"Despite the economic recovery in the late 1990s, Toronto experienced a significant increase in poverty. A new United Way report reveals Torontonians were financially worse off at the end of the 1990s than in the rest of Canada. Government benefits were cut. Housing costs rose. In Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods, the number of families making less than $30,000/year increased from 16.8% to 20%. In Toronto during the 1990s, two-parent family incomes declined 13%, single-parent family incomes dropped 18%, and single people's incomes fell 12.5%. Neighbourhoods became more segregated as the income gap widened between Toronto's wealthiest and poorest neighbourhoods."
(PDF file - 26K, 2 pages)
(PDF file - 245K, 6 pages)
(HTML)

to solve issues of poverty in our community (HTML)
Prepared jointly by :

Related Link :

October 2001
This report was prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development for the United Way of Greater Toronto.

"United Way's landmark new report, A Commitment to Care: Community Support Services for Seniors, identifies the causes behind the problem, what United Way is doing to help, and recommendations for improving care."
November 2001
(Complete report online)
PDF file - 2154K, 96 pages

 November 1999

(PDF file - 1468 KB, 294 pages)
January 1999 -The Golden Report
Complete Report
Source :

(PDF file - 202K, 28 pages)
January 1999
Anne Golden's comments on the release of the report, an overview of the report and the complete list of 105 recommendations, all in one file

(Toronto)
Includes a short introduction by members of the Task Force and the complete list of 105 recommendations. Also includes a link to the July 1998 interim report,  "Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness". 

(Anti-homelessness coalition) 
Visit this site for links to almost 50 relevant web pages on homelessness, many Canadian... 

May 22, 2009
Ottawa – This morning, the Leadership Table on Homelessness (LTH) announced that, through the support of the City of Ottawa, Ottawa Community Housing and the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, 100 chronically homeless people in our community will be placed in supportive housing within the next few weeks. The LTH also released Destination: Home, a plan for our community to address and eliminate chronic homelessness
[ The Leadership Table on Homelessness (LTH) consists of business leaders, government officials, community agencies and members of the faith community, who have come together to implement a plan to end chronic homelessness in Ottawa. The LTH is a community-wide initiative, supported by United Way/Centraide Ottawa and the City of Ottawa. ]
Source:

Complete report (10-year plan):

(PDF - 1.2MB, 13 pages)
May 2009
Core Strategies:
1. HOUSING FIRST
Provide a permanent, stable home for every chronically homeless person.
2. SUPPORT SERVICES
Provide each chronically homeless person with the support services he or she needs in order to remain housed and off the streets.
3. ENGAGEMENT
Build understanding about chronic homelessness and engage the community in helping us provide housing and support services to the chronically homeless

Related links:

May 22, 2009
The City of Ottawa announced Friday that it's taking a million-dollar step toward ending chronic homelessness in the city. With the help of Leadership Table on Homelessness, the group of business leaders and government officials that made the announcement Friday, the city said it hopes to help 100 chronically homeless people a year. The city said it has committed $1 million a year to provide support for the 100 homeless who will soon be given homes.
Source:

Saving on services will bring benefits to us all in the long run, group says
May 22, 2009
OTTAWA - The squalid, shadowy side of Fat City came sharply into focus Friday with the release of a compelling report on how to end chronic homelessness in Ottawa within 10 years. The report, titled "Destination: Home," noted that more than 1,400 people in Ottawa are categorized as "chronically homeless," defined as those who spend more than 60 cumulative nights a year on the streets or in shelters.
Source:

United Ways of Ontario

November 21, 2003
"Take Action!
The Throne Speech ignored the Liberal Party's campaign promise to increase welfare benefits by the cost of living for the first time in eight years. Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello said the government can't afford to increase benefits now because of the $5.6 billion deficit left by the former Tory government. 'Our goal will be to do exactly that ... timing is going to be the issue... because we have some huge fiscal challenges,' she said. It is absolutely essential that MPPs across the province hear from their constituents that this is an outrageous violation of promises made during the election, and a callous disregard for the lives of the people who have been suffering for years without enough income to survive in the richest province in one of the richest countries in the world.
Call your MPP today, and demand that they take immediate steps to raise the rates.
Ontario MPP contact information available at "
Source:

