For Immediate release – Sept. 25, 2014
Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty Protests Wynne Government Cabinet meeting in Sudbury. Rather than talking to people in poverty Wynne and cabinet dine with the rich.
Members of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) have just learned that Premier Kathleen Wynne and most of her cabinet are meeting here today in Sudbury. While Wynne has described herself as a ‘social justice’ premier what she and her government has delivered to people living in poverty across the province, and here in Sudbury, has been more misery and distress. It is under the Liberal government that the Special Diet program for people on social assistance has been massively cut back and the vital Community Start Up and Maintenance benefit (CSUMB) was abolished. For people on Ontario Works to get back the buying power they had in 1995 before the current war on the poor started they need an immediate 55% increase. Currently many people on the Ontario Disability Support (ODSP) program are facing unfair medical reviews that seem to be designed to push them off benefits. And the Wynne government has ignored calls from anti-poverty advocates and the union movement for raising the minimum wage to $14 an hour indexed to inflation. Both people on social assistance and low-income workers continue to face worsening conditions of poverty. To add to this insult Wynne and cabinet members rather than talking to people living in poverty will be attending a $1,750 a plate fund-raising dinner with their wealthy friends and supporters this evening which entirely excludes people living in poverty.
S-CAP and the Province-wide Raise the Rates campaign continue to call for real social justice and anti-poverty action.
· Re-instatement of the CSUMB and the ending of the cuts to the Special Diet program.
· Raising the basic social assistance rates by 55% to bring them back to 1995 levels.
· Ending the unfair medical reviews for people on ODSP.
· Raising the minimum wage to $14 an hour, indexed to inflation.
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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.