How many times do we have to watch Doug Ford pat himself on the back when what he is really doing is trying to make himself look good on the backs of others?

The newest disgrace is a welfare program quietly launched last month in Peel, Hamilton-Niagara and Muskoka-Kawartha. Adding to the shock of this is the fact that one contract, in Peel Region, was awarded to a U.S. company that will get paid for how quickly it pushes clients through the system - many of whom suffer from addictions, mental health and disabilities. Another is an Australian for-profit company. This is the not-so-thin edge of the privatization of poverty.

All this does is create wealth for a foreign interest. It creates no benefit for people who get social assistance in Ontario. They will simply enter another kind of poverty - the working poor - or they will end up homeless or worse.

These are real concerns that many Ontarians understand: increased mental health issues due to the stress of not being able to get by, and depression that comes along with thinking they will never be able to get ahead even if they have a job. These common sense factors seem to be lost on our premier.

What is really troublesome is thinking about the next time we hear Ford gloat over how many jobs his government has created since taking office. It has been reported that Ontario saw its largest increase of employment levels in history in 2019. Ford jumped on that bandwagon and recently waved around more numbers, claiming that, under his watch, employment in Ontario has risen by 25,100 positions since December.

But what Ford will not talk about is that, at the same time, there is a documented 27 per cent increase over the past three years in food bank users who have a job. So what kind of jobs are these, Mr. Ford?

With this new initiative it is clear how our premier plans on defining employment. And now, he is willing to create even more working poor so he can hear himself tell us how good he is at creating jobs.

This is Ford’s government of the people? First he forces down the minimum wage, and then pushes poor and disabled off assistance into low-paid work? When it comes to employment numbers, or anything else that looks favourable, this premier will take credit at each opportunity.

But very little of what the premier says is what it seems. It’s shameful. And for what? A quick buck that won’t even stay in this country?

Isn’t it ironic that Americans are making money finding jobs for Canadians living in poverty while U.S. President Donald Trump pushes a "Buy American" policy?

If you are truly the government for the people then do what the people need. Find ways to create healthy Ontarians, not ways to put them further into a hole.

Correction - Feb. 27, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the contract for the welfare program was awarded to an American company. In fact, there were three contracts and one was awarded to an American company.

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Warren (Smokey) Thomas is the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

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