- Nov. 7, 2003
- incl. the following articles:
* New Government, New Ministries, and New Committees
* McGuinty Moves Swiftly to Tackle Deficit
* Food Banks Struggle with Growing Hunger
* Study Cites Factors Driving Dramatic increase in Children’s Aid Cases
* Ontario to End Hydro Rate Freeze
* Commission Seeks Removal of Barriers for Disabled Students
* B.C.’s Two-Year Welfare Cut-off Challenged
Source:

"March 12, 2002 -- A nutritional diet - as defined by the Ontario government's own standards - is out of reach for Toronto's welfare recipients, says a U of T study"
Source :

October 2009

Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our communities, identifies trends, and shares opportunities for action in at least ten areas critical to quality of life.
Since Toronto's first Vital Signs publication, the Report has been adopted by 16 communities across Canada and is now conducted nationally by Community Foundations of Canada.

Click the link for reports covering the following participating cities and regions:
* Calgary * Central Okanagan * Guelph & Wellington * Kingston & Area * Medicine Hat * Oakville
* Ottawa * Red Deer * Saint John * Sudbury * Sunshine Coast * Toronto * Victoria * Waterloo * Wolfville (NS)

NOTE : Only the link to the Toronto and Ottawa reports appear below because I live in Ottawa, and Toronto is, well, Toronto*, eh...
For all other city reports, click the above link and select a city or region to access its report.
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* Hey, I'm not sayin' that Toronto would pick up its marbles and go home or anything if I *didn't*
include a link to their report, but the population of Toronto is larger than most of the other provinces combined (except Ontario), so there ya go...
---

Ottawa:
(PDF - 2.9MB, 27 pages)
Source:

Toronto:
(PDF, 2.8 MB)
Source:
We help people invest in Toronto, making it the best place to live, work, learn and grow. We monitor the quality of life in our city, identifying its strengths and weaknesses through our Toronto’s Vital Signs® report

Related links:

October 6, 2009
By Royson James
Sooner, rather than later, Toronto needs a strike force to confront the dangerous patterns', `This is a picture of sickness linked to poverty – a snapshot of a city moving in opposite directions, its populace increasingly polarized. (...) Since 1998, the Toronto Community Foundation has been alerting us to the changing forces in our city and region. Toronto's Vital Signs, the annual checkup of the city's social, economic, environmental and physical health continues this year to track the alerts.

We are the Canadian movement for community vitality, representing 168 Community Foundations across the country. Together, we help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work and play.

- Go to the Municipal Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/municipal.htm

Voices from the streets was launched in 2005 with funding from the City of Toronto’s Supporting Community Partnership Initiative to develop a speakers bureau comprised of individuals with mental health and addictions history. (...) Voices From the Street is comprised of individuals who have had direct experience with homelessness, poverty, and/or mental health issues. The organization works to put a human face to homelessness and involves people with direct experience as leaders in a public education process.

Ontario's fiscal woes come as bad news for the
growing number of Ontarians dealing with the fallout from the recent economic storm.
By Pat Capponi (Voices From the Street) and
Jennefer Laidley (Income Security Advocacy Centre)
October 27, 2009
As provincial coffers dry up, thousands of individuals and families also face increasing financial hardship. With unemployment expected to hit 10 per cent by 2010, there could soon be 400,000 of us out of work. And while federal changes to employment insurance will offer some short-term relief, they may be too little, too late. (...) The commitment to review Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program – made in the province's poverty reduction strategy last December – has been agonizingly slow to get off the ground. (...) [T]he newly appointed minister responsible for poverty reduction, Laurel Broten, and the government's poverty reduction results team must make the social assistance review their first order of business to support Ontario's strategy for climbing out of the recession. As Ontario considers its plan for moving forward, the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction offers the following five benchmarks for a social assistance review that will meet the test:
* The review must be grounded in a bold vision: economic security and opportunity for all Ontarians.
* The review must be proactive.
* A timely process to launch deep reforms must be part of the review package.
* Providing decent, adequate income supports must be a stated outcome of the review.
* People who have had to rely on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program must have a leading role in shaping the review's recommendations.
Source:

Authors Pat Capponi and Jennefer Laidley are members of the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, a multi-sectoral network comprised of more than 100 provincial and Toronto-based organizations and individuals working on eliminating poverty.

