Ontario Provincial Budget Confirms Cuts to Childcare Subsidies for Low Income Families

by Carolina Crewe
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

The failure to allocate money for childcare in the March 26 Ontario provincial budget will have a grave impact on single mothers and working class families in Toronto.

The onset of job losses and a looming depression has created a situation where adults will be returning to school for retraining, signalling a need to increase the amount of subsidized childcare spaces. As a poverty reduction strategy, childcare and early childhood education is an investment that governments cannot afford to ignore. Currently, children who are waitlisted for subsidy spaces number more than 14,000. With numbers this high, the Ontario provincial government is gambling with the well-being of families by foreshadowing cuts rather than growth for the subsidy program. The McGuinty-led government is employing a "pass the buck" strategy by opting to lobby the federal government to top up the subsidy funding, which expired in March 2009. Some 6,000 childcare spaces, currently in use, are slated to be permanently cut in Toronto, as well as 16,000 more spaces across the province.

Most of these spaces were created with federal government-transferred money in 2003, as part of a "Best Start" plan for early learning, childcare and family support programs.

Most affected are families in low-income neighbourhoods whose centres have more subsidized spaces. For example, in Davenport-Perth, 35% of families are living below the poverty line (more than the Toronto average of 32.2%), with 25% of families having lone parents. In the 12 licensed childcare centres in this neighbourhood, 53% of all operating licensed spaces have been subsidized. At least two of the centres in this neighbourhood operate almost exclusively on subsidized spaces at 85% and 92% respectively. Cumulative measures to reduce the numbers of families receiving and eligible for subsidies have already been implemented to achieve the slated cuts, including the introduction of an “Absentee Policy”. This policy penalizes subsidized families, even for keeping their children out when they show symptoms of illness, allowing only 2 sick days per month (even for infants) and a measly one-week vacation over the entire year. Failure to meet the requirements of this Absentee Policy means parents lose subsidized spaces for ALL of their children.

As a mass of families currently accessing subsidized spaces are forced out of childcare centres, low income neighbourhoods will lack parents to pay the full daycare fee to maintain enrolments, resulting in centre closures. In adjacent communities such as Toronto Centre-Rosedale, where the number of families with children living in poverty is at 60%, the fallout from these cuts will be even more devastating. According to the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare, professional Early Childhood Education staff - already drastically under-paid - will lose their jobs, while centres will significantly reduce their capacity or close down altogether. Given the Harper government's record failure to provide funding for childcare, merely throwing in chump change for children under six, it is unlikely they will step in to reverse the cuts.

At a time when Canadian banks and big businesses are getting bailouts in the hundreds of billions by the Canadian government, these anti-childcare policies of the provincial and federal governments are just another example how working people – especially low-income families and single mothers – are the first to be victimized and the last to be considered in times of crisis.

All children in our communities deserve access to early learning childcare programs and family support. We need to plan together in our communities to fight the coming barrage of policies that will cut families' access to childcare. Refusal to accept these policies will show the province and the federal government that Ontarians cannot work or access education without adequately funded and equitable childcare.









These Cabbagetown kids are wondering why McGuinty’s budget is going to leave them and their friends without subsidized childcare spaces.

Ontario Gov’t Gives $10 Million to Kellogg's

Basics Editorial

Dalton McGuinty must have been eating his 'Wheaties' this past month, as his government decided to give $9.7-million to Kellogg's for their new plant in the Quinte region, which will produce ‘Mini-Wheats’ cereal. The amount represents 10% of the costs of the $97-million plant, which began construction in October 2006.

Kellogg's is far from your small business operation that needs government money in order to keep going. The company is on the New York Stock exchange and had Revenues of $10.906 Billion in 2006.

