| Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register,
|
Views : 358  |
 TORONTO - Churches and advocates for the poor are not pleased with Premier Dalton McGuinty's warning that Ontario may have to go slow on its promise to reduce poverty because of the meltdown on Wall Street.
"It seems like every time we have this kind of thing go on the faith communities get saddled with the charity and providing survival mechanisms for people," said Brice Balmer, co-ordinator of the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition . "It's time for the government to step up, whether we're in good times or bad times."
McGuinty told reporters Sept. 24 that he wasn't backing down on his election commitment to institute a poverty reduction strategy which includes objective measures of poverty, targets and a timetable for reduction.
"The issue is not whether we go ahead with this strategy. It's how quickly we move ahead on our strategy," said McGuinty.
But going slow on an immediate, urgent and persistent problem just won't work, said the 25 in 5 Coalition of more than 100 social agencies, churches and individuals. The group is lobbying the government to reduce poverty by 25 per cent over the next five years and 50 per cent over a 10-year period.
"We can't afford to delay implementation of a plan," said 25 in 5 spokesperson Jacquie Maun of Ontario Campaign 2000.
Balmer argues that putting money in the hands of poor people and funding programs that help them get meaningful jobs is good economic policy in the face of a recession.
"Spending money on poverty reduction means that money stays in Ontario," he said.
"We must support Ontario families through job losses, reductions in hours of work and other stresses," said Social Planning Network of Ontario chair Janet Gasparini in a 25 in 5 press release. "We can pay now or we can pay later with increased health care, criminal justice and social service costs."
McGuinty argued Ontario could more easily afford a robust poverty reduction strategy if not for $20 billion a year in taxes Ontario sends to Ottawa and never sees again in programs or services.
"ISARC would stand with McGuinty in terms of the federal government has downloaded a whole lot of stuff," said Balmer.
More federal government action on affordable housing and improvement of the Employment Insurance structure would certainly make the province's job easier when it comes to poverty reduction, Balmer said.
ISARC, a coalition that has both Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops' support and participation by Catholic agencies across the province, will be sending word out to pastors, priests, rabbis and imams asking them to remind their congregation of the poor around Thanksgiving Day, Oct. 13. Religious leaders shouldn't be afraid to take on politicians or appear political in the eyes of their congregations, said Balmer.
"We need to be advocates. We can't just be helping people survive," he said.
Recommend this article... |
Michael Swan, The Catholic Register |
| About the author: |
| Michael Swan is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register. He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.
|
|
|
Users' Comments  |
|
Average user rating
 (0 vote)
|
|
|