Related links:

The Income Security Advocacy Centre works with and on behalf of low income communities in Ontario to address issues of income security and poverty.

- A sub-site of the Income Security Advocacy Centre
Comprehensive source for issues, stories, resources, analysis, and news about the review
- incl. links to : About - Take Action - Tell Your Story - Resources - News

25 in 5 is a multi-sectoral network comprised of more than 100 provincial and Toronto-based organizations and individuals working on eliminating poverty.

- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

Human services in the Waterloo Region
-
-
-
- (poverty fact sheets)

("Canada's online home for social change")
"Web Networks' mission is to contribute to building a self-reliant online community based on non-profit enterprise, cooperation, and mutual aid which can support, maintain, and defend principles of social responsibility, ecology, and economic justice."

As one of Canada's longest serving urban health organisations, Wellesley Central Health Corporation, continues its mission to promote the health of urban communities. We act on this mission though the implementation of our vision. That is, to be a leader and catalyst for enhancing the wellness and health of the people of Southeast Toronto and other urban communities.

The Wellesley Institute advances the social determinants of health through community-based research , community engagement , and the informing of public policy.

Selected site content:

April 16, 2010
Toronto’s latest street needs assessment (released today) shows that the number of street homeless has dropped by half, while the number of sheltered homeless has risen. The methodology behind the count is controversial, as the Wellesley Institute has noted. There are plenty of more reliable studies of the real needs of people who are homeless or precariously housed. The latest assessment ignores the single biggest component of the homeless population – the hidden homeless (couch-surfers). Toronto’s affordable housing waiting list is at an all-time high, and the number of people housed in March of 2010 is way down from last year. The Street Health Report, supported by the Wellesley Institute, provides a detailed review of the health status of people who are homeless.

November 16, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
Reality check: Ontario is indeed matching the 2009 federal affordable housing investments, as housing minister Jim Watson notes in a story in today's Toronto Star (“"), but the province has also been steadily cutting spending at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing since 2005. Finance minister Dwight Duncan, in his , (PDF - 1.7MB, 94 pages) reports spending at the housing ministry was $926 million in 2005 and is projected to be $703.9 million in 2009. That’s a cumulative cut of $657 in the past four years – which more than offsets the $585.3 million that the finance minister says the province will spend this year to match the federal housing dollars.

(PDF - 653K, 15 pages)
November 2009
[ version française :
(PDF - 674Ko, 16 pages) ]

This Housing Network of Ontario report consolidates recommendations made by many hundreds of Ontarians who participated in almost 40 community meetings and consultations focussed on developing an affordable housing strategy, held from June to November 2009. The meetings included government-led consultations, convened by Minister Jim Watson and/or MPPs from ridings across the province. Meetings also included community-led forums with MPPs invited to participate, and public town hall meetings.

The main messages that emerged from these consultations included:

* Ontarians need a comprehensive, fully-funded long-term affordable housing strategy with bold targets.
* Housing insecurity, homelessness and poverty are inseparably linked.
* People with lived experience of housing insecurity and housing related poverty should be at the centre of any housing strategy.

Source:

Stableandaffordable.com is an initiative of the Wellesley Institute and the Housing Network of Ontario.
We are a network of organizations dedicated to one goal: stable and affordable housing for all Canadians.

