For the second consecutive day in Question Period, NDP Finance Critic Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) called for the McGuinty government to implement a tax credit for farmers who donate surplus produce to Ontario’s food banks.

Calling it Ontario’s “canary in a coal mine”, Ontario’s NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said a report on Hamilton poverty contains warnings that the McGuinty government must heed.

The Incomes and Poverty in Hamilton report was issued jointly in Hamilton today by the Social Planning and Research Council and the United Way of Burlington and Greater Hamilton. Horwath is concerned about the reported increase in poverty among children under 6, to 26.4 per cent from 25.2 per cent between 2000 and 2005.

NDP Poverty Critic Michael Prue, MPP for Beaches-East York, today demanded to know why the McGuinty government is limiting the public’s ability to comment on the government’s poverty legislation.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath condemned Dalton McGuinty for suggesting he might put the brakes on the minimum wage increase less than 24 hours after the Ontario budget reaffirmed the government’s 2007 commitment to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 on April 1, 2010.

Ontario’s new payday loan regulations that cap charges at $21 per $100 borrowed is a gift to the payday loan industry, says NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo.

“These restrictions will only affect fringe payday lenders, and won’t change the unfair, usurious interest rates regularly charged by mainstream payday lenders to low-income Ontario workers,” said DiNovo.

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo says the McGuinty Liberals new poverty legislation won’t actually do anything to help Ontarians living in poverty.

“With more Ontarians falling into poverty each and every day, there is nothing in the McGuinty government’s legislation to lessen the burden they face. No plan, no strategy – it’s a bill that’s much ado about nothing,” said DiNovo.