This isn't the first time that McGuinty has engaged in corporate welfarism. In 2007 McGuinty gave Ford Motor Company of Canada $55,061,011, despite Ford’s cutting of shifts in St. Thomas. McGuinty also loaned $29,096,192 to General Motors (GM) of Canada while they cut shifts in Oshawa. The chocolate maker Ferrero Rocher, received a $5.5 million interest free loan, while other firms like car parts manufacturer MAGNA received millions of dollars, while the big bosses took home millions in their own pockets.

McGuinty says that this blatant subsidizing of the rich is to improve the province's manufacturing industry, which has been decimated since the Conservatives and the Liberals signed Canada into and implemented the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the early 1990's.

McGuinty does this with no acknowledgement of two facts: 1 - the Liberals are hypocrits for giving millions to millionaires, while denying people on social assistance any meaningful increases; and 2 - manufacturing jobs will only be brought back through public investments that generate jobs and revenue for the people. Our tax dollars should be used to build things that we need, including factories that are owned by the people and not some rich jokers.

Gov’t Starts to Return Park

Return of Ipperwash, stolen from First Nations for WWII army base, starts 12 years after the police murder of Dudley George.

The provincial government announced on December 20 that they will start to return Ipperwash Provincial Park to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stoney Point First Nations. The park was the site of the Ipperwash crisis that culminated in the police murder of First Nations activist Dudley George.

The First Nations have been struggling for decades to see the return of their ancestral lands that include a sacred burial ground.

In 1942, the government used the War Measures Act to steal the land from the First Nations and turn it into a military base to train soldiers before they went off to fight in Europe. The government promised to return the land when no longer needed for military purposes.
In 1995, after years of pressuring the government, the First Nations moved to reclaim their stolen land. 35 First Nations people moved on to the park, at the time lying unused as it had been abandoned by the military.

The provincial government responded with violence, sending in the riot squad backed by a heavily armed Tactical Response Unit to evict the unarmed First Nations. The police opened fire, wounding two and killing Dudley George. (The officer who killed George with a sniper rifle was convicted of criminal negligence but received only two years of community service. The OPP gave him an estimated payoff of one million dollars and a lucrative job in the private sector.)

The George family welcomed the announcement. “I think he would be pleased. He paid the ultimate price and is not here to enjoy,” said his brother Sam at a recent press conference.
While the announcement is a good first start, it does not immediately return the land to the First Nations. For now the park will be “co-managed” by a joint committee of representatives from the government and the Chippewas of Kettle and Stoney Point First Nations, in consultation with “community members”. No mention was made on who’s wishes would come first in case of disagreement, or exactly when full control would be passed over - only that it would be “a matter of time”.

People of all nations in Canada must keep a close watch on the government of Ontario to demand that they do not cheat the First Nations yet again. 66 years is long enough! Give the land back!

The Great Employment Insurance Rip-Off

EI surplus stands at $54 billion while most workers can’t collect from program they paid for.

by J.D. Benjamin

The history and purpose of Employment Insurance is pretty straight forward. After decades of struggle and frequently violent opposition by the government, workers won a major concession - a federal insurance program that would support workers when they were out of work.

Over the last 40 years, the EI program has been gradually clawed back. Starting in 1994 with the Liberals and continuing with the Conservatives, the government turned EI into a scam to rip workers off for $2 billion on average per year. Last year, the government collected $16.8 billion in contributions but only handed out $14.1 billion to jobless workers. Overall, the EI surplus has ballooned to $54 billion.

The government uses two main tactics to keep the money pouring in:

The first is to make sure most workers can not use the program in the first place. 78 percent of workers in Toronto who lose their jobs do not qualify for EI. Temp workers, part timers, anyone who worked less than 665 hours in the previous year can not collect, no matter how much they may have paid into the program. This comes down hardest on the workers who need the program the most - single moms, new immigrants, youth, or other workers who can’t find stable, full time jobs.

The second tactic is to make the program as useless as possible for those few workers that do qualify. The program only covers 55% of previous wages - starvation levels for workers who were low waged to begin with - with an maximum payment of $423 a week.