June 12, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
has an on-line hub that is regularly being updated with the latest news, reports from community meetings, tips for actions and plenty of other resources. Here’s some of the new material: Community report from Sault Ste. Marie: Notes from the preparatory meeting of housing leaders in the Soo on June 11; Building from the community up: Five practical tips for action; Homeless-making processes: A worksheet from Dr. David Hulchanski; Local housing audits: Quick tips on preparing housing audit for your community; Fixing Ontario’s affordable housing crisis: A presentation from Harvey Cooper, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada – Ontario Region.
More than 225 people and groups have already endorsed the Housing Network of Ontario’s on-line declaration: “We believe everyone in Ontario has the right to live poverty-free and with dignity in housing that is stable, adequate, equitably accessible and affordable…" Read the full declaration and add your endorsement on the site. Also on the HNO web site: You can tell your housing story; find plenty of helpful resources; tell us what’s happening in your community and find out what is happening in other places; and learn more about the Housing Network of Ontario.
Source:

[ ]

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(PDF - 672K, 34 pages)
Lynn Eakin & Heather Graham
May 2009
Canada’s third sector – the vital web of non-profit, charitable and voluntary organizations that provide programs and services, and knit together communities – is also a significant economic force. In recent years, governments have increasingly relied on non-profit groups as the delivery agent of choice for government services. “Canada’s non-profit maze ” is powerful new research by Lynn Eakin and Associates, commissioned by the Wellesley Institute that provides a troubling picture of the financial and regulatory burdens facing the third sector.

Accompanying documents:

(PDF - 160K, 5 pages)
Policy Brief
By Lynn Eakin, Heather Graham, Rick Blickstead, and Michael Shapcott
May 2009

(PDF - 419K, 4 pages)
Tables were generated from software used to survey respondents of the Wellesley
Institute’s research in Third-Sector regulation and legislation

May 14, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
About 100 housing leaders from across Ontario gathered in Toronto on May 11 for the Housing Network of Ontario's first provincial summit. The group is preparing for the upcoming consultation by the Ontario government to create a province-wide, comprehensive affordable housing plan. More info on the consultation, key resources and a special place to tell your housing stories is available here. The Wellesley Institute is working with a number of provincial and local groups to ensure that Ontario gets a solid and realistic housing plan that ensures everyone has a healthy and affordable home.
Links to the key presentations at the forum
(YouTube videos):
* (Ann Fitzpatrick)
* (Harvey Cooper)
* (Phillip Dufresne)
* (Lynne Browne)
* (Lynne Browne)

February 9, 2009
Falling on the heels of the release of Ontario’s landmark poverty reduction strategy, Sick and Tired paints a grim picture of the health of the province’s poorest residents. This new report from the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, University of Toronto’s Social Assistance in the New Economy Project and the Wellesley Institute documents the compromised health of social assistance recipients and the working poor in Ontario. It includes practical and pragmatic recommendations to strengthen the province’s poverty reduction plan, address the increased burden of ill health among poor people in Ontario, and promote equitable access to health services in Ontario. In addition, many of our recommended actions will promote much-needed economic stimulus as an antidote to Ontario’s struggling economy and promote cost savings in the health care system. This is a companion to our research, released in December, which looks at the health status of poor people across Canada and is called Poverty Is Making Us Sick (link below).
Partners:
*
*
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Complete report:

(PDF - 5.3MB, 35 pages)
February 2009

Related links:

(PDF - 522K, 39 pages)
By Ernie Lightman Ph.D, Andrew Mitchell and Beth Wilson
December 2008
Source:

From :

:
Report considers ways province can help solve chronic health problems affecting poor Ontarians
February 9, 2009
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Queen's Park should boost welfare payments and improve access to disability assistance for Ontarians who can't work for health reasons as a remedy for chronic health problems among the poor, according to a report produced by the Community Social Planning Council, with the University of Toronto and the Wellesley Institute. People on welfare are 10 times more likely to have attempted suicide than those living on middle- or upper-incomes, notes the report, which is to be released today.

Editorial
February 10, 2009
Money may not buy happiness, but it does do wonders for your health. A new study – by the Community Social Planning Council, University of Toronto and the Wellesley Institute – has drawn a direct link between poverty and ill health. Ontarians on welfare suffer from diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, mood disorders and other chronic ailments at up to four times the rate of middle- or upper-income earners. Such findings are always disturbing, but given the current economic downturn, there's even greater cause for concern over this study.

