By Alain Brouard
A recent audit of Ontario Works in Toronto concludes that it would cost $133 million to provide enough licensed day care spaces in Toronto to allow welfare recipients to return to the workforce. The report also shows it is inconceivable that the Ontario Works program could succeed in the long term with inadequate access to child care.
This report is another blow to the 'flagship' program of the Tories. When pressed in mid-August to substantiate his claims that the work-for-welfare program was a success, Social Services minister, John Baird, was incapable of providing more than the odd anecdotal testimonials from individuals.
When it was later revealed that only 5 percent of those currently on welfare perform mandatory worker jobs, Mike Harris himself had to admit that worker was 'a bit of a disappointment'.
He had, after all, promised that all able bodied recipients would work or receive training for their cheque. His answer was to blame church leaders, social agencies and municipalities for 'not being part of the solution'.
In a desperate attempt to save face, the Tories now want welfare recipients to pick farm crops.
Unfortunately for the Tories, it seems that farmers aren't too hot on the idea. In fact they find it comedic.
Does Mike Harris really think that just anybody can put up with 10-hour days spent picking fruits and vegetables in all kinds of weather, and know which are ripe and which aren't?
The evidence is becoming overwhelming that the much-ballyhooed program is a fraud.
Many welfare recipients are single mothers who need day-care to enable them to work outside the home. But as the KPMG study revealed, there just aren't enough day-care spaces available to accommodate them all. Many social agencies aren't able to accept welfare recipients as staff employees since they lack the resources required for administration and supervision.
This corroborates what critics have said from the start -- worker is not about giving people a 'hand-up' but about punishing the poor. At best, programs like Ontario Works simply push people out of the system and into worse poverty because of draconian eligibility requirements, or into poorly paying, marginal and temporary jobs that do not provide a route out of poverty.
The Tories are vulnerable on this issue. We must keep the pressure not only on the government, but also on agencies and businesses that may be tempted to take on worker participants.
On Monday October 25 at 4pm. anti-poverty activists will gather at Toronto's Central YMCA, 52 Charles St., to present petitions with hundreds of signatures demanding that the Y pull out of worker.
The Out of Worker Coalition will meet on Tuesday October 26 at 6pm at the Metro Network for Social Justice, 2 Carlton St., Suite 1001. The coalition is building other strategies to press the government to stop worker.