[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: 25 in 5 response to budget

[Terrie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jennefer Laidley (ISAC) <laidleyj at lao.on.ca>
Date: 25 March 2010 21:55
Subject: 25 in 5 response to budget
To: odspaction-announce at googlegroups.com


 Hi again,



Here’s the 25 in 5 release.



Cheers,

~J



*Budget throws Ontario’s poor in limbo*

TORONTO, March 25

The sting of recession and deep-seated poverty will continue for too many
Ontarians who were left behind in today’s provincial budget, says the 25 in
5 Network for Poverty Reduction.

“While the provincial government held the line on some poverty reduction
promises, it has thrown 162,000 Ontarians with special dietary needs into
limbo by announcing the replacement of the Special Diet program with another
initiative – the details of which are yet to be worked out,” says 25 in 5
co-chair Michael Creek.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions about the adequacy of the new
nutrition supplement.”

Creek acknowledged the government’s decision to raise social assistance
rates by 1%, but criticized it for falling short of need. It amounts to a
paltry $5.85 a month for a single person on Ontario Works.

“That’s not even enough to take a return TTC trip in Toronto,” Creek says.
“That’s playing small at a time when the province needs to step up.”

The budget also offers no answer to the hundreds of thousands of workers who
lost their job to recession and are poised to run out of Employment
Insurance (EI).

“We’ve seen neighbours lose their jobs to this recession – men, women, young
Ontarians, newcomers to Ontario – and they can’t get back in. They’re
exhausting EI benefits, they’re falling onto welfare rolls, they’re running
out of retirement investments and there’s no answer for them.”

The budget comes through on replacement of federal dollars for child care
subsidies and funding for enforcement of employment standards. But it lacks
new investments in other areas like the Ontario Child Benefit, housing
affordability, employment equity, and social assistance adequacy and
protection of assets.

“Without an investment plan in this budget, Ontario will fail at reaching
its goal of reducing poverty by 25% by 2013,” Creek says. “As a result,
families will fall behind and Ontario will fall behind. For Ontario to fully
recover from the last year of recession, we need all hands on deck to bring
us back to prosperity. This budget fails to get us there.”



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-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
“If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant.” June Callwood
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and
renders the present inaccessible.  Maya Angelou
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