December 11, 2008
By Michael Shapcott
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has confirmed this morning what Canada’s 3.9 million renter households already know: Private rental housing has slipped into a much deeper crisis. The national rental vacancy rate has dropped by a staggering 15% over the past year down to a critically low 2.2% - the lowest level in six years. Across Canada, rents are rising faster than the rate of inflation.
- incl. highlights from the national, Ontario and Toronto rental market numbers
Source:

[ ]

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Related links from CMHC:

News Release
OTTAWA, December 11, 2008 — The average rental apartment vacancy rate in Canada's 34 major centres1 decreased to 2.2 per cent in October 2008 from 2.6 per cent in October 2007, according to the Rental Market Survey released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Note: Scroll halfway down the above news release for links to the following 2008 CMHC rental market reports:
1. Rental Market Reports — Major Centres (incl. more coverage of the secondary rental market in selected centres)
2. Rental Market Report — Provincial Highlights — summary of rental market statistics for urban centres with a population of over 10,000 in each province and two of the three territories
3. Rental Market Report — Canada Highlights — at-a-glance rental market information for Canada's 34 major centres
4. Rental Market Statistics Report — a sourcebook of statistical tables with national, provincial and local rental housing market data.
- the news release also contains tables of vacancy rates, availability rates and rents.

Rental Market Survey 2008 (PDF - 1.2MB, 11 pages)
NOTE: I can't provide a direct link to the rental market survey because the CMHC website is built using software that doesn't allow direct linking to reports.
To access the survey, go to and click on CHS: Rental Market Survey (2nd report in the list).
- the rental market survey includes data for Major Centres / Provinces with detailed data for each market area. Tables contain data on availability rates, average rents or vacancies, by bedroom size (bachelor, one, two bedroom units, etc.) and by building type (i.e. row homes and apartments)

Source:
(CMHC)

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October 31, 2008
By Michael Shapcott
Good news: The Ontario government, along with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the City of Toronto, jointly announced earlier today a plan to upload the costs of several provincial income assistance programs back to the provincial level over the next decade. This will give municipalities some significant fiscal breathing room – as it takes the cost of this income-distributive program off the municipal tax base and returns it to the provincial tax base, where it belongs. The timing is good as the demand for income assistance programs may well increase with the current economic crisis. Bad news: The cost of the provincial social housing program – which was downloaded to municipalities under the former Harris government starting in 1998 – remains at the local level.
Source:

Provincial and municipal partners reach agreement
News Release
October 31, 2008
The McGuinty government is moving to upload all social assistance benefits and court security costs from municipalities, as stated in an agreement announced today by the Province of Ontario, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the City of Toronto.

Related report:

(PDF - 1.6MB, 64 pages)
Source:

[ ]

Some contextual information:
* Ontario is the only Canadian province that still requires a direct municipal government contribution towards the cost of providing welfare (known as the Ontario Works Program or OW) to the able-bodied needy population residing within their municipal boundaries. Municipalities pay 20% of the total OW bill on their territory.
* Last-resort financial assistance for people with disabilities is provided under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). Municipalities also pay 20% of the total ODSP bill on their territory.
* The Ontario Government has already announced that the cost of ODSP will be gradually be transferred to the provincial government between 2009 and 2011.

November 1, 2008
It won't happen as quickly as urban advocates would like, but a newly announced deal between Ontario and its hard-pressed municipalities goes a considerable way toward lifting a historic burden from them. In the deal announced yesterday, the province has agreed to "upload" the cost of all welfare benefits from municipalities (which now pay 20 per cent of the cost) by 2018. An important principle is thus underlined – income support programs are best paid through the income and sales taxes, not through property taxes. Collectively, Ontario's municipalities stand to save more than $400 million yearly from this shift.
Source:

September 11, 2008
This report examines the complex collaboration process undergone by the Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults (MISWAA). While collaborative working models are recognized as key for the long term well-being of the non-profit sector, the complexity and fluidity of multi-stakeholder processes and inter-agency collaboration often face a number of challenges in building, facilitating, and managing these innovative and rich working environments. This report by Margot Lettner and the Wellesley Institute, in conjunction with various MISWAA partners, aims to capture and explore the experiences, opportunities and challenges they faced in their multi-stakeholder process, and identify conditions needed for success in collaborative projects involving the non-profit, public, and private sectors.

