[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: {ODSPAction} Calling all ODSP AC members - It's time for ACTION!!

Wed May 7 19:43:23 EDT 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dana Milne <milned at lao.on.ca>
Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 at 6:17 PM
Subject: {ODSPAction} Calling all ODSP AC members - It's time for ACTION!!
To: odspaction at googlegroups.com, odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com

 From the flurry of emails and media reports, you can't have missed it. The
Ontario Government has begun its poverty reduction consultations. That means
there's no better time than NOW to get out our message that people with
disabilities shouldn't have to live in poverty. Even though the government
has said its strategy is going to focus on child poverty initially, we know
that's not good enough! Consultations will only be happening til the end of
June, so let's get out there!!

*Government Consultations*
**
Deb Matthews, chair of the Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction, will be
holding closed-door, invite-only roundtable discussions in communities
across the province but that's no reason to give up. Neither Lisa Jamieson
nor Terrie Meehan (members of the ODSP Action Coalition) were invited to
Matthews' round-table discussion in Ottawa this Friday but after talking
with Matthews' staff at a meeting today, they agreed to meet with a group of
low-income people who will be discussing how to end poverty this Saturday.
Way to go Ottawa!

Anti-poverty activists in Peterborough and Cobourg also mobilized to ensure
at least some low-income people were included in the minister's last-minute
roundtable discussions there on Monday.

*Speak up!*

Besides Matthews' meetings, MPPs are also being encouraged to organize
consultations or meet with constituents in their community. Individuals can
also offer their ideas for reducing poverty by logging on to the
government's new poverty reduction website at:
http://www.growingstronger.ca/en/index.html.

The Social Planning Network of Ontario is also organizing public
consultations in several communities and these will be open to everyone.
Other provincial groups may also organize public consultations. For
up-to-date infomation: www.povertywatchontario.ca.

*New Poverty Reduction section on ODSP AC Website*

For more information on how to ensure people with disabilities get
consulted, check out the ODSP Action Coalition's website: www.odspaction.ca.
There is a new Poverty Reduction section with information on where the
government's consultations will be held, who is on the government's Cabinet
Committee on Poverty Reduction, and tips for getting a meeting with your
MPP.

*Download the ODSP AC MPP Lobby Kit*

The MPP Lobby kit includes templates for getting a meeting with your MPP, a
lobbying tipsheet and ODSP-related questions to ask. Check it out:
www.odspaction.ca. Click on the "MPP Lobby Kit now available" link.

*ODSP Demands and Backgrounders now available*

The ODSP Action Coalition's pamphlet, key demands and newly revised
backgrounders on OW/ODSP rates, employment earnings and the Ontario Child
Benefit are all available as part of the MPP Lobby Kit: www.odspaction.ca.

The results of the Access Committee's survey is now also available and has
useful information on the accessibility issues facing people on ODSP and the
kinds of changes needed to ensure people with disabilities can live with
dignity. Go to www.odspaction.ca and click on "Access Committee Survey
Results".

We only have a couple of months folks, so let's get out there!!

-- Dana Milne
   on behalf of the ODSP Action Coalition's Media and Lobbying Committee

PS: Thank-you to the ODSP Action Coalition's Media and Lobbying Committee
for compiling these resources and to the Website Committee for getting
everything up on the website.

Dana Milne
Provincial Organizer
Income Security Advocacy Centre
425 Adelaide St. W., 5th Floor
Toronto, ON M5V 3C1
Tel: 416-597-5820, ext. 5151
Toll-free: 1-866-245-4072

Fax: 416-597-5821
Email: milned at lao.on.ca
Website: www.incomesecurity.org

 ------------------------------
*From:* odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com [mailto:
odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Naomi Berlyne
*Sent:* May 7, 2008 12:54 PM
*To:* odspaction at googlegroups.com; odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com
*Subject:* Toronto Star article - anti-poverty groups to hold public
meetings

<http://www.thestar.com/default>

*Anti-poverty groups to hold public meetings** **TheStar.com - Ontario -
Anti-poverty groups to hold public meetings*

*Move taken in response to province's insistence on having closed-door
strategy forums on poor*

May 07, 2008

*Kerry Gillespie*
Queen's Park Bureau

A coalition of anti-poverty groups will hold public consultation meetings –
since the government won't – to help develop Ontario's poverty-reduction
plan.

The Social Planning Network of Ontario and others are scheduling meetings
across Ontario to make sure everyone's voice is heard.

Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews, who heads the cabinet
committee drafting the Liberals' promised poverty reduction strategy, is
holding consultation meetings in 13 communities over the next two months,
but they are closed-door, by-invitation-only events.

The meetings now being organized by various community groups will be open to
the public, said Peter Clutterbuck, co-ordinator of the Social Planning
Network of Ontario.

He is part of a growing coalition of activists who want the Liberals to
follow countries such as the United Kingdom that have reduced poverty by
almost 25 per cent in the past five years. They call themselves the 25-in-5
Network for Poverty Reduction.

Premier Dalton McGuinty defended the government's decision to hold
closed-door meetings and said he doesn't think the controversy over it will
undermine the process.

"At the end of the day, I think we'll be judged on what we do, which is only
fair," McGuinty told reporters yesterday.

"Let's recognize what we've set in motion here. As a government, we've done
something that no other government has done with such determination, I would
argue. We've set out to take poverty on."

There are some 1.3 million Ontarians living 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.

But rather than get a boost from the first two consultation meetings this
week, the Liberals had to defend themselves in the Legislature for the
second day running.

"Obviously, this government is running scared. Why doesn't the Premier tell
his poverty minister to open the doors to the government's consultation? Of
what are you afraid?" asked NDP MPP Michael Prue (Beaches-East York).

"I disagree with the perspective of my friend. We're running toward poverty.
We're trying to get our arms around it, trying to better understand it,"
McGuinty responded.

Both McGuinty and Matthews have said the consultation meetings, which
include representatives from municipal government, social services, health
and education organizations and business leaders, are designed to focus on
solutions, not rehashing problems.

"Most people will tell you we have a pretty good understanding of the nature
of the challenge, but what we haven't really come up with are some creative
possibilities by way of solutions," McGuinty said.

The province is urging people to go to www.Ontario.ca/GrowingStronger to
learn about plans to reduce poverty, particularly child poverty, and
contribute by emailing or writing letters.

Some MPPs will hold their own consultation meetings and it's up to them to
decide if the doors will be open or closed, Matthews said.

There's "some disappointment" that Matthews isn't hosting open meetings, but
it's not cause to give up on the entire process, Clutterbuck said.

"I do think it got off to a shaky start, but I don't think it should colour
or affect the whole mood of the thing," he said.

"There's a chance to get all the voices that need to be heard into the
consultation process.

"So we're not going to discount the process at this time, but try to
influence it as it's set up and create other ways that the full communities'
views can get into the policy-making process."

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Naomi Berlyne" <naomibe at houselink.on.ca>
To: <odspaction at googlegroups.com>, <odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com>
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 12:54:27 -0400
Subject: Toronto Star article - anti-poverty groups to hold public meetings

<http://www.thestar.com/default>

*Anti-poverty groups to hold public meetings** **TheStar.com - Ontario -
Anti-poverty groups to hold public meetings*

*Move taken in response to province's insistence on having closed-door
strategy forums on poor*

May 07, 2008

*Kerry Gillespie*
Queen's Park Bureau

 A coalition of anti-poverty groups will hold public consultation meetings –
since the government won't – to help develop Ontario's poverty-reduction
plan.