[homeles_ot-l] Minimum Wage Consult; Poverty Reduction Strategy update; next OPRN meeting

[Linda Lalonde]

Hi folks,


Please accept my apologies if this comes through with weird formatting and/or in miniscule type. Yahoo has made changes to my email capabilities and I haven’t figured out how to get around them. I think they want me to change to another provider – they could have just told me instead of making my life this miserable!!

There are a couple of income-related initiatives happening at the provincial level right now which have the potential to make a difference for the low-income community. 

I also wanted to give you the date for OPRN’s next regular meeting which is December 10th at 1:30 pm in the Rideau-Rockcliffe CRC at 225 Donald Street.

1) The most immediate provincial activity is thereview of the minimum wage which includes a consultation in Ottawa on November 7th. The times and location aren’t public yet but they are handing out time-slots. Although they are calling it a consultation, this is not a typical one but more like hearings where there is a panel at the front of a room and you make a five minute presentation to them. If you are interested in presenting to them, you can send them a request at minimumwage at ontario.ca or call them toll-free at 1-888-868-5844. I was originally told it was a five minute slot but the email message they sent confirming my time said that it was ten minutes including time for the presentation and questions from the panel.

The Minimum Wage panel has six members, one of whom is a student originally from Ottawa, and is chaired by a prof from U of T. The only one I know anything about is Adam Vasey from Windsor who is the Director of the Windsor-Essex Poverty Reduction Strategy, Pathway to Potential. The others represent labour, the retail industry and the tourist industry. It’s my understanding that we may not see all panel members at the hearing. 

The panel is asking how the minimum wage should be determined and has put out a discussion paper that you’ll find at http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pdf/consultation.pdf. There was the possibility of responding to the discussion paper in writing but it only went until October 18th although the online questionnaire was still ‘live’ today at http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/feedback.php if you want to check there.

Since the minimum wage affects thousands of low-income folks this is an important opportunity to get our opinions heard. This process is happening under the auspices of the Minister of Labour, Yasir Naqvi, who is also the MPP for Ottawa Centre who you can reach at ynaqvi.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org or 613-722-6414. I’m sure he’d like to have your thoughts on this.

2) The other provincial activity of interest is the preparation for the Province’s second five year Poverty Reduction Strategy which will cover 2014 to 2018. The first one is due to expire in December. There has been a sort-of-consultation that the province has organized, mainly during the summer and on very short notice – in at least one community, only two days. We were really lucky here in that we were given a whole week’s notice! Although some community members and service providers managed to make it to the event, it was sparsely attended and not very focussed. In addition, the information that the province was providing on the first Strategy was, to be kind, a puff piece with some seriously-manipulated facts about “successes”.

The OPRN and some of our community partners decided to pull together some community members to provide a more solid set of recommendations to the Cabinet Committee that oversees poverty reduction activities at the provincial level. We developed a set of draft recommendations and held three consultations - east, west and rural – to get input on them. The final version of the OPRN recommendations is attached and it has been sent to the secretariat in Toronto. We will also be sending it to the individual members of the Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction & Social Inclusion as well as local politicians.

We have already had it endorsed by one local group and would welcome comments and/or endorsements from others as we go forward with it. At the moment, it appears that there will be no other opportunity to have any input into the new Poverty Reduction Strategy and that the Cabinet Committee will develop it behind closed doors. It will then go to the full Cabinet for approval and that will be it. It won’t go to the legislature so there will be no debate on it.  

We will keep you updated on the developments with the Poverty Reduction Strategy – at least those we find out about in time to share!!

Linda.
 
“I want Ontario to be a place where everyone has the same opportunities and I want people to have the support they need. That’s what equity means. It means we have to create the conditions that will allow everybody to have that level playing field. Where it’s not level, we need to raise the floor up a bit.” - Premier Kathleen Wynne
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