Complete report:

(PDF - 1.2MB, 61 pages)

November 30, 2007
By Michael Shapcott
The Ontario government opened the current session of the provincial Legislature on Thursday, November 29, with a promise to “begin work” on “reducing child poverty” by developing a poverty reduction strategy that would include “more affordable housing”. This promise needs to be matched with funding and programs before it will have any impact on actually reducing poverty in Ontario.
Source:

[ ]

Related link:

November 29, 2007
Source:

Also found on the Wellesley Institute Blog:

April 5, 2007
Ontario’s $185 million housing allowance plan, announced in the 2007 provincial budget on March 22 and funded entirely with federal affordable housing trust fund dollars, violates the operating principles tabled by federal finance minister Jim Flaherty in the House of Commons in May of 2006.

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February 28, 2007
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced on Tuesday that the provincial government is going to start the flow of $392.5 million in federal funding to build new affordable homes in Ontario. Sounds pretty simple - all the province is required to do is get out of the way and let the federal money flow to housing developers across the province
Source:

(PDF file - 60K, 4 pages)
08 Dec 2006
The costs of Ontario's affordable housing crisis and homelessness disaster to individuals, communities and government are enormous, yet Ontario's housing spending has been dropping sharply since 2000 and is currently at 14 cents per person per day. The Wellesley Institute, in our provincial pre-budget submission on housing and homelessness, is calling on the Ontario government to:
o honour the housing commitments that it made in 2003;
o stop blocking the $392.5 million in stalled federal housing dollars;
o and, upload the cost of housing back to the provincial level and increase overall housing spending to 25 cents per capita per day as a first step to ramping up housing spending to meet housing need.

TORONTO, Nov. 22 /CNW/ - The combined federal-provincial-territorial housing deficit is $4 billion and growing, according to the latest estimate released by the Wellesley Institute on Canada's National Housing Day 2006. National Housing Day is held annually to mark the date in 1998 when the mayors of Canada's largest cities declared homelessness a national disaster. The mayors called on senior levels of government to commit the funding and programs for a comprehensive national affordable housing strategy.
Source:
(formerly Newswire)

Related Links:

(Toronto)
October 26, 2006
"Homelessness has a devastating impact on Toronto. More than 30,000 women, men and children crowd into the city’s homeless shelters annually. Many thousands more sleep on the streets or join the ranks of the “hidden homeless”. There are about 70,000 households on Toronto’s social housing waiting list. And, on the brink of homelessness, are 150,000 households paying more than half their income on shelter."
- incl links to : Home - About Us - Research - Public Policy - Capacity Building - Why We Need A Blueprint - Toronto’s Housing History - Recommendations From Past Studies - The New York Blueprint - Tri-Partite Agreement in Saskatoon - Tri-Partite Agreement in Vancouver - Tri-Partite Agreements in Winnipeg - Scotland Vows to End Homelessness by 2012

Complete report:

(PDF file - 521K, 12 pages)
October 2006

(PDF file- 3.35MB, 106 pages)
"Plenty of current data, a review of 43 major housing studies going back to 1918, a ward-by-ward analysis of housing and poverty numbers and other information is included in the framework document, which is a companion to the Blueprint to End Homelessness."

Source:

- incl. links to key online resources, presentations and blog entries on this issue
[ ]
The Wellesley Institute advances the social determinants of health through
rigorous community-based research, reciprocal capacity building, and the informing of public policy.

"Issue Pages combine notes, backgrounders or policy papers written by Wellesley analysts and links to carefully selected sites, reports and other resources available on the Internet. They are designed to provide one-stop access to key information and analysis on the social determinants of health and specific policy issues such as homelessness or health care reform.
Here are the current Wellesley Institute issue pages in addition to housing and homelessness (the Source link above):
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(Toronto)
"Workfare Watch is a joint project of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto and the Ontario Social Safety NetWork. It was established in 1996 to monitor and report on the implementation of workfare policies in Ontario and their impact. Workfare Watch provides a research-based analysis of provincial workfare policy proposals, program plans and implementation. The purpose of the project is to ensure that any welfare-to-work measures undertaken by the provincial government respect the rights and dignity of workers and social assistance recipients."

