Panel seeking welfare increase

Toronto’s community services committee wants the provincial government to hike welfare rates by 40 per cent. An increase of that size would offset a 21.6 per cent cut introduced by the Mike Harris government in October 1995, and take inflation into account since that time.

Currently, a single person receives $536 a month, including a 3 per cent increase effective Aug. 1.; a single parent with one child gets $987 a month.

“ You can’t live on that in Toronto and you can’t live on that anywhere in the province,” Dana Milne, of the Income Security Advocacy Centre, told the committee yesterday.

Milne said the rates are a barrier to recipients finding jobs.

“ It’s awfully difficult to find a job if you can’t afford a phone, if you can’t get a bus pass, or you can’t work on your resumé because you’re trying to figure out how to pay your rent or put food on the table,” she said.

City council will consider the committee’s recommendation at its December meeting. The committee unanimously recommended that the provincial government pay 100 per cent of the costs of welfare. The province now pays 80 per cent and the city 20 per cent. The city’s share totals about $220 million this year. The committee also decided to ask the province to resume sharing the cost of creating shelter spaces. Over the next five years, the city plans to spend $ 21.6 million for 240 new shelter beds and 43 replacements.

Prior to amalgamation in 1998, when Metro Toronto’s six municipalities became one, “the province was much more involved in funding the capital side of new shelter development, in a 50- 50 cost- sharing arrangement,” said Phil Brown, general manager of shelter, support and housing for the city.

“ Since amalgamation, that has not been the case.” The single adult and youth shelter system had a total of 3,358 beds as of July.