The so-called Poverty Budget is a sham
The Ontario Liberal Government has just brought down their so-called “poverty budget” this week. Judging from the reaction of the liberal media you would think they have just declared a socialist system and eliminated poverty all together. Beyond the sickening back patting and congratulations however the truth remains that very little was done for poor communities in this budget at all.
A year ago OCAP called the Liberal 2% increase to social assistance a “kick in the face”. This year is no different. In the face of our demand to restore the Harris cut and increase it to match inflation- a 40% increase- there is no way to consider this additional 2% anything more than a joke. True, the Liberals have now increased assistance by a total of 7% during their first term but at that rate they will need to be re-elected another six times before we hit that 40% mark and by then it will be meaningless.
They also apparently think that Ontario’s parents are damn fools with the way they are claiming to “eliminate” the Child Tax Benefit clawback by instituting a new program, managed by another bureaucracy, to gradually give people their money back. Why not just end the clawback? They are afraid that ending the clawback could be seen as giving poor parents greater access to their own money with less Government intrusion into their lives. This control over access to money, the way people live their lives and raise their children is at the heart of the Ontario Social Assistance program.
Don’t believe the hype- this Liberal Government didn’t do a thing for poor people in this budget. In fact they gave a larger slice of the budget pie to the Magna Corporation than to additional childcare spending. All of this supposed poverty spending is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. If you want to know what OCAP thinks of McGuinty and this budget take a look at this video from one of our longtime members:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpgPp4JqS8E
Without question the struggle continues. Our Special Diet Campaign continues to add more money to the assistance cheques of families than the increase in rates and the new child benefit combined and we have no intention of waiting until after this Fall’s election to keep pushing for what we need and what we deserve.
A year ago OCAP called the Liberal 2% increase to social assistance a “kick in the face”. This year is no different. In the face of our demand to restore the Harris cut and increase it to match inflation- a 40% increase- there is no way to consider this additional 2% anything more than a joke. True, the Liberals have now increased assistance by a total of 7% during their first term but at that rate they will need to be re-elected another six times before we hit that 40% mark and by then it will be meaningless.
They also apparently think that Ontario’s parents are damn fools with the way they are claiming to “eliminate” the Child Tax Benefit clawback by instituting a new program, managed by another bureaucracy, to gradually give people their money back. Why not just end the clawback? They are afraid that ending the clawback could be seen as giving poor parents greater access to their own money with less Government intrusion into their lives. This control over access to money, the way people live their lives and raise their children is at the heart of the Ontario Social Assistance program.
Don’t believe the hype- this Liberal Government didn’t do a thing for poor people in this budget. In fact they gave a larger slice of the budget pie to the Magna Corporation than to additional childcare spending. All of this supposed poverty spending is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. If you want to know what OCAP thinks of McGuinty and this budget take a look at this video from one of our longtime members:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpgPp4JqS8E
Without question the struggle continues. Our Special Diet Campaign continues to add more money to the assistance cheques of families than the increase in rates and the new child benefit combined and we have no intention of waiting until after this Fall’s election to keep pushing for what we need and what we deserve.
posted by miked at 3:03 p.m.
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