The Opposition Speaks (but what are they talking about?)
Reading the Hansard, it seems that the NDP have been talking about the child support clawback for a very long time.
Catherine Fife MPP (NDP)
April 12, 2016: There was a miserable 1.5% increase in social assistance rates. There's this promise out there that this government is going stop clawing back the $40 child support payments that come into those families. It's really incredible, when you think about it, that this government can't collect on the road maintenance fees and fines that they themselves have doled out through the Ministry of Transportation, to the tune of $49 million-they can't collect those fines, but they can dip their hand into the purse of a young mother on social assistance and claw back $40 because the spouse finally anted up for some money for that family. I mean, the juxtaposition is incredible around the priorities of this government. When you compare the rhetoric and the reality, the great divide, it's like the twilight zone.
March 3, 2016: It does amaze me, Mr. Speaker, that this government can't collect MTO fines that they levied, but they can claw back social assistance from the poorest families in the province of Ontario.
March 2, 2016: Just before the member got up to say his statement, the Minister of Community and Social Services talked about how this government is going to be addressing the clawback on social assistance. This is a long-standing issue-$280 a month, Mr. Speaker. So if a parent actually pays child support to a single mother who has children, the government finds a way to claw back that money, thus keeping those very women and children in a constant state of poverty. This is a long-standing issue, and yet the government has said that they're going to have to take a whole other year-April 2017. They're going to take a whole other year to decide that stealing from children and mothers who are on social assistance is something that they just cannot tolerate anymore.
This is where the disconnect on public consultation actually happens with this government. We've travelled around this province. If this government was listening, if the finance minister or the Premier was listening to the people of this province, this budget would look so different, Mr. Speaker, because they wouldn't need another year to decide that clawing back $280 from the most vulnerable, poorest people in the province of Ontario is something that they have to take another year to look at.
Howard Hampton, MPP, Party Leader (NDP)
May 19, 2005: Mr. Hampton: Here's the reality for somebody who's disabled and trying to live on your Ontario disability support program. If you factor in the cost of inflation with the cuts to their income, they are now 37% behind, and you promised that you were going to increase their benefits according to the cost of living.
But there's another gap, the gap between how much disabled parents are supposed to receive from the national child benefit supplement and how much you actually let them keep. A disabled parent with two children should receive an additional $2,800 a year from the federal government to help her or him look after their kids. Instead, the best they can hope for is $280 a year, because you claw back the rest of that $2,800. Before the election, you said you were going to end the clawback; you said you were going to stop taking money from the lowest-income kids in Ontario. In your budget you didn't do that. What happened to your promise to the lowest-income kids in Ontario, Premier?
Catherine Fife MPP (NDP)
April 12, 2016: There was a miserable 1.5% increase in social assistance rates. There's this promise out there that this government is going stop clawing back the $40 child support payments that come into those families. It's really incredible, when you think about it, that this government can't collect on the road maintenance fees and fines that they themselves have doled out through the Ministry of Transportation, to the tune of $49 million-they can't collect those fines, but they can dip their hand into the purse of a young mother on social assistance and claw back $40 because the spouse finally anted up for some money for that family. I mean, the juxtaposition is incredible around the priorities of this government. When you compare the rhetoric and the reality, the great divide, it's like the twilight zone.
March 9, 2016: Meanwhile, in this budget it says you're going to review the clawback of social assistance. We welcome that clawback change. The minister said she's going to take a whole year to consult on something that she's already admitted is wrong: taking $280 away from the poorest, most marginalized women in the province of Ontario and taking a whole year to study it. Meanwhile, you can sell off Hydro One in 10 months. The disconnect is mind-boggling. How can this government figure out a way to claw back $40 or $50 from the poorest women in the province of Ontario and their children-talking out of one side of their mouth about poverty reduction-and then fail to actually do their due diligence around the privatization of road maintenance in the province of Ontario?@CFifeKW, guest speaker at @wrlcprez IWD luncheon. Clawback of child support for women who are on social assistance has to stop!— Sherry Freund (@SherryFreund) March 5, 2016
March 3, 2016: It does amaze me, Mr. Speaker, that this government can't collect MTO fines that they levied, but they can claw back social assistance from the poorest families in the province of Ontario.
March 2, 2016: Just before the member got up to say his statement, the Minister of Community and Social Services talked about how this government is going to be addressing the clawback on social assistance. This is a long-standing issue-$280 a month, Mr. Speaker. So if a parent actually pays child support to a single mother who has children, the government finds a way to claw back that money, thus keeping those very women and children in a constant state of poverty. This is a long-standing issue, and yet the government has said that they're going to have to take a whole other year-April 2017. They're going to take a whole other year to decide that stealing from children and mothers who are on social assistance is something that they just cannot tolerate anymore.
This is where the disconnect on public consultation actually happens with this government. We've travelled around this province. If this government was listening, if the finance minister or the Premier was listening to the people of this province, this budget would look so different, Mr. Speaker, because they wouldn't need another year to decide that clawing back $280 from the most vulnerable, poorest people in the province of Ontario is something that they have to take another year to look at.
Howard Hampton, MPP, Party Leader (NDP)
May 19, 2005: Mr. Hampton: Here's the reality for somebody who's disabled and trying to live on your Ontario disability support program. If you factor in the cost of inflation with the cuts to their income, they are now 37% behind, and you promised that you were going to increase their benefits according to the cost of living.
But there's another gap, the gap between how much disabled parents are supposed to receive from the national child benefit supplement and how much you actually let them keep. A disabled parent with two children should receive an additional $2,800 a year from the federal government to help her or him look after their kids. Instead, the best they can hope for is $280 a year, because you claw back the rest of that $2,800. Before the election, you said you were going to end the clawback; you said you were going to stop taking money from the lowest-income kids in Ontario. In your budget you didn't do that. What happened to your promise to the lowest-income kids in Ontario, Premier?
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