Feb 26, 2007

John Milloy, MPP
1770 King St. E.
Kitchener, Ont.
N2M 3P7

Dear Mr. Milloy,

Thank you for your letter of response dated Feb. 9, 2007 regarding (in your words ) my "discontent with the Ontario Disability Support Program." As you are very well aware, Mr. Milloy, there is MUCH for ODSP recipients to be "discontented" about, in regard to the ODSP Program! Both you and the Premier have made it abundantly clear to this constituent that you realize ODSP Pension rates are still severely inadequate, and that they need to be increased by substantial amounts. Yet, ODSP rates CONTINUE TO REMAIN INHUMANELY INADEQUATE, while MPPs enjoy yet ANOTHER extremely large salary increase.

In my previous letter to you Mr. Milloy, I asked you to justify THIS INEQUITY. INSTEAD, you simply justified the MPP salary increase. This is NOT what I asked you to justify! To date, neither you nor the Premier has answered my DIRECT question regarding the justification of yet another MPP salary increase while ODSP recipients continue to live well below the Provincial Government's defined poverty level! I again ask that you JUSTIFY THIS INEQUITY! Specifically Mr. Milloy, I want to know WHY MPP's should get another raise when Disabled people continue to live in poverty, and have done so for the last fifteen years? I want to know when your Government is going to raise ODSP pension rates enough so that disabled ODSP recipients will no longer be living below YOUR GOVERNMENT's OWN DEFINED POVERTY LEVEL?

As it stands now Mr. Milloy, ODSP recipients generally receive a pittance of $950.00 per month to survive on, and that sum of money is usually an ODSP recipient's SOLE source of income! With this meager and inadequate sum of money Mr. Milloy, ODSP recipients must ATTEMPT to pay for housing, heat, hydro, food, transportation, clothing, numerous medications not covered by ODSP, and all other essentials of life!

In my letter to you dated January 23, 2007, I asked that you send copies of that document to all MPP's in Ontario. To date, you have refused to honour my request, and have instead suggested that I supply copies of my letter for all MPP's, which you would then deliver.

Mr. Milloy, as ODSP recipients, we don't receive enough money to even afford the essentials of life, let alone have extra funds left over for stationery! It should therefore be clear to you that purchasing the office supplies necessary to write letters to every MPP in Ontario, as you are suggesting I do, is financially impossible!

Mr. Milloy, you have continued to state that as an MPP, you want to ACTIVELY ADVOCATE for the disabled population. If that is indeed true Mr. Milloy, then please forward copies of my letter dated January 23, 2007, to ALL ONTARIO MPP's as I have previously requested!

I additionally ask that you send copies of THIS letter to every MPP in Ontario also! As I have stated to both you and the Premier on numerous occasions, people subsisting on ODSP remain in SEVERE FINANCIAL CRISIS! Our physical and emotional health is in severe jeopardy because of your Government's continuing unwillingness to raise ODSP Pension rates to a iveable level! We CANNOT survive or be healthy on the extremely inadequate funds that your Government is currently providing! I therefore believe it is extremely important that ALL PROVINCIAL MPP's and THE NEWS MEDIA continue to be made aware of ODSP recipient's plight!

Mr. Milloy, I ask you again to please answer all the questions from my last correspondence that you have failed to answer.

Yours truly

Glenn Hedrich

cc Premier of Ontario (via MPP John Milloy)
Minister of Social Services (via MPP John Milloy)
All other Provincial MPP's (via MPP John Milloy)
CTV News
Toronto Star
OCAP

Room 114, Legislative Building, Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M17A 1A5 phone (416) 325-8300 fax (416) 325-8222 Ontario Howard Hampton Leader/Chef Ontario New Democratic Party Nouveau Parti Democratique de l'Ontario Bureau 114, Edifice de l'Assemblee legislative, Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M7A IAS Telephone(416) 325-8300 Melecopieur (416) 325-8222 ndpmail@ndp.on.ca February, 2007 Mr. Glenn Hedrich 1-127 Mill St Kitchener, ON N2M3P7 Dear Mr. Hedrich, Your MPP John Milloy has forwarded a copy of your letter to him regarding ODSP. I am glad you have brought this serious situation to the attention of the McGuinty government. New Democrats have been speaking out on this issue since the McGuinty government was elected more than four years ago. New Democrats agree with you that a large increase for MPPs is unacceptable when many people in Ontario are struggling just to get by on low fixed incomes. It is especially difficult for people with disabilities many of whom are forced to live below the poverty line. Citizens who must rely on the Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP) have gone more than eight years without any meaningful adjustment, while the cost of living has risen by 18 per cent. The McGuinty government promised real change for people on low incomes, but after three years in power, there has been little improvement They have failed to act on a long list of election promises that would help low and moderate-income families, including; building 20,000 units of affordable housing, increasing funding for childcare and raising social assistance rates. Since the election we have been pressuring the McGuinty government at every opportunity to help low income Ontarians get the support they need to live in dignity. We will keep up the fight and continue to speak out on these issues on your behalf Sincerely, Howard Hampton, Leader, Ontario NDP c.c. Michael Prue, MPP   NDP Community and Social Services Critic http://www.ontariondp.on.ca

