Ford promises ODSP increase
The Progressive Conservatives are promising to increase Ontario Disability Support Program payments by five per cent annually — even though the change was not mentioned in their recent budget.
In a surprise move Monday, Conservative Leader Doug Ford said if re-elected on June 2, his government would raise ODSP rates by the largest amount since Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty more than a decade ago.
The $425-million pledge was not accounted for in Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s April 28 budget.
Ford said in a statement from North Bay, site of Tuesday’s first leaders’ debate, that the Tories would then tie rates to inflation, guaranteeing annual increases.
The Tories appeared to be scrambling to announce the raise the same day as Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca unveiled his platform.
Del Duca said if he wins the election, ODSP and Ontario Works benefits would rise by 10 per cent on July 1 and another 10 per cent one year later before levelling off at two per cent increases annually as of 2024.
He said a Liberal government would begin “building in inflation protection” and easing clawbacks on earnings for those on disability.
“These are all important steps to help those ODSP recipients,” the Grit chief said in Toronto. The Tories have not committed to any change to Ontario Works supports.
ODSP currently pays up to $1,169 per month at a time when the inflation rate has soared to 6.7 per cent, the highest level since 1991. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has said she would immediately boost Ontario Works and ODSP rates by 20 per cent “and legislate that raises must, at minimum, be indexed to inflation.” Both Horwath and Del Duca have vowed to resurrect Ontario’s basic income pilot project that Ford scrapped in 2018 in spite of a campaign promise that year to preserve it.
The Conservatives enjoy a healthy lead in the polls.
According to The Signal aggregator by Vox Pop Labs in the Star, they had 36.2 per cent support to 30.1 per cent for the Liberals, 25 per cent for the NDP, and 4.7 per cent for the Greens as of Monday afternoon and, if that held up, would win another majority.