What is the Social Assistance Review?
A review of Ontario’s social assistance system is being done by a Commission appointed by the provincial government.
The two Commissioners, Frances Lankin and Munir Sheikh, consulted with Ontarians this summer about the issues in its first consultation paper, called “Issues and Ideas”.
The Commission’s Discussion Paper asks questions about some key issues and problems in Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP):
- Reasonable expectations and necessary supports to employment
- How to create an appropriate benefit structure
- Making the system easier to understand
- Making the system viable over the long term
- An integrated Ontario position on income security
These are the issues that the government asked the Commission to look at.
The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) responded to the Commission’s first discussion paper in three ways:
Here is our submission to the Commission,
here is our analysis of the consultation paper, and
here is our vision for Social Assistance Reform.
In addition, ISAC partnered with the ODSP Action Coalition and the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario to create a workshop facilitator’s guide for advocates to use to hold discussions with people on social assistance.
Here is the workshop facilitator’s guide, and
here are submissions sent to the Commission based on workshops held using the facilitator’s guide.
The ODSP Action Coalition made two submissions to the Commission, which can be viewed here and here.
The review of social assistance is part of the commitment made by all parties in the legislature when they unanimously approved Bill 152, the Poverty Reduction Act, in May 2009.
As part of the 2008 Poverty Reduction Strategy, the provincial government committed to do a review of social assistance in Ontario. In 2009, the Poverty Reduction Act was passed, and the government appointed an advisory council to give ideas on how a review would work. In 2010, the Commission was appointed.
The Commission’s first round of formal consultations ended September 1. The feedback will be reviewed and used to prepare another report that will outline various options for making progress on these issues. That report will come out in the fall, with consultation to follow.
Once the second round of consultation is complete and all the feedback is in, the Commission is supposed to release a final set of recommendations for how to change OW and ODSP by July 2012.
Go to the Commission’s Social Assistance Review website by clicking here.
Read more on the provincial government’s website here.