Workfare Watch Bulletins:

(PDF File - 122K, 6 pages)
Tracking the outcomes of welfare reform

(PDF File - 108K, 4 pages)
Ontario Works and Jobs in the Toronto CMA

(HTML version)
After the Boom
This Bulletin argues that the language of "dependency" employed by the government shaped not just public perceptions of social assistance, but also the criteria by which the success or failure of reforms would be judged, which quickly became one criteria only - caseload reduction. It examines the supposed success of Ontario Works against other criteria such as job quality and poverty reduction. Programs like Ontario Works are geared to little more than streaming people into the first available job opportunity, a strategy that to date has served to stream people into the lowest tier of the labour market, where low wages, temporary employment and return stints on social assistance are defining characteristics.
(135K, 4 pages)

(HTML version)
Mandatory Drug and Literacy Testing
Rather than responding to a genuine need, the Province's move serves a simple political purpose. That purpose is to construct an image of welfare recipients as deviants or low-skilled, and thereby in part to blame for their situation. Policy is meant to respond to real problems, not low politics.
(70K, 2 pages)

Welfare and the myth of dependency
Does the amount of a welfare cheque influence the size of the caseload? The Ontario Government says so, but Workfare Watch disagrees. This Bulletin is a counterpoint to Making Welfare Work : Report to Taxpayers on Welfare Reform (June 2000) - a 32-page Ontario Government report (just over 150K - but the link was broken when I tried on January 24, 2003) with information about welfare reforms since the summer of 1995 when the Harris Government took office.

A Backwards STEP
The Province is again changing the rules around earnings and welfare. Effective October 1st the rules that govern how much people are allowed to keep out of their part time earnings will change. The changes will reduce the incentive to get additional part-time work and will impose punishingly high marginal tax rates on people who increase their earnings.
This issue of the Bulletin offers extensive coverage of the new Supports to Employment Progam changes coming into effect on October 1st 2000.
Workfare Watch Bulletin
December 1999

Press Release
September 26, 2000

- includes: Code Yellow (Statement of Unity) - City of Toronto Resolution against Mandatory Drug Testing and Treatment (February 2001) - "Test water, not the poor" (CUPE Ontario Social Services Workers' resolution (November 19, 2000) - The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Position Statement on Mandatory Drug Testing and Treatment of Welfare Recipients November 2000

Press Release
November 3, 2000

Interesting article - offers American evidence of workfare targets and outcomes and a comparison with the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project. (What's SSP?)

April 30th 1999
Workfare Watch Project: Interim Report
- includes "" - a detailed analysis of what the government says about workfare and what the social advocacy community sees on the front lines

(March 5, 1999) Workfare Watch Press Release
(Workfare Watch Bulletin, November 1998) - Review of Ontario Government reports about what's happening to people who have left welfare in the province
(Press Release) - November 28, 1998
(Backgrounder) -  November 28, 1998 - Review of and commentary about the Ontario Auditor's report on the government's hiring of Andersen Consulting in the context of provincial welfare reforms

(July 1998)
- Overview of Bill 142, critical analysis of proposed reforms
(extensive reading list, updated to February 1999)
- interprovincial welfare rate comparison (March 1998, based on Welfare Incomes 1996)

See also:
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario Non-Governmental and Municipal Govt.Sites (A-C) page
- Canadian Social Research Links Antipoverty Strategies and Campaigns page
- Canadian Social Research Links Guide to Welfare in Ontario
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Government Links page
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Spouse-in-the-House page ("The Falkiner Case")
- Canadian Social Research Links Case Law / Court Decisions / Inquests page (Kimberly Rogers. Louise Gosselin, etc.)
- Canadian Social Research Links Provincial-Territorial Political Parties and Elections in Canada - incl. Ontario election links
- Rendez-vous à la page de Liens aux sites de recherche sociale en Ontario

See also :
- Ontario Government Sites
- Ontario Municipal and NGO Sites (A-C)
- Guide to Welfare in Ontario