The first EI payment also takes six weeks to be issued - potentially two rent payments missed, eviction and homelessness. Anyone who access Ontario Works while they wait for EI to kick in will find the money taken off their next EI cheque, usually leaving them with only $30. This puts them right back where they started - having to choose between paying the rent or feeding the kids.

The program does not actually cover workers until they find a new job - once your time limit is up, you’re cut off, even if they have paid more into the system than they have taken out.
So were has all this extra money gone? The additional outrage is that there is no government account with $54 billion dollars in it, just waiting to be used for the benefit of the working class. Instead, the money has been dumped into the federal government’s general revenue, to be spent on whatever the feds want. Chretien and Martin spent it on debt repayment, while Harper spent it on the military and occupying Afghanistan.

In other words, when (not if) the economy goes bust and large numbers of workers get laid off, the money will not be there to keep them from falling into poverty. The money will be sitting in the accounts of the big banks, arms manufacturers, and the corrupt puppet government of Hamid Karzai and his cronies.

With a federal election coming, the politicians are forced to pretend to care about the plight of working people. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion called poverty in Canada “an immense human tragedy” - ignoring the fact that it was his party’s EI policies that helped increase the poverty level. The Conservatives railed against the surplus while in opposition but did nothing once in power. The NDP has complained, but done nothing to mobilise working people to fight back. All parties need to have their feet held to the fire until workers get an EI that works for them!

Will New Voting System Make a Diference?

New system on its own no fix to limited political choice.

On October 10, the Ontario government will be holding a referendum on the future of the provincial electoral system. Some groups are heavily promoting a new alternative system (Mixed-Member Proportional Representation or MMP) as the solution to popular indiference to elections and the failure of government to respond to the needs of working people.

Under the current voting system (“First Past the Post”), the province is divided geographically into ridings. Whichever candidate gets the most votes in the riding wins the seat. The party with the most seats forms the government.

The problem? If you didn’t vote for the winning candidate, you might as well have stayed home, since your vote will have no inluence over the composition of the parliament. This is why
parties that have won a minority of votes routinely form majority governments.

Under the proposed new system, people would vote twice, once for whom they wanted to represent their riding, and a second time for the party they wanted to form the government. The Legislature would have extra seats added so that each parties’ share of seats would be same as their share of the overall popular vote.

While this would be an improvement over the system we have now, MMP is hardly a cure-all.First, while the allocation of seats may be “fairer” under MMP, it doesn’t change the fact that none of the existing parliamentary parties puts the interest of working people irst. In Toronto we have an NDP Mayor, a Liberal Premier, and a Conservative Prime Minister and at every level of government, the politicians have shown that when the interests of working people and the rich clash, it’s the interests of the rich that win out. Despite their other disagreements, this is something that every politician is united around and no re-arrangement of seats in the
Legislature will change that. Second, while MMP will supposedly provide “greater choice”, a 3% cutof has been built into the new system - speciically to block the rise of new political parties that the corporate media labels “fringe”. Without millions of dollars in campaign funding, 3% is actually a huge barrier for any genuine workers party to get beyond.

However, this doesn’t mean that working people can’t change things - it just means that we can’t expect procedural changes to ix the problem. Having the kind of government that the people deserve takes popular struggle. Whether people vote yes, no, or choose to boycott the Oct. 9 referendum, that struggle must continue!

Electoral Parties Have Little to Offer to Working People

Election campaigns lack substance, track records in office unimpressive for all mainstream parties.

On October 10th, about half of eligible voters will go to elect a new provincial government and possibly a new way of electing people. While it is still unclear what the likely outcome will be, there are some conclusions that we can draw already: 1) almost half of the people in the province do not have enough conidence on the political system to take time out to go vote and 2) given that recent history shows little difference between the Conservatives (who governed in the late 1990’s), the Liberals (the current government) and the NDP (who governed in the early 1990’s) this a reasonable choice to make.