March 13, 2007

Ms. Madeleine Meilleur, Minister
Community & Social Services and Minister
Responsible for Status of Persons with Disabilities
Hepburn Block, 6th Floor, 80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1E9

Dear Madame Minister:

We are at the eve of your Government’s new budget and more than one million Ontarians that live in poverty await to hear the “good news” that will make their lives easier and to give them hope, whether or not they are in receipt of social assistance, disability benefits or low wages. The news media reports that your Government plans to provide meaningful assistance to address the problem of child poverty. However, there are sinister rumours that your Government plans to use this platform to promote its own Child Benefit, something upon closer examination will actually make families on social assistance and disability benefits worse off than before. Tell me this isn’t true.

Your response to media representatives enquiring about potential anti-poverty initiatives reflects a bias we only hear too often. Your reference to the “welfare wall” and the idea that people on assistance choose not to work because they are better off on social assistance or disability benefits cannot be further from the truth. Madame Minister, I worked with hundreds – possibly thousands - of people on various forms of social assistance and disability benefits over the years and in this capacity, I feel I can speak for them. In the process of our appeals to get somebody deemed eligible for Ontario Disability Support Program (or some other programs, such as Worker’s Compensation), over fifty percent have lost their housing and most ended up “couch surfing” or living on the streets until we have been able to establish their eligibility and secure retroactive payments to aid them in paying first and last month’s rent. Some of these people have had children at least temporarily placed into foster care at great expense to the province as a result of this major gap in social policy.

Over the past nine years of practice, I can safely estimate at least two clients take their own lives each year as a result of the stress and hopelessness they faced when dealing with our perpetually diminishing social safety net. Others die of health conditions that have been aggravated by their poverty and living environment. This is just the reporting that comes from my own small office where I spend many hours a day holding people’s hands as they try to work through an increasingly complex system to obtain minimal help for themselves and their families. As you know, Madame Minister, four times as many low-income people develop diabetes, as do others in more comfortable income brackets. Henceforth, such individuals are also more likely to develop expensive complications when they do. There are also more heart conditions, strokes and other major health consequences for the low-income group than for the middle and upper range of incomes. I am saddened to see that given you do not work on the ground floor of your social polic y initiatives for which your Ministry is responsible, that you do not have see what people like me and others like myself see on a daily basis.

While I am encouraged to know that your Ministry has expanded some of its policies to reduce or eliminate disincentives faced by recipients in working, such as increasing the earnings exemption, allowing people to keep their drug cards, expanding the rapid reinstatement policy to include all recipients who leave the system for employment, as well as other initiatives – however, these initiatives on their own do not address major deficiencies and gaps in the labour market or in employment supports programs to assist people in getting there.&nbs p; In my own region, many employers were previously seeking offshore workers to work in their businesses during their high season. Instead of asking these same employers to increase their wages and provide year-round employment in order to attract local workers, our Region instead has chosen to bus recipients of Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program to these workplaces to provide low-skilled, low-cost and often precarious labour.

For the most part, people with disabilities cannot function well in these workplaces, as they have significant health conditions that prevent them from performing heavy lifting and physical tasks, or tasks that involve persistent multi-tasking such as that expected of call centre employees. As a former labour lawyer, I know you are aware of various labour code and human rights violations that many of these kinds of employers are often involved in. Many of my clients who seek Ontario Disability Support Program assistance are at least in part disabled due to how they were treated in a former workplace and many continue to suffer from uncompensated injuries that agencies such as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should have been responsible for, but for whatever reason, has failed to do so. Others have been a target of severe bullying and psychological harassment and have become disabled to the point that they developed major stress-related illnesses, such as heart conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, chronic fatigue a nd generalized anxiety disorder. Even the thought of returning to any job for these people leads to a major crisis that often involves returning to hospital or increasing their need for medical support.

At the same time, Madame Minister, these same people pay the same prices for food, shelter, transportation, clothing and other amenities for themselves and their families that the rest of middle class society do. More and more renters are being asked to pay heat and hydro, both of which were deliberately increased under the term of your Government in its well-intentioned goal of getting people to conserve energy. Ma ny of them can afford rent, but not groceries. Many have fallen so far behind in their utility bills they cannot possibly make up for it. The Emergency Energy Fund turns many of them away after they’ve accessed help only once. I’ve personally intervened in cases where utilities have been shut off and as a result, Children’s Aid became needlessly involved only causing more stress in the lives of these same families. Until you and other members of your Government work your policies at the ground floor level like many of us do, we can only see the situation getting worse.

