On Dec. 5, 20 anti-poverty advocates from Hamilton travelled by bus to Queen's Park. We met with six MPPs and attended Question Period. We had requested that Monique Taylor, MPP Hamilton Mountain, ask the government about a growing crisis being experienced by people dependent on social assistance - Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. This crisis has been created by the government's decision not to give the usual 1.5 per cent annual cost-of-living raise to social assistance for 2019. This hits hard at a time when rents are increasing and the price of food has escalated by 7.6 per cent over the past year (Report of the Toronto Medical Officer of Health to the Toronto Board of Health, Oct. 16, 2019, Food in Toronto: Affordability, Accessibility, and Insecurity.)

The above report shows a huge gap between the social assistance cheques and the basic expenses of recipients - monthly cost of shelter and a healthy diet. The latter is measured annually by Public Health Units across Ontario-the Nutritious Food Basket Report. For a single male receiving Ontario Works in Toronto, the shortfall this year is $571. For Hamilton, a similar report available on the City's website as "How much does healthy eating cost," shows a shortfall of $236. This is more than twice the Hamilton shortfall in 2018.

The trip to Queen's Park was organized by two volunteer groups: the Campaign for Adequate Welfare & Disability Benefits (founded in 2003) & the Hamilton Social Work Action Committee (founded in 1997 under another name). They were responding to the government's cuts to social assistance in August 2018 - only two months after they were elected. The departing Liberal government had promised a 3 per cent increase to social assistance, recognizing that inflation for accommodation and food was growing by about 4% a year. As soon as they took office, the PC government moved immediately to cut the increase back to 1.5 per cent. This year, their April 2019 budget included no cost-of-living increase - something that Minister Todd Smith (Community & Social Services) denied when MPP Taylor asked about it in Question Period. He said, "We gave an 1.5 per cent increase (pause) earlier this year."

The two groups have been sending signed petition letters, requesting an increase to social assistance, to Minister Smith since he became the Minister - 301 letters in four batches with covering letters. We have received only one response, that written by a civil servant. Given Mr. Smith's denial about the 0 per cent cost-of-living raise this year, we can only assume he did not read the letters. Earlier, we sent a total of 630 letters to the previous Minister, Lisa MacLeod, in nine batches, also receiving only one response - from a civil servant.

The MPPs who visited us at Queen's Park heard about people's struggles to live on incomes with continually shrinking buying power. Inadequate nutrition has brought them health problems such as diabetes and untreated tooth decay. They live in poor environments: subsidized housing is affordable, but many apartments have been closed down as unliveable (as featured in recent Spectator articles). They cannot replace their worn-out clothing, and their lives are very limited, with no money for transportation or entertainment.

Our experience of Question Period left us feeling that some government MPPs did not care about the lives of people in poverty. Just before MPP Taylor's question to the Minister, we were treated to a charade in which former Minister MacLeod dressed herself as "Santa Claus in blue." She announced gaily to a colleague, wearing a similar hat, that she had founded a charity for the poor in her riding. This, from a Minister who had cut in half the increase that social assistance recipients were expecting to get in 2018.

We appreciated the empathetic response we received from MPPs who came to listen to us during our 4 � hour stay at Queen's Park. But the behaviour of the government in power during Question Period left us in doubt that social assistance recipients can ever expect fair treatment under the present government.

Sally Palmer, Chair, Hamilton Social Work Action Committee

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