Nonetheless, BASICS wants to encourage working people to grill anyone who comes to their door with questions about what their party will do for our communities, why they didn’t do these before when they were in government, and why should we trust them now?

Afordable Housing:
The Harris government made their contempt for poor people very clear with deep cuts to desperately needed social programs. Social housing funded and run by the provincial government was then passed down to the City’s and without any funds to run them. This is how Toronto Community Housing was formed. The result – a severe decline in the maintenance and upkeep of units and a reduction of rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units available, relative to those who need it.

Once again, the Liberals ran on a platform of reversing all of this. However, they have not taken responsibility for funding social housing and hence, in Toronto alone there are some $500 million needed in order to bring units up to decent standards.

Wages and Jobs:
This spring the issue of wages momentarily gathered some attention as some unions initiated a campaign to have the minimum wage raised to $10/ per hour from $8/ per hour. The Liberals and Conservatives both oppose increasing the minimum wage right now, largely because they are ‘concerned about the impact on business’ – which means they are speaking on behalf of the sector which funds their campaigns and lines their pockets. The NDP for their part moved a Bill that would have seen the minimum wage increase to $10 / hour, a very good step but far from something that would give a living wage to the more than 1 million workers in Ontario earning a minimum wage.

Education:
Class sizes and resources for schools have been a major issue since in Ontario schools the days of the NDP Rae government. These problems were exacerbated by the Mike Harris Conservative government who instituted massive cuts leading to strikes, large class sizes and a tangible reduction in the quality of education provided to children of working class families. Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals promised to reversed these cuts but have left schools without the money they need. McGuinty and crew have also increased tuition fees for University and College education, just as Harris and Rae did.

Social Assistance:
During Mike Harris’s time as Premier, social assistance was slashed by 22%, using the rationale that poor people are lazy and need to be forced to work. Under his leadership the Conservatives also introduced a workfare program called Ontario Works, entrapping those who require social assistance into working in menial jobs that provide little to no skills or training. Parents in the workfare program are forced out of their homes and are left no afordable options to access child care for their children.

Despite their promises during the last provincial election, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals have done little to improve upon the wreckage to social assistance programs left behind by the Conservatives. McGuinty said he would make sure that welfare rates would rise at the same rate as inlation, but this promise was broken. Social assistance has only been increased by 2%. This still leaves families in need of support with 20% less funding than 12 years ago. Add
to this the Liberal’s elimination of the Special Diet program, the addition of the Ontario Health Premium, and the stagnation of minimum wage rates, and the poor have seen a massive 40%
loss in real income under the last two provincial governments.

The NDP’s platform for this election remains silent on the issue of social assistance, focusing once again on pleasing richer members of the working class and showing a lack of willingness to take the concerns of the majority of working people seriously.

Gov't Budgets: Cop Salaries and War Put Ahead of Working Class Families

The weather wasn’t the only thing that was cold for Toronto’s working people this spring, as all three levels of government introduced budgets that gave little to working families in the City.
The Federal government passed a Budget which accelerated the implementation of the $5.3 Billion Canada First defence plan so that the Canadian Forces will receive $175 million in 2007–08, in addition to over $100 Million for bonuses and services to veterans of this current war. In addition, they passed over $80 Million more for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (the Canadian CIA), $102 million in additional funds for Correctional Service of Canada and $10 million for the Canadian Police Research Centre. All of these hundreds of millions thrown around for war and policing, and no money for a National child care program to help working families find affordable child care.
Still saddled with the funding provincial social programs that the province refuses to pay the bill for, the City produced a budget that proposed a 3.8% increases in the property taxes (paid by tenants in rent and homeowners through direct taxation) and a decrease in social services.
In fact, the initial Budget recommendations had slated the closure of 7 outdoor pools and 11 indoor pools in Toronto schools where Parks currently runs its programming. These recommendations came just a week before the salary disclosures of public employees was released showing that 2010 City employees made over $100 000 including 708 police. Compared to 2005, only 1193 City employees made over $100 000 of which 279 were police.
The huge increase of almost 300% in police making over $100 000 does not even include officers being directly for time paid directly by individuals and businesses for private events and functions.
Right-wing Councillors and the media point to increased expenses but don’t mention that Police have been given more than $800 million in operating dollars and have also spent $21.1 Million in overtime. So when you see Police at demonstrations or public events, know that constables are making $58/ hour while detectives get paid $66/ hr.
Toronto is one of the safest cities in one of the safest countries, but we are also seeing that people are getting poorer. Safety in working class communities is best addressed through addressing the increasing levels of poverty, particularly amongst our youth whose unemployment rates are consistently double that of older workers. Some of those dollars spent topping up Police officer salaries should be spent in the community employing youth for good jobs, as well providing increased services to people.

