Torstar columnist Martin Regg Cohn wonders who the real Doug Ford is as he has surprised so many with his seemingly statesman like qualities of rational thinking and support for the Liberal government. Will the bombastic old Doug return when the crisis is over, he wonders? Well, I hope I am wrong but I think he will.

On one level, he has acted rationally and with compassion but I have to wonder if he ever would have brought in the financial measures that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has to lessen the impact on both employees and employers. He has no jurisdiction in those issues but, in the jurisdiction he does have, he has done nothing. I am thinking of the plight of those on disability and social assistance payments administered by the province.

The province did state that those on disability or social assistance could access extra funds if needed, but the amount is not specified and it would require the individuals to try to contact their case workers and apply disclosing their specific needs. This is a population that likely does not qualify for the emergency funds earmarked by the federal government although, if they file taxes, they did get an extra GST rebate.

At the moment, a single person on Ontario Works gets all of $733 per month. A single disabled recipient gets $1,169 a month. How does anyone pay rent, buy food, clothing, transportation, and other essentials on that amount when the poverty line is $1,767 a month? If they are lucky, they have families who can help but not all do. In each of the 14 years that the Liberals were in office in Ontario, there were increases to these rates. Ford’s 2019 budget excluded any increase for social assistance recipients. He then cancelled the Basic Income Pilot Project established by the Liberals after he promised not to. He argued that it was not proving to be successful even though it was only part way through its research study period.

The poor plight of our most vulnerable citizens goes back to the last time we had a Tory government. In 1995, when Mike Harris won a majority for the Progressive Conservatives, one of his first acts was to slash social assistance by 21.6 per cent. He argued that too many people were taking advantage of this program and it acted as a disincentive for seeking employment. The fact that many of these recipients were disabled and could not work did not enter his mind. For those who were able bodied, he set up Ontario Works which was basically a workfare program.

Those with long memories will surely recall the advice that the minister who was put in charge of this program, David Tsubouchi, told the legislature. He suggested that people could buy dented tins of tuna at a fraction of the cost of regular tuna. Ontario’s answer to “let them eat cake.” Tsubouchi did put forth a welfare diet that he thought people could follow at a cost of only $90.21 each month. An assessment of that diet and how it fared by 2018 when Doug got elected was done by Policy Options. It states that the original diet was neither a good one nor a healthy one.

However, by 2018, the cost of that diet had increased by 65 per cent more than inflation while Ontario Works payments only rose by 39 per cent. “Inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) has risen 52.4 per cent, while the cost of the welfare diet has increased by 86.3 per cent,” according to the report.

There is no question that social assistance payments must go up and that those recipients need some extra help right now in face of the pandemic. The logical response would be a guaranteed minimum wage which is finally being talked about with the rescue plan introduced by Ottawa. That was put to Doug at his daily news conference on April 9, but he rejected it. There are better ways he said.

Aside from seemingly having no compassion for social assistance recipients many of whom are disabled, he knows little economics. If people have money, they spend and that benefits them, shop keepers, suppliers, manufacturers and all involved in the sale of goods. That spending is taxed so the government gets its piece of silver.

Open up Doug and give the disadvantaged some relief. If he doesn’t, then we will be stuck with the same old Doug.

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Marvin Ross is a Dundas, Ont., medical writer and publisher.

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