Wednesday May 5, 2010
Statement to the Legislature
The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of Children and Youth Services
First Anniversary of the Passage of the
Poverty Reduction Act, 2009 (May 6)
Mr. Speaker:
I am pleased to rise today to recognize a very important anniversary for this province.
On May 6, 2009 – one year ago tomorrow – Ontario’s historic Poverty Reduction Act was passed unanimously by all parties in this Legislature. This Act marked a major step forward in our fight against poverty. It enshrined in law that poverty reduction will be a priority not only for our government, but for all successive Ontario governments.
Because, Mr. Speaker, poverty reduction is the right thing to do – as a moral imperative. And it is the right thing to do for our economy.
In 2007, Premier McGuinty made a commitment to introduce poverty reduction targets and a plan to achieve them.
He had a vision… a vision of a province where every person, man or woman, child or adult, had the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential…a vision for an Ontario where single mothers have the supports to go to work and not have to worry about what their child will eat for lunch.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier established a Cabinet committee on poverty reduction.
I am pleased to lead this important work today.
We consulted with community groups from across the province, advocates, academics and, most importantly, people living in poverty.
We listened. We learned.
Their feedback contributed to the Poverty Reduction Strategy we launched in December 2008 and called Breaking the Cycle, because only by breaking the cycle of poverty can we prevent the next generations from falling into it, over and over again.
Mr. Speaker, we decided to focus first on children and youth, supporting them, especially the most vulnerable, in getting the education and opportunities they deserve in order to leave poverty behind for good.
We set a clear, achievable and measurable target to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over five years. That is 90,000 kids.
In the first year of the poverty reduction strategy, our government has taken some other key steps to help low-income families build brighter futures for themselves and their children.
Poverty has traditionally only been measured by income. However, we established eight poverty indicators. They are: the Ontario Deprivation Index, birth weight, school readiness, high school graduation rates, educational progress, depth of poverty, the Ontario Housing Measure, and Statistic Canada’s low-income measure.
We have accelerated the increase to the Ontario Child Benefit, to provide low-income families with up to $1,100 per child annually a full two years ahead of schedule.
This, along with other increases, means a single mother of two young kids on social assistance has an income today that is 42 per cent higher than when we took office in 2003.
And we have moved ahead with full-day learning for four- and five-years olds, starting with the enrolment of up to 35,000 kids this coming September.
We also believe that a critical part of poverty reduction is to ensure that low-income working parents continue to have access to affordable, high-quality child care so they can go back to work or school. To ensure this, our recent budget invested $63.5 million per year for child care to permanently fill the funding gap left by the federal government. This investment will save about 8,500 child care spaces across the province.
Mr. Speaker, our government recognizes that poverty affects adults, as well as children and youth. That is why we increased Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. And we have introduced social assistance rule changes that reduce barriers and increase opportunities.
We have also established a Social Assistance Review Advisory Council that will be recommending the scope for a broader review of social assistance.
Another key part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy, Mr. Speaker, is a new Affordable Housing Strategy.
And we have introduced a comprehensive package of tax reforms that mean Ontarians with modest incomes will pay the lowest provincial income tax rate in Canada and 90,000 low-income Ontarians will no longer have to pay any personal income tax.
As well, just last month, our government increased the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour. That means a person working full-time will make an extra $120 per month.
We are proud of what we have accomplished in the first year of our Poverty Reduction Strategy, Mr. Speaker, but we have so much more to do.
I know that by continuing to work together with all of our partners, we will continue to make a real difference by reducing poverty, improving lives and contributing to a prosperous Ontario for everyone.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