The sinister rumour involving your own Ontario Child Benefit involves cutting all families on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support down to the point where the adults in such family are receiving benefits only as a single or a couple, however the case may be. That means families will no longer receive additional shelter allowance for having to house more family members or pay for more food to feed additional mouths. They will only receive Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support as a single person or a couple; of course, in situations where both members of the couple have disabilities – they will still be subject to the same artificial funding cap that reduces their income by over $140. Their children however will receive the National Child Benefit Supplement, Child Tax Credit and a new Ontario Child Benefit wh ich is rumoured to be only a modest amount. Not only will the distribution of the money for families create major problems in being able to pay all of the bills and buy groceries too, but they will ALL end up with less to work with.

Madame Minister, please assure me this sinister rumour is not true and that your Government will be doing its utmost to ensure that ALL families will be better off with whatever initiatives it plans under the new budget. I need something to go on to r eassure people who have increasingly been coming to my office and crying about how they are going to be homeless at the end of the month or how they can’t feed their kids and how child welfare is planning to apprehend them. Your Government has the power and resources to change this. I don’t.

Further, I heard nothing with respect to how your budget or future plans for social assistance and disability benefits will help single people or couples without children. Many of these people are also served through my office and it is no easier for them to find suitable, affordable accommo dation than it is for families. Since the reduction or elimination of the “special diet” monies many of these people had been receiving, I have noted a number of them developing new medical conditions or complications from old medical conditions. To simplify these issues to say how people will now be able to go back to work and so forth is simply wrong. Whether somebody works or depends on social assistance or disability benefits, none of them – I repeat – NONE OF THEM – should have to suffer to the extent that I see them suffer. Many of these people cannot work, as I stated above, or experience many barriers to employment that between your Government and its respective municipalities, continue to remain unaddressed. These barriers include:

1	Transportation – without adequate public transportation in regions outside of Toronto, people will not be able to get to work. Most people on assistance lack the funds to own and maintain their own vehicles. Among those that do, a large percentage of them are driving very old vehicles or driving without insurance and in some cases, with a suspended licence. I know this. I attend hearings of the Provincial Offences court and I also know that my Region is among the worst for that kind of thing.
2	Employers – most employers outside of Toronto (and from what I hear online, even some in Toronto) fail to adhere to the Human Rights Code when it comes to defining bona fide occupational requirements of a job. They require all candidates for example to have a driver’s license and reliable vehicle, which is not only a financial barrier to people on assistance but for many people with a disability, a form of discrimination as many of them cannot hold a licence.
3	Living Expenses – As long as one is receiving inadequate amounts of money to live on, their concerns are focused at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy – food and safety. I know so many people who would love to work, but simply do not have the resources to even look for work; they are constantly worried about paying their rent, utilities or finding something to eat. Most cannot even come up with a day’s bus fare to travel to various worksites to apply for a job. With rumoured cuts to family budgets, where are these people supposed to come up with these extra expenses, such as transportation, phone, clothes, postage, etc.?
4	Job Quality – Ontario’s economy has shifted significantly even in the last ten years. What we are seeing is a larger number of low-paying, low-quality and high-stress temporary jobs that have replaced the long-term, permanent jobs of the past. Many people on Ontario Disability Support Program want to work, at least part-time, but do not want to work in a low-paid and low-skill jobs. These are people who have university education and may have once worked in high-paying professional jobs. Unless you are in their shoes, you cannot understand the damage this does to their job prospects to even accept one of these jobs. To research this issue if you must, go to http://www.canadianprofessionals.org/ and you will find out what a growing problem this is. At the present time, there are no programs that specifically address the issues these people face. Even others who may not be university educated, but have formed a family and have a mortgage and have lost their retirement savings in order to qualify for assistance, a growing and upcoming crisis will be on your Government’s doorstep in about ten to fifteen years as these people attempt to retire with no income.
5	Working Poor – There has been a lot of ink devoted to the lives of the working poor in Ontario over the past year. I agree with a major hike in minimum wage, as well as some requirements placed on companies to hire from disadvantaged populations. However, the problems of the working poor will not be resolved by moving people off welfare or ODSP into the ranks of the working poor, as you will only end up with more of them. A Royal Commission of sorts looking into the quality of jobs is essential before your Government attempts to move large numbers of people off the OW rolls and some off ODSP. In my view, not doing so and making necessary adjustments to labour legislation, the economy and hiring practices, your Government is going to fall far from its goal in alleviating the circumstances of the working poor. First, by pushing OW and ODSP recipients into these poorly paid seasonal jobs, there will only be more working poor to deal with, and second – these same individuals, plus members of the current working poor will only be cyclically returning on and off the social benefits system, never quite being able to accumulate the necessary assets and backup to get off the system permanently.

