Interfaith group criticizes Ont.'s poverty record

from CTV

Ontario's government is facing criticism for its treatment of poor residents in a report being released by an interfaith group on Wednesday.

The Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition (ISARC) is releasing a report entitled, "Lives Still in the Balance." In their report, the coalition says the government's record "could only be described as disappointing," The Globe and Mail said.

The report says Ontario's government "has not fulfilled expectations" that it would help the province's poorest citizens.

The ISARC was formed in 1986 when Ontario's former Liberal government started a review of social assistance. To help, the government went looking for input from religious groups.

On their website, the ISARC says it sees "a vast gulf between the values which motivate it and the attitudes and policies regarding low-income people in Ontario during the past few years."

Wednesday's report says welfare rates were raised by five per cent, but that is not enough to make up for a decade when rates were frozen, The Globe said.

The report also notes that the recent minimum wage hike to $8 an hour is not enough to end poverty for tens of thousands of workers, especially considering that the rate was also frozen for a decade.

The coalition also claims that government has built - or is building - only 6,724 of the 20,000 affordable housing units it pledged to build.