Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath says Dalton McGuinty’s refusal to restore the full special diet allowance to a Hamilton resident with debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease is an insult to people who need help affording food for medical reasons.
Today in Question Period, Horwath took direct aim at the drastic cuts the McGuinty Liberals have made to ODSP allowances for medically necessary supplements and special foods. She raised the high-profile case of Hamilton’s George Goodwin, who is severely disabled by Lou Gehrig’s disease, the debilitating illness also known as ALS.
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Goodwin was receiving $250 a month for his life-sustaining, doctor-prescribed supplement, Ensure. Last month, the McGuinty Liberals cut him back to $45 a month, which “robs him of the daily supplement he must have and endangers his frail health,” Horwath said.
Horwath asked the Premier to restore the 80 per cent cut to Goodwin’s allowance rather than putting him through the ordeal of another appeal to the Social Benefits Tribunal. Goodwin appealed once before in 1999 and got his special diet allowance back in a written agreement just prior to arbitration.
“Are you going to force this ailing man back through a stressful arbitration hearing? Or will you agree to restore his special diet allowance here and now and adjust your methods for others whom you’ve cut back?” Horwath demanded in Question Period.
When McGuinty refused to take action, Horwath said: “This exemplifies your callous treatment of the many people like Mr. Goodwin who rely on the special diet allowance for medical reasons. The new application form you are using is flawed. It doesn’t take into account people’s real needs. You’ve used the form as a licence to cut people off.”
Ironically, the Liberals gave Goodwin an award for his outstanding volunteer work with the ALS Society.
“Now they’re depriving him of the supplement that’s keeping him alive,” Horwath said.
“You value his work, but not his life. You sent him a cheque for $75 and told him to buy a blender.”
Goodwin, of Congress Crescent, is the founder of the Canadian ALS March of Faces and sits on the Board of Directors as Vice President of the US-based ALS March of Faces. He is also the creator of an ALS website, www.alsindependence.com. Ensure was prescribed for Goodwin by Dr. Michael Strong, a London neurologist and one of the world’s leading ALS authorities.