Ninety advocates from communities north, south, east and west across Ontario, about half people living on low incomes, convened in Hamilton on Friday, December 4 to mark the first anniversary of the Ontario Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.
While all assembled were pleased that the Government had made a commitment to reducing children’s poverty by 25% in five years, they strongly urged the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan to create a poverty-free Ontario.
The focus of the day was on the Put Food in the Budget Campaign, advocating for the introduction of a $100 a month Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports program. Jointly sponsored by 25 in 5 Hamilton, the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) and The Stop Community Food Centre, the day-long session combined a series of public statements by anti-poverty activists with lived experience of poverty and their supporters with an afternoon of strategy discussion on the next steps in the PFIB campaign. (Video clips of the speakers to be posted soon).
