by Robert Devet

Earlier this week Community Services Minister Joanne Bernard told a CTV reporter that too many people are on social assistance for too long. That has community workers worried.

KJIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) - Comments by Community Services Minister Joanne Bernard earlier this week have community workers upset.

In a CTV report the minister is quoted as saying that there is an “extraordinarily high” number of people who stay on income assistance longer than they should.

Those comments sure smell like poor bashing, say community workers. They worry about what it means in terms of the Department's secretive welfare reform strategy.

So what is the excitement all about?

"Roughly a third (of Income Assistance recipients) are job-ready, another third needs more professional development or literacy upgrades, and another third with mental health issues, addictions or disabilities will never get out of the system,” the Minister told CTV.

“I was on income assistance for nine years, but during that time I was able to meet the goals I had set for myself and move off,” she said.

'Why can't you be like me?', the minister seems to suggest.

Fiona Traynor, who has worked with social assistance recipients in one shape or another for fifteen years, was taken aback when she saw the Minister's assertions.

“Income Assistance recipients are already stigmatized by some parts of the general public,” says Traynor. “There are so many myths. These people are lazy, just sitting around and they are cheating the system. It's simply not true.”

The last thing Traynor wants to see is a Minister who seems to confirm such myths and speaks in such regressive and punitive terms.

“We don't need this old-school type of poor bashing, which is what this is,” she says.

Who in their right mind would want to be on social assistance, she counters. Support provided by social assistance falls far short of what is required to live a dignified life, in a decent shelter, and with sufficient food.

“They're not buying steak and caviar,” says Traynor.

The Halifax Media Co-op asked Community Services for evidence backing up Bernard's assertion that “roughly a third” of social assistance recipients are job-ready.

We also asked what in the Department's view was stopping those job-ready people from getting off social assistance.

We did not really get a straight answer.

“Based on the information we have now, what we see is clients falling into three categories as Minister Bernard described. We never know a person’s true potential until we start to work with them on an individualized plan,” writes Lori Errington, spokesperson for the Department.

“The comments were the Minister’s reflection on a system in need of repair, and they were not aimed in any way at clients receiving ESIA supports.”

None of this puts Traynor's concerns to rest.

What makes the Minister's comments particularly troublesome is that the Department is busy restructuring and reforming social assistance, says Traynor.

Yet it is doing so in secret and without consultation with social assistance recipients or community workers.

This is worrisome, especially in the context of the current austerity climate overall, and signs that the Department is getting tougher on people who receive social assistance.

Traynor wonders whether Bernard's statements are paving the way for an orchestrated effort to push people off the welfare rolls.

“I don't know what would make (Bernard) say this, but we do know that there are some sweeping changes set to happen in this program,” Traynor tells the Halifax Media Co-op.

Follow Robert DeVet on Twitter