{"id":535,"date":"2018-11-23T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T21:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/?p=535"},"modified":"2018-11-30T17:22:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T17:22:53","slug":"ford-governments-social-assistance-cuts-impact-food-security-critics-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/2018\/11\/23\/ford-governments-social-assistance-cuts-impact-food-security-critics-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford government\u2019s social assistance cuts impact food security, critics say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.47&#8243;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.48&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.47&#8243; parallax=&#8221;off&#8221; parallax_method=&#8221;on&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;3.17.6&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Georgia Andromidas | Nov. 23, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Welfare recipients\u2019 food security is on the line after the Ontario government announced cuts to social assistance payments.<\/p>\n<p>The cuts, announced Thursday, will halve welfare increases from three per cent to one-and-a-half per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Rachael Wilson, director of communications and development at the Ottawa Food Bank, said that the changes are going to \u201cdramatically affect the people who use the food bank.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson said that nearly two thirds of the food bank\u2019s users rely on welfare. \u201cWe never exactly know how it will affect the numbers, but [the cuts] certainly won\u2019t help,\u201d said Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>The changes come at a time when food prices are rising.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=&#8221;3.17.6&#8243; custom_margin=&#8221;||50px&#8221;]<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"575\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"overflow-y:hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/create.piktochart.com\/embed\/34520176-rising-food-prices\" ><\/iframe>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;3.17.6&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>On average, groceries in Ontario have become three per cent more expensive over the past twelve months, according to Statistics Canada\u2019s Consumer Price Index. It\u2019s the largest provincial food increase in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Welfare payments have accounted for roughly $10 billion of the Ontario annual budget. Nearly 80 per cent of recipients who get off of social assistance are back on the government support system within a year.<\/p>\n<p>Casey Pender, a doctoral candidate in economics at Carleton University, said that though the Conservative government\u2019s plan increases welfare payments, it fails to keep pace with a rising cost of food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the [food index] growth rate is three per cent, then I would say the Liberal welfare rate of three per cent would\u2019ve been a good rate, because it would\u2019ve kept pace,\u201d said Pender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want to pick a level of welfare that can be held through new patterns of prices,\u201d she said.<br \/> \u201cIf prices are rising, which generally they do a couple per cent a year, then welfare checks should go up a couple per cent a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt all comes down to what other prices are doing, before you really say whether this comes as warranted or not.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=&#8221;https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TWEET-2.png&#8221; align=&#8221;center&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;3.17.6&#8243;][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.47&#8243;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.48&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.47&#8243; parallax=&#8221;off&#8221; parallax_method=&#8221;on&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;3.17.6&#8243;] Georgia Andromidas | Nov. 23, 2018 Welfare recipients\u2019 food security is on the line after the Ontario government announced cuts to social assistance payments. The cuts, announced Thursday, will halve welfare increases from three per cent to one-and-a-half per cent. Rachael Wilson, director [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}