Premier Doug Ford noted in a recent speech that he is being driven crazy by people on Ontario Works who are healthy. It further bothers him that they are (apparently) sitting at home.
Here is what he said[1]:
I always say, if someone’s on ODSP, I’ll support them for life…. What drives me crazy is people on Ontario Works — probably three, 400,000 — that are healthy.
The province has “never seen more jobs” available, Ford said.
It really bothers me that we have healthy people sitting at home, collecting your hard-earned dollars. We need to encourage them to contribute back to the province and find gainful employment[3]”
The Barrie Today article is actually very good – providing good rebuttals by caseworkers – who explained the realities of living on $733 a month along with maybe another $100 a month in refundable tax credits.
I want to go a different direction and do a bit of deconstruction.
Who are OW recipients and are they healthy?
Let’s start with a look at the number of adults receiving Ontario Works (OW) who are healthy.
According to the latest Ontario Works statistics from August 2023, there were 238,896 payments made, not the 300,000-400,000 estimated by Mr. Ford.
As it turns out – and here I am using some Toronto figures – 28% of recipients actually report that they are in poor health. I think that number – in reality – may be higher but let’s take it at face value. That reduces the so-called healthy population down to about 172,000, less than half the number Ford estimated.
Even this lower number should make him less ‘crazy’ and ‘bothered’ but perhaps it would not.
Now it might be helpful to learn who these healthy people are.
In Toronto, 2 out every 3 OW recipients are immigrants who may have a harder time accessing the job market and only 1 in 5 of the total are Caucasian.
So the healthy people (people who are not unwell) are largely not from Canada and 4 in 5 are racialized.
Now it’s getting clearer who the people are who drive the Premier ‘crazy’ and those that ‘bother’ him. Doubtless he is aware of these statistics as briefing books for Premiers are quite thorough.
Are OW recipients ‘sitting at home’?
Next, let’s tackle the idea that the people he is talking about are first of all ‘sitting’ and second that they are ‘sitting at home’.
This is something that I have some experience with.
Mr. Ford, what you conceive of as ‘home’ may be different from the homes in which Ontario Works recipients reside. The reality is that in Toronto, the rental cost to share a fairly dingy room with perhaps one or more other people will cost you about $600 at its rock bottom lowest in a part of Scarborough with dodgy public transportation.
The extra $275 a month you have left over from OW and tax credits has to pay for all your food, clothing, personal items, phone and data, and transit.
This means that you are simply not ‘sitting’ anywhere in your shared room for very long. You have to get out of the house basement and navigate a complex web of food banks, meal programs and drop ins.
You are doing a lot of walking and biking because you cannot afford a transit pass and if you are not out of doors most of the time, you are going to miss a lot of meals. So ‘sitting at home’ is just not on.
What about all those jobs?
We now need to turn to all those jobs that the Premier has “never seen more of”.
We could start by asking if the 2 in 3 OW recipients who only have high school or less and the 1 in 2 who have neither Canadian experience nor have the education and skills to secure the available jobs – could actually get these jobs if they applied for them.
The Ontario Works recipients with whom I talk regularly endlessly apply for work because they have to in order to stay eligible. When they do get work, only the first $200 a month does not immediately reduce their OW payments – an amount that has not changed in ten years and is not indexed to inflation or anything else.
But they get turned down for these jobs. For starters, if an employer can’t call you because you can’t afford a smart phone, that’s a problem. And if you can’t get to the workplace because you can’t afford transit, that’s a second problem.
Resenting people who are doing less well
But the part that bothers me and drives me crazy is that element of the human condition that allows those of us who are doing well to resent people who are doing less well. You’d think that people would resent others who are doing better.
I wonder if Mr. Ford ever wonders why he is being driven crazy by people who are living in deep poverty. In many ways those who sit a home collecting are actually collecting almost nothing and they are not in our costly hospitals or on our expensive streets. Why do the people sitting at home – presumably incurring the least in socio-economic costs – bother him the most?
Who knows?
The income floor – and ceiling
But I am now going to surprise readers by noting that I actually agree with Mr. Ford. I am driven crazy and I am bothered by the same situation that bothers him.
I want an income security system for Ontario Works recipients that is generous enough to allow them to live in a decent place and to have food security. I want them to be able to afford a working smartphone and a Transit pass.
I want them to have the supports to get the training or the work that will allow them to join the workforce and I want them to have the health services and supports that will help the unwell onto the road to wellness.
I want them to have earning exemptions on Ontario Works that allow them to earn a bit of money before they get cut off, retain some assets and get ahead.
The current system provides an income that is a floor – below which people are not permitted to fall – but that same floor is designed to be a ceiling above which they cannot rise.
And that drives me crazy – and really bothers me.
Js//October 11, 2023
[1] https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/ford-faces-blowback-over-comments-about-ontario-works-recipients-7195179 and https://youtu.be/FGh0CF-d0pM?t=1925&utm_source=barrietoday.com&utm_campaign=barrietoday.com