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[Reuel Amdur]

Canadian Charger


 


Ontario’s NDP Government: A Sad History


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Reuel S. Amdur


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The current official abandonment by political parties of concern for the
poor, in their focus on "the middle class," calls to mind the Ontario NDP's
disregard for the poor going back to the days when they were in power, from
1990 to 1995. At the time, I was working first at Seaton House, a men's
shelter and residence operated by Toronto's welfare department, and then as
a supervisor in Ottawa's welfare department.

When Bob Rae’s NDP government was elected, those of us concerned about the
poor thought we had died and gone to heaven.  Not.  Under Rae the poor
endured one blow after another.  Prior to the Rae election, each December
there was provision for a token amount added to the check as a Christmas
bonus.  During Bob Rae’s term in office, the Christmas bonus was abolished
across the province.

As far as rates are concerned, prior to the Rae régime, each year it was
practice to increase rates in recognition of changes in the cost of living.
Rae interrupted that practice.

Then there is the matter of a form colloquially referred to as the layman’s
medical.  This was a form that a welfare worker could fill out in aid of a
client applying for disability benefits.  I remember being in a meeting with
a physician who was on the Ottawa board which determined eligibility for
such benefits.  He waxed enthusiastic about layman’s medical forms completed
by Holly Murphy, an Ottawa welfare worker.  The form was the only designated
input by the welfare worker about the condition of the client seeking
designation as disabled.  The doctor’s comment was an indication of its
potential impact, but the Rae government abolished it.  It became that much
harder for someone to get the higher disability rate of assistance.

Rae’s government also hit welfare recipients with cars.  They were allowed
to have a car so long as its value was not greater than $5,000.  ($10,000 is
the current limit.)  Welfare offices all began buying automotive red books,
to determine the value of cars.  The regulation went on to specify what
would happen if someone showed up with a car worth more than $5,000.  The
person was given six months to dispose of the car.  In fact, burdened by a
rule book bigger than the phone book, workers frequently failed to apply the
regulation.  In her book Hope and Despair, Monia Mazigh describes her
experiences in applying for welfare while she had a car.  The first time,
she was told that she was not eligible till she got rid of the car.  The
second time the worker ignored the car and put her on assistance.  There was
a complicating factor that was never raised with welfare: it was not her
car.  It was her husband’s, Maher Arar, who was in a Syrian prison at the
time.  Fun and games with a stupid regulation.  The regulation is still in
effect.

Sponsored immigrants were a special target.  If a person applied for
assistance because of a sponsorship breakdown, the immigrant’s assistance
was dinged $50 a month.  There were a few exceptions, but, for example, if
the sponsor had left the country the deduction still applied.  Fortunately,
this regulation is now unpleasant history. 

Another measure applied to new applicants for assistance.  While the rules
for the amount that recipients may keep from any earnings on welfare vary
from time to time, leaving recipients confused and fearful about any work,
at one point the Rae government decreed that new applicants would be docked
100% of earnings for the first several months on assistance.  I remember one
young man who had been on a federal make-work program in Kingston,
silk-screening t-shirts.  He could not make a living at it and came to
Ottawa and applied for welfare.  I told him about the rule.  He told me that
he would not be looking for work for that period of time.

The sad experience with Ontario’s NDP government carries an important
lesson.  Do not be lulled to sleep by a government labelled NDP, or
socialist, or social democratic.  Assume that, whatever government is
elected, it is the enemy.  Make it prove otherwise.

 

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