Bashing the Poor in Ontario
From Harris Cuts to a Kinder Gentler Ontario Under McGuinty?
Mar 10, 2009
When Attacking the Poor Became Fashionable
The poor are the last group that members of an uninformed public can attack unabated on public message boards, public forums and letters to the editor. In 1995, Ontario’s then new provincial government headed by Mike Harris made it fashionable to be anti-poor and to blame less fortunate individuals for their own plight. Under his watch, working people were rewarded with tax rebates, while those relying on social assistance watched their monthly incomes get cut by 22% across the board.
In the months following, Harris’ Minister of Community and Social Services publicly proposed a “welfare diet” that could be had for under $100 a month, consisting largely of beans, pasta, Kraft Dinner and dented cans of tuna. Harris then made a plea to landlords across the province to reduce rents by an equivalency of 22% and encouraged families and charities to make up for the gap. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Harris or any of his followers, many of these people did not have families and no landlords to anybody’s knowledge lowered their rents.
Harris' Government Pushed People Deeper into Poverty
As a result, many individuals and families were trapped in a system that kept them in poverty. Such individuals were told to take the shortest route to a job, yet the better employers were not told or even given incentives to hire these folks. After all, it was simply assumed that if people just tried harder to find a job, they can escape poverty. According to a study conducted a few years later under Social Assistance and the New Economy (SANE), many of these folks did find work, but most of the jobs found were low-wage, short-term and lacked security and benefits. Most of these people cycled on and off welfare for years without hope of escaping poverty. As no politician in their right mind would want to see a member of their own family be forced to live under such conditions, why was this good enough for “the poor”?
It was thought that negative reinforcement would get people receiving welfare to want to get off welfare. While welfare remains a very unpopular program for the public it is also unpopular to those that rely on it. People who find themselves on social assistance certainly don’t want to stay on it, nor do they need negative reinforcement and abuse from the public to get off and stay off. The findings from the SANE study appear to suggest that people do get off welfare and want to work, but unfortunately, the kind of work that gets people off welfare and to stay out of poverty is scarce.
It is nearly a generation since Mike Harris implemented his formula to end welfare dependency. While the end of the recession in the 1990’s did lift some people off welfare, this did not happen because of Harris’ policies. It did so because the economy began to recover once again, and more jobs became available in general with some people on welfare able to take advantage of these opportunities. However, for a significant number of people, there continued to be significant barriers to employment – even in the economic recovery.
Many people in the SANE study were found to have lost their homes, having moved several times to find less expensive accommodations. Others lost their phone service and could not be found. A few might have been living on the street or “couch surfing”. Others cycled on and off assistance in low-wage employment. Basic amenities, such as a stable roof over one’s head, access to a telephone, clean clothing and transportation, are just the basics required to obtain any kind of work.
According to a study by Street Health, a community health clinic for homeless persons, a significant number of people on social assistance should be on the Ontario Disability Support Program. In one project they partnered with a law firm to assist clients in applying for ODSP and appealing if denied. It was found that among those who applied, the majority eventually moved to ODSP. Further, almost all of those who were homeless at the time of their applications found and kept stable housing afterwards.
Barriers to Escape Poverty Continue to Exist
Other barriers to employment continue to exist for other recipients, such as a lack of affordable child care, lack of individualized skills training programs, and poor matching of jobs for persons with disabilities and immigrants that have professional qualifications earned prior.
Under the current McGuinty Liberal Government, we are supposedly entering a new era where poverty will be targeted. However, poor-bashing still exists, although not as overtly as it was under Harris. Poor bashing continues covertly through continued clawbacks, service cuts, as well as a continued push to force low-income people into low-wage, insecure labour.
