Hamilton MPPs bill will fix a broken system
Paul Miller’s bill seeks for welfare rates to be based on the actual cost of essentials
“It’s déjà vu all over again”
The famous quip by baseball legend Yogi Berra could easily be applied to recent attempts to reform social assistance here in Ontario.
On Thursday, Hamilton East — Stoney Creek MPP Paul Miller will present a bill for second reading in the Ontario Legislature: Bill 6 could help fix a broken social assistance system that currently leaves recipients living in dire poverty. At the heart of the legislative initiative is an attempt to restore dignity and opportunity for 900,000 social assistance recipients in this province who often become trapped in the cycle of deep poverty.
This is the second time the New Democratic member will be presenting an idea that’s not only reasonable, but pretty simple: His proposal is to set social assistance rates based on the actual costs of things like food, rental housing, clothing and other essentials.
An earlier version of this proposal was Bill 185 and won the unanimous support of all parties at Queen’s Park in April. Unfortunately, that bill died on the order paper earlier this month when the Premier prorogued the Ontario Legislature and a new Speech from the Throne was announced. Like all good Hamiltonians, Miller didn’t give up and on the first day the Legislature sat in the new session, he presented the same bill all over again. So meet the new bill, same as the old bill. We’re hoping Bill 6 will garner the unanimous support it received from all the parties the first time around.
Provincial social assistance has not been reformed in a generation. Rates are arbitrarily set at the political level and not based on the evidence of what it costs to live in Ontario. As a result, rates come nowhere close (anywhere in Ontario) to reflecting the real costs of basic necessities.
Later this month, rates for Ontario Works (basic welfare) will rise to $706/month, but consider this: In Toronto the average rent for bachelor apartments is $937. Bachelor apartments are the lowest cost rental accommodation tracked by the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation and still are more than $200 out of reach for single people on social assistance.
In other communities average rents may be a bit lower. In Hamilton, for example, that bachelor apartment goes for $607 a month which might leave an Ontario Works recipient with a little more than three dollars a day to cover food, utilities, clothing or a telephone. Quite simply the numbers don’t add up and never have. That’s why the vast majority of people needing to use food banks in Ontario are actually on provincial social assistance programs.
Over the last two decades prices have skyrocketed. According to the Canadian consumer price index used by Statistics Canada, over the last two decades the price of eggs has shot up 114 per cent, bread’s up 143 per cent and even bathroom tissue has risen by 53 per cent. Rents here in Hamilton are up 63 per cent since 1995, but social assistance rates have barely moved.
Miller’s bill, worked on in collaboration with former staff lawyer at Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, Craig Foye, couldn’t compel the government to increase rates, but it does create a framework to at least find out how much income people need to live on. The right to an adequate standard of living is something Canada has agreed to in international covenants, but we’re not protecting.
Importantly, the recommendations in Bill 6 depoliticize the process of setting of social assistance rates. MPPs used to be criticized for deciding their own salaries. A few years back they created an arms-length body to make recommendations on MPP pay. Bill 6 creates a similar arms-length method to recommend appropriate social assistance rates. Last week, the Hamilton Poverty Roundtable and community partners launched a new initiative called Fix the Gap. The campaign tries to shine a bright light on the growing inequity of single people on social assistance. For too long, provincial social assistance rates have been at the mercy of political whim, but now with Bill 6 there’s now a glimmer of hope that might change.
St. Catharines Liberal MPP, Jim Bradley, the longest serving member of the Ontario Legislature, noted during debate on Bill 185 in April “What the member is trying to do is get some independent assessment and independent recommendations to government. Ultimately, government has to make those tough decisions, and they are. They’re never easy decisions to make, but to have the kind of recommendations he is trying to elicit through this initiative will be very helpful to government and to the Legislature as a whole”.
Bradley’s words rang true in April as they do now in September. Individuals on social assistance have waited a long time for action; it’s time to fix a broken system that leaves too many people living in deep poverty. It’s time to fix social assistance and get behind Bill 6.