Dear Allies,
We are contacting you about the ‘Raise the Rates’ Campaign and a call for
community organizations, union locals, community health centres, social
agencies, drop-ins and beyond to join the campaign and be a part of
building a provincial movement to raise social assistance rates to where
people can live with health and dignity.
What you can do to join this campaign:
Endorse the Raise the Rates Campaign: Take this to your organization and
officially sign-on to the Raise the Rates Campaign! Contact us to add your
name as an endorsing organization: ocap@tao.ca / 416-925-6939.
**We are proud to announce a broad range of Raise the Rates
endorsements-growing by the day! (in alphabetical order):
• Aids Action Now
• Barrio Nuevo
• BASICS Community News Service
• Bread and Bricks Social Justice Group
• Campaign for Adequate Welfare and Disability Benefits (Hamilton)
• Community Solidarity Network
• Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) – Ontario
• CUPE Toronto District Council
• Disability Action Movement Now (DAMN)
• Health Providers Against Poverty
• Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty
• New Socialist Group
• No One is Illegal – Toronto
• No One is Illegal – Ottawa
• Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses (OAITH)
• Ontario Nurses Association (ONA)
• Ontario Public Interest Research Group at U of T (OPIRG-Toronto)
• Ottawa District Labour Council
• South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO)
• Sudbury and District Labour Council
• Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicutural Women Against Rape
• Toronto Drug Users Union
• Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC)
• Under Pressure (Ottawa)
Join the Movement:
• Invite OCAP and the Raise the Rates Committee to come speak to your
organization, union local or centre
• Throughout the month of March, organizations will be hosting ‘Raise the
Rates Assemblies’ in different cities across Ontario to talk about
building this movement provincially. If you would like to be part of these
Assemblies – let us know and we will connect you with existing groups or
help you get something started in your area. In Toronto, this Assembly
will be taking place: Sat. March 19th
• Raise the Rates Days of Action, Friday, April 1st, 12noon @ Nathan
Phillips Square, Toronto: COME OUT as a contingent on April 1st in Toronto
or build an action in your community.
• Start a ‘Raise the Rates’ committee in your area: let’s build this work
beyond the next demonstration and in to a movement that is unstoppable.
**********
Raise the Rates Campaign DEMANDS:
1) Reverse the Cuts, Raise the Rates!
In 1995 the Tory government cut welfare rates by 21.6 % and froze
disability. Since the Liberals came to power in 2003, they have not only
failed to reverse the Harris cuts, but have actually perpetuated a further
decline in rates. As a result of that initial 21.6% cut coupled with
inflation for the last 16 years, welfare rates are approximately 55% below
where they should be. If benefit levels were restored to the same level of
spending power as we had in 1994, a single person on Ontario Works would
receive an immediate $904/month instead of the miserable $593 now being
issued. No one can survive on these poverty rates; $593 cannot afford
someone a place to live let alone food and basic needs.
The Liberal government has now announced that they are freezing the
minimum wage in 2011. Workers trying to survive on minimum wage are
already making poverty wages and will now see their incomes fall as a
result of inflation and a freeze on wages. Currently there are
approximately 1 in 6 workers or working at or close to minimum wage in
Ontario, and the gap between minimum wage and welfare is greater now than
it ever has been.
WE DEMAND an immediate increase in OW and ODSP rates to bring them back to
pre-Harris levels. 55% NOW– raise the rates to where people can live with
health and dignity!
WE DEMAND the minimum wage freeze be lifted immediately and that minimum
wage be increased to a living wage for everyone in Ontario.
2) Restore the Special Diet!
In the 2010 provincial budget last March, the Liberal government announced
that the special diet would be slashed completely. The special diet has
been a vital benefit that has put money in the pockets of communities
forced to live in poverty on social assistance rates that are entirely
inadequate. Due to community outrage and mobilization, the Liberal
government have now backtracked and said that they will keep part of the
Special Diet, however the program is being completely gutted. The new
system excludes numerous health conditions and reduces the benefits
received for many other conditions. In addition applicants will have to
release medical information and face other intrusive measures designed to
prevent access to the benefit. Within the Liberals’ own statement about
this measure, they refer to the fact that ‘many will not be eligible’. The
new Special Diet comes in to affect on April 1st and all those who are not
eligible under the new program will be cut off by July 31st.
The loss of the full Special Diet alongside declining social assistance
rates will drive communities deeper into poverty and poor health. It is
one of many social cuts to come as part of the government austerity
measures and we must mobilize and demand that it be restored.
WE DEMAND the full restoration of the Special Diet to a benefit of up to
$250 for food and complete reversal of all intrusive measures.
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