For Immediate Release – Dec. 3, 2013
For Further Information contact: The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) at 249-878-7227.
The City Budget Must Include Support for the Community Start Up and Homelessness Prevention Needs of People Living in Poverty – Meal and Rally at 3pm on Wednesday, Dec. 4th
Major City budget meetings take place on Dec. 3rd and 4th at 4pm in Sudbury City Council Chambers to decide on budget priorities for the City in 2014. Members of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) will be there to make sure that the City budget includes adequate support for the community start up and homelessness prevention needs of people living in poverty and that the municipally administered Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) funding is kept at the same policies and rates as for the former provincial Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB). At 3pm sharp on Wed. Dec. 4th a free meal and brief rally will be held at Memorial Park before people walk over to the City Council budget meeting. This rally is also being held in solidarity with homeless people forced to live out in the cold and to demand that the City establish community warm up and emergency shelter space for every evening this winter to replace the space the Mission can no longer provide. A moment of silence will be held for all the homeless people who have died in Sudbury.
The province as part of its austerity agenda cut the CSUMB Benefit on Jan. 1st of 2013 but due to community protests (including the arrest of the S-CAP 11) an extra $42 million was injected into the CHPI fund to try to address community start-up needs. The extra funding runs out at the end of March 2014 and so far the Province has made no move to re-issue this funding or to reinstate the CSUMB program. S-CAP is demanding that the City accept the social responsibility being abandoned by the province to provide basic support for people living in poverty in Sudbury as many other municipalities have done. On this position see the attached S-CAP budget submission which has gone to all members of City Council.
For further information contact: The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) at 249-878-7227.
The site for the Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
The Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op was formed to create independent media in the North, to speak to our issues and outlooks on our communities as well as the world around us. Independent media provides an avenue for people who are wishing to gain critical perspective on the issues that matter most to us, and to give a voice to those people and stories that you won't find in the mainstream media.
The Sudbury working-group site is no longer being updated and has been archived.