blake 3:17
25th April 2015, 02:17
Raise the Rates Week of Action: May 18-25!
Raise the Rates Week of Action Against the Liberal Government’s ‘Invisible Austerity’ War on the Poor
The Raise the Rates Campaign is calling on local communities to challenge MPPs during the week of May 18. During that week, they will be in their constituency offices and this is an ideal time to challenge the austerity and growing poverty that is being imposed in this Province.
Click here to download the poster
The Liberals have long tried to present themselves as a kinder alternative to the Tories but, in reality, they are imposing a range of cuts on poor people and communities. In a recent announcement, the Government cynically presented a reduced commitment to funding anti homelessness initiatives as an infusion of new cash. This highlights the stealthy and misleading Liberal approach that can be described as ‘invisible austerity’. We are putting forward a series of demands that address this:
• Suspend the ODSP medical reviews that are now underway until a properly functioning computer system is in place and the backlog of people waiting to be moved from OW to ODSP has been cleared. Make the reviews simpler and less intrusive and ensure all who face them have been properly notified and provided with the medical and advocacy services they nee to complete the process.
• Stop the elimination of the $100 a month work related benefit for people on ODSP
• Scrap the SAMS computer system as a failure that continues to impose misery and hardship on people on social assistance and creates intolerable conditions for ODSP and OW workers.
• Fully restore the Special Diet and Community Start Up (CSUMB) so that people in poverty can have the chance of eating a healthy diet and remaining housed
• Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and respect the right of all to living wages.
• Restore social assistance rates to the real level that existed prior to the 1995 cut, which amounts to a 55% increase in current rates for both OW and ODSP recipients.
For more information or to sign on to participate in the Week of Action, contact via the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP):
E-mail: ocap @tao.ca
Phone: 416 -925-6939
Twitter: @ ocaptoronto
Raise the Rates Week of Action Against the Liberal Government’s ‘Invisible Austerity’ War on the Poor
The Raise the Rates Campaign is calling on local communities to challenge MPPs during the week of May 18. During that week, they will be in their constituency offices and this is an ideal time to challenge the austerity and growing poverty that is being imposed in this Province.
Click here to download the poster
The Liberals have long tried to present themselves as a kinder alternative to the Tories but, in reality, they are imposing a range of cuts on poor people and communities. In a recent announcement, the Government cynically presented a reduced commitment to funding anti homelessness initiatives as an infusion of new cash. This highlights the stealthy and misleading Liberal approach that can be described as ‘invisible austerity’. We are putting forward a series of demands that address this:
• Suspend the ODSP medical reviews that are now underway until a properly functioning computer system is in place and the backlog of people waiting to be moved from OW to ODSP has been cleared. Make the reviews simpler and less intrusive and ensure all who face them have been properly notified and provided with the medical and advocacy services they nee to complete the process.
• Stop the elimination of the $100 a month work related benefit for people on ODSP
• Scrap the SAMS computer system as a failure that continues to impose misery and hardship on people on social assistance and creates intolerable conditions for ODSP and OW workers.
• Fully restore the Special Diet and Community Start Up (CSUMB) so that people in poverty can have the chance of eating a healthy diet and remaining housed
• Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and respect the right of all to living wages.
• Restore social assistance rates to the real level that existed prior to the 1995 cut, which amounts to a 55% increase in current rates for both OW and ODSP recipients.
For more information or to sign on to participate in the Week of Action, contact via the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP):
E-mail: ocap @tao.ca
Phone: 416 -925-6939
Twitter: @ ocaptoronto