Tracey Engel, Income Support
ODSP
385 Fairway Rd. S. Suite 200
Kitchener, Ont.
N2C 2N9

Dear Ms. Engel

Today, I received notification from you that my Special Diet is being terminated as of December, 2006. As I have previously informed you Ms. Engel, I have Meniere’s disease, which is an inner ear disorder. This disease causes EXTREMELY SEVERE dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, usually on a daily basis! The special diet allowance that SOME ODSP recipients STILL RECEIVE from ODSP through the Ministry of Social Services special diet program is apparently no longer available IN MY PARTICULAR INSTANCE.

I believe that by terminating my special diet, MCSS/ ODSP is discriminating against not only my specific medical condition, but also my physical disability! MCSS/ ODSP grants special diets to SOME ODSP recipients who require special diets, BUT NOT TO OTHERS, like MYSELF. Such discrimination by MCSS/ODSP is contrary to both the Ontario Human Rights Legislation AND the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms!

The Ontario Human Rights legislation states that “Discrimination means unfair treatment because of your race, sex, colour, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, marital status, same sex partner status, sexual orientation, age, disability, citizenship, family status or religion. The Canadian charter of Rights and Freedoms states “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

I am therefore asking for an internal review, on grounds that this ODSP recipient is being discriminated against by MCSS/ODSP. I would also therefore ask that MCSS/ODSP IMMEDIATELY STOP discriminating against me. MCSS/ODSP can do so by NOT TERMINATING my medically necessary special diet!

Ms Engel, I again want to make MCSS/ODSP aware that rescinding my special diet will cause me very severe, very debilitating, and extremely unpleasant medical consequences! I also want MCSS/ODSP to be aware that the medically necessary salt free diet I was receiving through MCSS/ODSP helped to drastically reduce the severity and duration of my Meniere’s attacks and symptoms. If my salt free diet is terminated, my debilitating Meniere’s symptoms will worsen considerably, since I will no longer be able to afford the salt free dietary products that MCSS/ODSP previously provided!

Should my request for reconsideration not stop the termination of my special diet, then I definitely wish to file an appeal, and would ask that you send me the necessary appeal forms. Please be aware that I have already filed a Human Rights complaint against MCSS/ODSP in regard to a violation of my Human Rights under the Ontario Human Rights legislation. The Human Rights Complaint is file No. 30112006PRIS-6W2TRA.

I trust that ODSP will carefully reconsider my request that my special diet not be terminated.

Yours truly,

Glenn Hedrich

Cc. Human Rights Commission, Toronto
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Madeleine Meilleur, Minister of Social Services
Howard Hampton, NDP
John Milloy, MPP
CTV News, Toronto
O.C.A.P.

• 1) Is your government actually more concerned with looking good for your public image than addressing unnecessary deaths and the inescapable poverty that GW and ODSP recipients are trapped in, as a result of your continued lack of adequate assistance?


• 2) If you became ill and did not have your legislative pension for protection, could YOU actually survive on $930.00 per month (I imagine that you would also have to move as this amount will probably not even cover your taxes.)


• 3) Do you care that men, women and children will be literally freezing in the streets this winter waiting for your assistance?


• 4) Will it actually take more deaths before you and your Liberal government wake up and give ODSP and OW recipients the Livable increase they need, JUST TO SURVIVE?


• 5) Would you be willing to accept substandard living conditions, unhealthy food, inadequate clothing and no way to get anything better?


• 6) Do you consider it dignified to be forced to live in cramped, unsafe, pest infested slum apartments (if one is even available) or be forced to use food money to perhaps be able to afford same, have to beg for food, eat unsafe, unhealthy food, or go without the basic necessities of life?


• 7) Do you and your government actually believe that the level of assistance currently being provided to ODSP recipients satisfies Chapter 1 of the Ontario Disability Support Program Act, 1997?

