Ontario Poverty Minister Deb Matthews must apologize for paying lip service to people living in poverty, NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo said today.
In recent weeks, Matthews has taken her “lip service” tour across the province to a series of closed-door, by-invitation only anti-poverty meetings that have drawn very few Ontarians who actually live in poverty.
“Deb Matthews and the rest of the McGuinty Liberals are paying lip service to people living in poverty while ignoring the glaring need for real action. The McGuinty government’s so-called poverty consultations are a disgraceful and insincere approach to a tragic situation faced by vulnerable families across Ontario,” said DiNovo.
New Democrats started holding their own province-wide public consultations yesterday to hear first hand from Ontarians living in poverty. More than a hundred people who live on fixed incomes, social assistance and minimum wage packed Toronto’s Native Canadian Centre demanding the McGuinty Liberals take real action to reduce poverty.
“Unlike the McGuinty Liberals private and by-invitation only meetings, no one was kept out and no one was silenced at our consultation. The message was loud and clear, attendees demanded: a living wage of $10.25 now; a substantial raise in social assistance rates; and the construction of at least 7,000 new affordable housing units this year,” DiNovo said.
New Democrats have been on the forefront of standing up for vulnerable families across Ontario, offering a number of meaningful proposals to combat Ontario’s rising poverty rate, including ending the clawback of National Child Benefit Supplement, creating affordable childcare, and restoring real rent control.
“Why are the McGuinty Liberals sentencing vulnerable Ontarians to a life of poverty? Minister Matthews should be ashamed of herself for paying lip service to those vulnerable families instead of helping them. Will she stand up and apologize for her government’s abysmal record or will she listen to those vulnerable families and take real action now?” DiNovo asked.