Cuts, freezes and omissions in the provincial budget have local social services and First Nations organizations nervous.
A plan in the Ontario 2012 budget to freeze welfare rates is going to make day-to-day living for the city’s poor that much more difficult, said Lakehead Social Planning Council director Marie Klassen.
“This government is truly taking advantage of those who cannot speak for themselves and are struggling as it is,” she said Thursday as more than 80 people came through the doors of her office for a free tax-return clinic.
“We know that the impact on this population is going to be critical.”
By not at least matching the payments with inflation, the freeze is actually a cut to low-income people in the city, which Klassen figures is more than 12 per cent of the population.
There will also be a cap on discretionary benefits for things like glasses and dental care, which will save the province an estimated $14 million this year.
Klassen wants to know if the province was serious when it made a commitment to poverty reduction starting in 2008.
“Where has this commitment gone? Is it still there? Does it exist?”
Cuts and freezes also hurt the province’s First Nations Nishnawbe Aski Nation deputy chief Terry Waboose said. Although he understands the province faces a tough economic climate, it will be tougher for a lot of people in NAN’s 49 communities.
“When there’s restraint and when there’s cutbacks it’s often the First Nations that suffer because we’re marginalized. We tend to be at the lower end of the economic scale,” he said. “Those are the people who suffer first and that’s my concern.”
Education is also a concern for Waboose.
Although the province has said it wasn’t to be a partner with the federal government and First Nations, it will only do so if the federal government foots the bill.
“There has to be some investment on their part,” he said. “They need to start looking at making their own investment in First Nations education and also training, they can’t just say that we’re a federal responsibility.”