Ministry of Community and Social Services Minister's Office Hepburn Block Queen's Park Toronto ON M7A 1E9 Tel.: (416) 325-5225 Ministere des Services sociaux et communautaires Bureau du Ministre Edifice Hepburn Queen's Park Toronto (Ontario) M7A 1E9 Tel.: (416) 325-5225 Ontario February 28, 2005 Mr. Glenn Hedrich 1-127 Mill Street Kitchener, Ontario N2M 3P7 Dear Mr. Hedrich: Thank you for your recent letter regarding income support rates under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works. You may not be aware that we recently announced a number of changes to Ontario Works and ODSP policy. I would like to highlight a few of these changes. The ODSP exemption amount for gifts and voluntary payments has increased from $4,000 to $5,000 per year per beneficiary. Social assistance recipients can keep Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) funds so that their children can get an education and escape the cycle of poverty. Money that children save from working part time and after school is now exempt. The requirement to consent to a lien on property under social assistance policy has been eliminated. The list of professionals who can complete the ODSP Activities of Daily Living Index has been expanded to include registered nurses, speech-language pathologists and social workers. The $100 minimum sponsorship deduction has been eliminated for sponsored immigrants who are not living with their sponsors. In addition, families with children who rely on social assistance will get to keep the July 2004 National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) increase for one year. In keeping with the jury's recommendations in the Coroner's Inquest into the death of a social assistance recipient, we restored the nutritional allowance for pregnant women on social assistance and will provide drug cards to social assistance recipients with serious health conditions who may be temporarily ineligible for support due to non-compliance with employment participation rules. Increasing social assistance rates is just one step in our long-term strategy to help Ontario's most vulnerable citizens. We are also taking action on child care, affordable housing, minimum wage and rental costs. We are continuing to restore fairness, hope and dignity to the individuals and families who rely on Ontario's social assistance programs. We want to help people get back on their feet, wherever possible, and make our services strong and sustainable for future generations. We will focus our efforts on achieving results that will make a positive difference in the lives of vulnerable people. Once again, thank you for writing. Sincerely, Sandra Pupatello Minister

During the late summer and early fall of this year, a significant number of community groups as well as a large number of health care professionals took up arms against the problems of growing hunger throughout Ontario for those on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Their point was to bring public awareness to the fact that people forced to live on Ontario Works are still living on the same paltry sum of money they were living on when Mike “the Knife” Harris slashed welfare rates by 21.6% in October 1995, with only one paltry 3% hike since the McGuinty Liberals took office on October 3, 2003. While those living on the Ontario Disability Support Program were not slashed as those on general welfare, these folks only had the one 3% raise since the early 1990’s. Nobody in their right mind can convince me or anybody else that prices for housing, groceries, heat, electricity, transportation, and so on, are the same now, as they were then. It has come to the point
that a substantial number of those on either benefit are faced with the dire choice of paying their rent (plus heating/ electricity bills) or feeding themselves and their families. Reliance on food banks has dramatically increased since the 1990’s, and more and more families are finding themselves without adequate shelter.

During the spring, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) discovered that any recipient or member of a benefit unit could visit a doctor, a registered nurse, a dietician or midwife (for pregnancy needs), to obtain a supplementary allowance to cover ‘special diets’, up to a limit of $250 more each month. This Special Diet policy has been put in place by the prior Conservative government, but many people were apparently not informed they could obtain extra monies to cover special dietary needs for medical conditions or specific dietary expenses they had. Given the province’s vast shortage of family physicians, many people – particularly the homeless or people who are tentatively housed or very poor – rely on walk-in clinics and organizations like Street Health to care for their health needs. Physicians that work most closely with the poor have noted substantial nutritional deficiencies in all of their patients, deficiencies which if left unattended can develop into very expensive conditions to treat under our medicare system.

Then along comes George Smitherman … who nervously points out that our health care bill for Ontario is rapidly reaching the point where 50% of non-deficit financing is going to his Ministry. Over this past year, the total cost of health care increased by 7.5% alone! (see Kevin Connor, “Health Cost Keeps Rising”, Toronto Sun, November 3, 2005, p. 24). The cost of new drugs is increasing by double digits. The cost of hospitals and home care is going through the roof. While more mental health care is being done in the community, the largest portion of that budget is still based within institutions and community psychiatric wards. Our population is ageing, some health care economists have said. Epidemiologists have noted a rapid increase in conditions such as Type II diabetes, particularly in younger age groups. At the present time, 1 in 15 Canadians suffer from diabetes (“What You Need to Know About Diabetes”, Diabetes Inset, Toronto Star, November 3, 2005, p. K2). Obesity has increased by leaps and bounds, and is thought to be behind most cases of Type 2 Diabetes, which comprises 90% of all diabetes cases (ibid, p. K1). Epidemiologists have learned that obesity is a much greater problem for low- income groups than middle-income groups. Children in low-income families don’t go to camps or belong to sports teams, as this all costs money. Even if they can snag a subsidy, transportation to the various events is tricky at best. Many children are sent home for lunch if they are found not to have adequate lunches for school. This does not happen very often to the children of wealthy parents, obviously. Studies by the Canadian Cancer Society have shown that most Canadians do not eat enough fruits and vegetables; imagine how many lower income Canadians don’t eat them at all! It is a well-known fact that food banks do not provide this type of nutritional sustenance to their clients; instead they are given high carbohydrate, highly processed foods, which many people cannot eat, and can in fact, worsen existing health conditions.

