Five Ontario NDP MPPs will live on $49.60 worth of food a week to draw attention to “paltry” social assistance rates.
NDP Community and Social Services critic Monique Taylor, one of the five MPPs living on the restricted food budget, said over 230 groups called on the government this summer to double social assistance rates after four years of freezes.
“Inflation is at a 40-year high,” Taylor said Tuesday. “The government’s 5% increase to ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and nothing for Ontario Works recipients won’t even be close enough to cover the cost of rising basic needs.”
Premier Doug Ford said his government increased ODSP rates by 5% this month and has lowered taxes for 1.7 million Ontarians, including gas taxes.
“We’ll always be there for the most vulnerable, always have been,” Ford said. “One of the first things we did when we took office, we increased ODSP… As the NDP and Liberals stood there and starved these people, we increased it by 5% – largest in a full decade.”
NDP Poverty and Homelessness Reduction critic Chandra Pasma challenged Ford and Children, Community and Social Services Minister Merrilee Fullerton to join them on the social assistance diet.
“Since the premier thinks this historic increase is so great, I invite him to try living on it,” Pasma said. “Today, my colleagues and I are beginning a two-week advocacy effort, living on an approximate social assistance grocery budget of $91.21. We are undertaking this effort in solidarity with the thousands of social assistance recipients and community organizations that have been imploring this government for years to raise the rates.”
In addition to Taylor and Pasma, NDP MPPs Lise Vaugeois, Jessica Bell and Joel Harden will partake of the two week diet on a total of $95.21 worth of food.
The NDP says the 5% increase in ODSP rates provides up to $58 a month more, while Ontario Works recipients continue to receive $733 a month.
Fullerton said the government is supporting those in need, whether they need retraining or are unable to work, through a number of measures.
“That’s exactly why we increased the ODSP rates to a historic 5% and aligned it with inflation because we know high inflationary times are troublesome and make it that much more difficult for people,” she said.
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