Perception and reality

Linda McQuaig unloads on Dalton McGuinty for raking in federal money at the expense of Ontario's poorest citizens:

McGuinty hasn't even allowed the extremely low welfare rates set by Harris to rise with inflation. As a result, the buying power of the poor — if you want to call it that — has declined significantly.

Here's how truly mean-spirited the McGuinty government is: It effectively intercepts federal child benefit cheques that are sent to Ontario welfare recipients. It does this by “clawing back” the value of the cheque from the recipient's welfare payment.

This clawback deprives the single mother and her two children of $2,700 a year — an amount that would make a significant difference in their struggling lives.

In the budget, the government proudly announced that it won't “claw back” recent increases in the federal child benefit. But the government has no business taking any part of this federal benefit, which would otherwise go to the poorest children in the province. So it's absurd for McGuinty to pat himself on the back for letting the poor keep a portion of it.

As on the federal scene, the only difference between Con and Lib government for Ontario's poor is that the Libs claim to care while continuing to cut their effective benefits. But that fact doesn't go a long way in paying for the necessities which are sliding further and further out of reach due to reduced purchasing power. And if McQuaig's message (particularly that relating to McGuinty's broken promise) is able to resonate heading into the next provincial election, it may not be long before a party which is interested in actually improving matters, rather than merely claiming to have improved them, gets the chance to do so.