So George Smitherman, concerned with the rising cost of the ‘illness-based’ health care system that we presently have, invites Minister Jim Watson on board to look at Health Promotion. He asks how can we reduce the epidemic of obesity in our society? It is well known that obesity, particularly in the young and post-menopausal age groups leads to diabetes, certain cancers and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Most people do not die of these diseases like they used to; however, many become significantly debilitated and require more and more expensive care. Obesity in itself is said to cost us $4 billion a year in health care costs (“Epidemic of Obesity Costs Us $4 Billion a Year”, Toronto Sun, November 3, 2005, p. 36). Complications from diabetes are common among diabetics. The annual bill for diabetes alone is $13.2 billion (see “Reeling from a Silent Killer”, Toronto Star, November 3, 2005, p. K1). For dialysis alone, each case is $50,000 annually; for each amputation, it is $74,000. Diabetes is blamed on poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise. Yes, there are many things people can do to reduce their risks, but when you don’t have the money to eat healthy foods, transport yourself to a gym to work out, or to develop ways to deal with stress, this situation becomes less under your control. Stress has also been shown to have an effect on one’s metabolism where one may not be able to burn off calories as fast, and can transform carbohydrates more quickly into fat. At least 50% of people in receipt of ODSP are there due to psychiatric, cognitive or neurological conditions (Ministry of Community & Social Services, Background Papers, 1993). Most medications for these conditions cause significant weight gain. For others on ODSP, the issue may be uncontrolled diabetes, epilepsy, Chrohn’s Disease and other conditions that impact on one’s health based on the food that they eat. People on Ontario Works, who are often forced to spend most of their time scrounging
to find food to eat each day, often without any transportation or other assistance, are subject to very high stress levels. People are spending more and more time on Ontario Works today than they used to. Even you, Minister Pupatello, admitted as much when you announced the controversial program JobsNow would target those who have been on Ontario Works for one year or more, hardly a temporary program at all anymore.

On October 3rd, 2005, you, Sandra Pupatello, responded to a press conference after a hunger clinic was organized on the property of Queen’s Park, bringing in over 1,000 persons on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program to meet with several health professionals to get forms completed. Unbeknownst to the Ministry, the majority of those in attendance do not have family doctors or the medical specialists at the clinics are people who have worked with them through a variety of walk-in clinics, hospital services, and other social services, such as Street Health, over the past several years. Social Services Minister Sandra “Let Them Eat Cake” Pupatello immediately says the government is moving quickly to close (the alleged) “loophole” being exploited by "rogue advocates" like OCAP … Currently, doctors are simply required to outline a medical condition requiring a special diet, which you, Pupatello, said is leading to "abuse" of the allowance for which spending has doubled
every year in the last five years … You further stated that, “There's actually a campaign out there to misuse the intent of such special diet allowances.” (“Activists protest `diet' cut OCAP says poor need food assistance”, October 4th, 2005, Toronto Star). It is the sincere belief of many that such a campaign based on diets would not materialize if people were not put into such a precarious desperate situation to begin with.

Certainly a better approach would be for the provincial government to substantially raise the allowances for everyone, but every time this particular question has been broached, you cry poor. Like all your predecessors, Queen’s Park has plenty of money to pay to bring a Toyota Plant to Woodstock to the tune of $400 million; another $200 million to IBM, as well as another $400 million in pocket for its auto industry strategy, which is supposed to ‘save’ jobs in this sector, which is declining anyways. The union representing workers at the dying Stelco plant in Hamilton is pushing for the tune of $1 billion dollars from all levels of government … if the government caves, they don’t have an argument about the cupboard being bare for the poor. Anti-poverty advocates and taxpayers alike should be extremely concerned about a government that does not mind shelling out millions of dollars to private companies that are likely to fail anyways, but claim they do not have the money for what you
claimed on a radio show in Ottawa to be approximately $80 million for the supplement that people have claimed to date.

I would suspect most of those receiving the supplement should indeed be allowed to retain it, particularly if they received the forms from their own family doctors or medical clinics that they frequent. Many physicians find it ironical that the government is willing to pay billions of dollars in health care for the care and treatment of diabetes alone, not including other illnesses that can arise from poor diet, rather than pay a little now to prevent many of these cases from emerging in the first place. As the _expression goes, penny wise, but pound-foolish?

Sandra, pick up the phone and speak to George Smitherman and Jim Watson about the Health Care budget and learn a little bit about their numbers and how things are now becoming unsustainable in the eyes of many. As good Liberals, you want to maintain universal access and portability of our health care system. What will you do, Sandra, when we all get old and need more health care? Or will we just become the disposable ones, like those in the United States that do not have health insurance, and cannot meet the standards for the charity hospitals that are hundreds of miles away? Pick up the phone, Sandra, and tell George and Jim you have a partial solution to their budget woes. It will certainly not prevent all of their budget woes, but it will cut down substantially on future health care costs for some so that we call can enjoy our universal health care system for much longer.

