Thursday 29 September 2011

Responses to Social Assistance Questionnaire: Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN)

The Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) sent a 5 item questionnaire to candidates about reforming social assistance.  The answers of the five Niagara candidates who responded can be viewed at:

http://www.povertyfreeontario.ca/pdf/Niagara-Region-Provincial-Candidates-Polled-on-Poverty-and-Social-Justice-Responses-in-Chart.pdf

and the news release from Poverty Free Ontario is available at:

http://www.povertyfreeontario.ca/2011/09/29/niagara-region-provincial-candidates-polled-on-poverty-and-social-justice-issues/

Here are the answers of the Communist Party candidate in St. Catharines, Saleh Waziruddin:


1.
The Commission to Review Ontario Social Assistance is now underway. Commissioner Frances Lankin has stated that the system, which serves over 800000 Ontarians, needs more than "tinkering", it needs a major overhaul. What specific changes would you recommend to the Commission regarding the current social assistance system to ensure the system is improved?

ANSWER:

Specific changes to the current social assistance system I recommend are:

i) immediately double rates across the board and eliminate clawbacks
ii) introduce an inflation-indexed Guaranteed Annual Income above the poverty line
iii) construct 200,000 units of social housing over 5 years
iv) increase funding for shelters and transitional housing
v) restore the Special Diet Allowance (but this is not enough, items i and ii are needed)
vi) increase EI to cover 90% of previous earning for the duration of unemployment, including first-time job seekers (Guaranteed Annual Income) with a minimum wage of $19/hour
vii) public child care with $7/day fees
viii) public dental, vision, pharma, and long-term care as well as 100% funded 100% public health care including mental health care
ix) upload welfare, housing, education, health care, and public transit costs to levels of government which can tax corporations enjoying record profits so they pay their fair share
x) increase federal funding for public transit and reduce fares



2. 
he Low Income Cut Off lines used by our Federal Government and Statistics Canada report that a single person is living below the poverty line when their annual income is below $13000. A single adult receiving Ontario Works receives $598/month, which is only $7176 per year – far below the poverty line. Over 40 Ontario MPPs have "Done the Math" and agree that the rates are too low and inadequate. Do you feel current social assistance rates are adequate and acceptable? If not, how should the rates be set? Would you support adding an immediate $100 healthy food supplement to social assistance rates?


ANSWER:
Current social assistance rates are neither adequate nor acceptable.  The $100 healthy food supplement is an unacceptable substitute for the Special Diet Allowance which should be restored, the Communist Party opposed and continues to oppose its elimination.  However even the Special Diet Allowance is not enough to address hunger and starvation, which is why the Communist Party calls for doubling the rates and providing a Guaranteed Annual Income above the poverty line indexed to inflation.


3.
In 2009 all Ontario parties supported Bill 152, An Act respecting a long-term strategy to reduce poverty in Ontario. The current strategy has a goal of reducing child poverty by 25% in five years.How would you build on the current strategy and what goal and policies would you and your party set for the next five years in order to ensure all people living in poverty are included?


ANSWER:
The Communist Party goals and policies are to double the rates and then institute a Guaranteed Annual Income above the poverty line indexed to inflation, anything less does not solve the problem that the rates are starvation rates.  With regards to "Breaking the Cycle: Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy",
i) the rent banks are in fact a public subsidy to landlords and should be replaced by rent roll-backs and effective rent control legislation with enforcement such that no one pays more than 25% of their income for housing.
ii) with regards to the education section of the strategy, the Communist Party calls for eliminating post-secondary tuition fees, something which even many capitalist countries have done such as Germany and Brazil
iii) the Rapid Re-employment Training Service is only of limited value if there is increasing unemployment and the jobs that are available don't provide an adequate income.  Plant closing legislation including public tribunals with enforcement powers to review plant closings and nationalize profitable plants that would otherwise be closed can help prevent the hemorrhage of jobs.  We call for extending EI to cover the duration of unemployment, provide 90% of previous earning, and to cover first time job seekers (paid a Guaranteed Annual Income).

4.
.Low income adults (either working poor or receiving social assistance) do not have access to preventive dental services. Poor oral health is a detriment to overall physical and mental health, as well as a barrier to employment and social inclusion. We need to put the mouth back into the body. Will your party commit to extending preventive dental coverage to all low income Ontario adults within the next 12 months?


ANSWER: 
We do commit to extending preventive dental coverage to all low income Ontario adults within the next 12 months, but also call for expanding public health care to dental, vision, pharma, and long-term care as fully funded, fully comprehensive, and fully public.  Private dental insurance is neither equitable not adequate because of co-pays and payment limits per tooth.


5.
Approximately 12.4 percent of Canadian households live in housing that requires major repairs, is overcrowded, and/or costs more than 30 percent of household income. Moreover, an estimated 300,000 people are living without homes in Canada. Locally, the Niagara Region Housing Authority has 5, 381 households with 9,800 people on a waiting list for subsidized housing. Having a safe and affordable place to live can be a stepping stone out of poverty. Does your Party support a fully-funded national housing strategy that respects provincial jurisdictions, as well as support to maintain existing federal subsidies for social housing units? Would you support a housing benefit for low income Ontarians? If so, what would it entail?


ANSWER:
The Communist Party supports a fully-funded Canada-wide housing strategy with the federal and provincial governments building and providing public and social housing and having housing uploaded to them.  We don't believe provinces should be allowed to go without social housing as was done under Harris.  In Ontario we call for a minimum of 200,000 social housing units built in the next 5 years and another 200,000 after.  Rather than a housing benefit, which is effectively a public subsidy to landlords, we believe housing should be treated as a public utility that affordably and equitably allows everyone to live in dignity which is something the market has not and will not provide.  We are opposed to federal and provincial governments allowing landlords to speculate and profiteer from working people and call for rent roll-backs and rent control such that rent does not exceed 25% of income.

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