[URBAN NOTE] "The persistence of poverty in Ontario"

[rfmcdonald]

NOW Toronto's Peter Biesterfeld reports on how Ontario's policies have lead to a marked worsening of poverty.

After decades of intensifying austerity and eroding income supports, social assistance in Ontario is now so wretchedly inadequate that people are unable to feed themselves properly, retain their housing or maintain their health.

Total benefit income for those who depend on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) locks nearly 895,000 Ontarians into deep poverty, according to Ontario’s Social Assistance Poverty Gap (PDF), a May 2016 report authored by Kaylie Tiessen, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The report shows that the poverty gap – the difference between total benefit income of people on OW and ODSP and the poverty line – has grown by 59 per cent for a single person and between 30 and 40 per cent for families since 1993. In 2014, almost two-thirds of Ontario households reliant on social assistance experienced food insecurity – inability to feed oneself or one’s family adequately.

It’s a similar story for the working poor.

On October 1, the province announced a 15-cent hike in minimum wage to $11.40 an hour. The 1.5 per cent increase, which the Liberals have indexed to the Consumer Price Index, adds up to annual earnings for a person on minimum wage that’s about $800 above the poverty line in Ontario, which is $19,930.

But that’s still about 17 per cent below a living wage when you factor in the rising costs of food and housing, says Deena Ladd, a coordinator with the Workers’ Action Centre.