In case you don’t have them on speed dial, George’s office can be reached at (416) 327-4300 and Jim’s office can be reached at (416) 326-8500. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a solution-focused approach to hunger in Ontario.

Honorable Ms. Sandra Pupatello, Minister
Ministry of Community & Social Services/
Minister Responsible for Disability Issues
MacDonald Block
80 Grosvenor Street, 6th Floor
Toronto, Ontario

Good Day Ms. Pupatello:

On October 3rd, 2003, the electorate of Ontario elected your Government on its platform of Choose Change. During your party’s campaign, it vigorously opposed many of the practices of the former government it defeated. I recall many issues being presented on what your Government was going to do and how the quality of life for Ontario’s vulnerable citizens would improve under your government’s administration. I trusted this would be the case and I cast my ballot for your party’s member in my riding. I, too, am concerned about the erosion of public services and health care, particularly as the population of this fine province ages and we find ourselves in need of increased productivity and labour market participation of younger people as well as older people who want to continue working to help pay for much needed services and supports. In fact, a report sponsored through the former Human Resources Development Canada and the Business Education Council of Niagara has indicated that over 50,000 jobs in the Niagara Region where I live will go unfilled unless something is done to either find skilled people to place into these positions or to import them. All I wanted from this apparent rhetoric is one job: one job that would both accommodate my needs as a person with significant disabilities, as well as pay enough to support my growing family and pay my mortgage. This has been too much to ask, as I wonder how I long I have to fight for that one job, when over the past six or seven years, none has been offered. One can only fight for so long.

I have multiple disabilities, ranging from information processing, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, severe depression, migraines, and much more. I did not ask to be disabled. I did not ask to live in abject poverty, where I am worried about losing my home or finding something to eat on a daily basis. If I could work, I would. But given my disabilities and the fact I do not have a vehicle, my job options are extremely limited. If I knew I would end up like this, I would not have taken on multiple student loans to continue my education to the point where I graduated from university, studying sociology and business, and earlier, legal services at the college level. Instead of accepting a lifetime of disability payments, I tried to work when I could, and, in many cases, I earned high wages. However, in one of my most recent employment attempts, I was severely bullied out of my job … long before talking about workplace bullying was sexy and a topic de jour. I found myself without any supports and I continue to have few supports; at the time, I suffered a complete breakdown. I was pushed into self-employment, which is where I was for the past six or seven years. Although I continue to try to work, I realize it is a reality that I will always need to supplement my income through ODSP. Ms. Pupatello, as a self-employed individual, I was able to work within the narrow framework of activities I am able to do and have developed a significant client base from doing so. People come to me, as opposed to me having to have the resources and funds to own and maintain a vehicle in order to obtain almost any available job in Niagara. Between 1999 and today, I have been a registered service provider for your Ministry’s Employment Supports Program. I also do a limited amount of disability advocacy and paralegal work, when I am able. Between the years of 2002-2004, my income was improved to the point where I only relied on ODSP for a small amount of money and health benefits. My happiness was at its peak during the summer of 2004, when I was able to purchase our own home for the first time and move away from the stressful environment where I was living prior.

However, in December 2004, all service providers in the Niagara Region were informed by email that Employment Supports would be moving to Hamilton effective immediately. Niagara lost its two staff and instead, there are now only four staff responsible for brokering services to the entire expanded Region, which now consists of Hamilton, Brant, Niagara and Haldimand-Norfolk. No reasons were given, other than the fact management felt it would streamline and improve services. After Niagara’s service providers met several times with Ministry officials, including corresponding with a number of Ministry staff, we eventually learned the entire expanded region was only allocated $5 million to it, and that demand exceeded supply. Nobody was going to increase the budget until statistics improved. By the time we learned this, many of the agencies involved have closed their doors, or operated at a substantially reduced level, thereby making it impossible to provide any level of service to do just that. As I am self-employed in an incorporated entity, I had no choice but to turn to ODSP to support me full-time; quite an ironic twist for a program that is intended to put more people with disabilities into the paid workforce or into substantive self-employment. I am not the only one who was forced to go to ODSP or Ontario Works for income support after all referrals were reduced to a mere trickle. I just want to work again. I have skills to offer, but with no work, I am stuck in poverty and despair.

Since this has happened, I have not been very well. I suffer from chronic anxiety, gained over fifty pounds (despite being heavy before), met with or spoke to crisis support workers and met with my physician. In fact, I am returning to my physician again this week to obtain more medications, as the old ones seem to be losing their impact. I cannot meet both my family’s housing expenses and secure nutritious food for all of us in the same month on ODSP, no matter how I juggle the numbers. I am in constant fear of losing my house, which is the only sense of happiness/stability I have now in life. I have no family supports. With my medical problems, which are aggravated by stress, I don’t see where cost savings are achieved in your government’s global budget. Prior to being bullied out of previous secure employment, I did not require medications (which meant your government did not have to cover my drug costs). Now I am seeing my doctor regularly, obtaining mental health
services and taking medications, a cost that I do not believe would be necessary if I were able to be financially secure.

As you are aware, ODSP rates are set at levels appropriate for costs as they were in the early 1990’s, the last time a raise was given to recipients prior to your government’s recent increase in March 2005. A lot has happened in fifteen years. Costs have increased by 40%; yet, people with disabilities are still receiving the same income they received before the 40% inflationary hike. Many recipients I have worked with have become so desperate that they were referred by their family physicians and in some cases, even ODSP staff, to obtain additional funds from your Ministry’s Special Diet program. This is not ‘abuse’ of this program, but should be considered a sign by your Ministry that the support provided to people on benefits is grossly insufficient. Regardless of any new ‘affordable housing’ initiatives developed by your government, the numbers will barely make a dent in the wait lists in most regions. The reality is that most people prefer to live or are forced to live in
market rent conditions. In ‘market conditions’, people can at least live where they want, do what they want in their own home, as well as not be subject to additional complexities of further claw-backs on one’s earnings by way of rent increases as one’s income goes up if they try to work. Other than those living in subsidized housing, everybody else must use a significant portion of their ‘basic needs’ portion of their cheque to cover housing and related costs (e.g. increasing hydro rates). With the so-called ‘special diets’, people were able to eat fresh foods, provide healthy lunches for their children and not worry about making the dire choice of paying rent or eating every month. These are people with disabilities, Minister Pupatello, not people only on assistance for a short term until their next job comes along. I am personally aware of over two hundred people in Niagara who receive this ‘special diet’ and under your new guidelines issued on November 4th, 2005, most will likely lose the entire amount prescribed or be substantially reduced; at least half will end up in a precarious situation with respect to maintaining their homes.

In a recent interview on Ontario Today (November 9, 2005), you agreed essentially with everything I am stating here. To quote you from the program, you said: … on the rates generally, because we have an assigned amount for the shelter allowance -- which for people living in downtown Toronto we know how difficult that is -- where would you find a place if you're single individual on welfare for $380 a month? It's virtually impossible, and it's made life extremely difficult on housing. And, likewise, the amount that's assigned for basic living, is extremely difficult to live on, especially if you are in a larger urban centre. So we know that discussion is ongoing with us. That is a general social policy discussion that needs to happen. I believe that we need to take care of our most vulnerable--- of course, I suspect you would include ODSP’s rates offered for shelter at $427 a month, inclusive of rent, heat and hydro, as also being impossible. These amounts are difficult to
live on anywhere, not just Toronto. The gist of your interview is that you agreed the rates were too low, but you didn’t think this should be resolved through the ‘special diet’. If that is the case, when will we hear that your Ministry will be substantially increasing both shelter and basic needs for ALL recipients?

I dreadfully fear what will happen to approximately half of my clients who are currently one step away from homelessness if they lose this benefit … particularly if the change in ‘special diet’ is not IMMEDIATELY substituted with a substantial raise in benefits for ALL recipients. With mental health clients who are susceptible of using significant health care resources when their security is jeopardized, I feel your Ministry is playing with fire by: (a) not including a significant supplement for them in the ‘special diet’ or increasing the rates significantly now; and (b) by reviewing every one of them, creating significant anxiety as they await the Sword of Damocles to slam upon them. I already had two clients seek psychiatric care as a result of anxieties created by even mention of this change in late October, and another one acted up in such a way to put himself in jail ‘where he is guaranteed to be fed’. I dread the next few months as your Ministry does its reviews. I fear
there will be suicides.

If there are, widespread concern about these issues among the medical, social and legal community will likely bring these events to the public. I would certainly like to believe that a government that has stated its concerns for the vulnerable will not allow these issues to get that far.

I don’t know if you actually read these letters, but I am speaking for a developing group of ODSP recipients that reside in the Niagara Region. At some point, our group would like to meet with you and/or your Parliamentary Assistant Deb Matthews to explain our issues in person. We need to be involved in this dialogue you spoke of on social policy when you were on Ontario Today. You need to hear from people who have been there and can tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Thank you kindly.

Respectfully,

Angela L. Browne

c. c. Peter Kormos, Niagara Centre MPP
Kim Craitor, Niagara Falls MPP
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