Do We Need Tuition Fees in Ontario?

Last fall the Ontario government lifted the tuition fee freeze which students fought hard to secure in 2004. Based on the scheme put in place by McGuinty’s Liberals college and university tuition fees will rise between 20 and 36 percent over the next four years in Ontario.
The mainstream media and political parties have centered the debate about tuition fees on what is a fair price to pay for post-secondary education. Not one source has stopped to ask if people should have to be pay for college and university at all.
Back in the 1940’s, getting a high school education used to be expensive. However, people realized that this was the basic level of education required just to get a halfway decent job, so they got organised to demand fair access.
Today, over 60% of new jobs created require a college or university education. Attending university is becoming more of a necessity than a choice. It is now the basic level of education required to get a job that pays enough to support a family.
Canada is a rich, industrialized country. College and university education here could easily be free for everyone. Much poorer nations provide free college and university education for their citizens at all or some levels, including Argentina, Ireland, Cuba, Venezuela, and France. There is absolutely no reason why people here can’t have the same, other than the lack of political will by the politicians.
Our representatives are totally disconnected from the realities of working people. As the provincial election approaches, we must demand that representatives who want our votes stand up for a liveable minimum wage and free college and university education. We must continue to organize our communities into a political force to demand what we deserve – better opportunities through fair wages and free education.

Minimum Wage Unlivable

The fact that the current minimum wage does not provide people with enough to live was recognized recently by the Provincial government. A private members bill submitted by the NDP to increase the minimum wage to $10/hr passed the second reading at Queen’s Park this November.

With the Liberals and Conservatives already voicing their opposition to this bill, it is highly unlikely that the bill will get passed. Premier McGuinty warned that increasing the minimum wage would be imposing undue economic pressures on businesses, alluding that business will go elsewhere if wages are increased here. This idea is something that the Conservatives have repeated as well.

What is important however, is that no newspaper or Political party has argued that the $7.75 per hour is enough for someone to live on. Clearly this demonstrates the fact that even the political parties of the rich know that the current minimum wage is not a living wage. McGuinty’s argument also exposes the hypocrisy and uselessness of a system which acknowledges that it is only willing to pay people less than or just enough to get by on the grounds that it might inconvenience big business.

Even though the minimum wage will not be increased, the issue of wages for the poor has become an issue that the politicians have had to deal with for the first time in several years.

Whats good for the Politicians is good for the Workers

Salary increases show need for increase in wages of working people

Torontonians have seen two of the three levels of government officials give themselves raises in the last couple of months.

First, the Conservative Federal government, with approval of most Liberals Members of Parliament (MP’s) gave themselves a 20% pay increase, putting them in the richest 1% of Canadians.

More recently at the July session of City Council, Councillor’s approved a 9% increase to their base wage, arguing that Councillors in cities such as Vaughn and Mississauga are paid upwards of $117 000.

Predictably, the same Conservative media that rambles on about how ‘fiscally irresponsible’ socially funded education, health care and housing are, stayed relatively silent on the MP’s increase. With City Council being dominated by the New Democratic Party (NDP) these same media outlets came out blasting City Council.

Ultimately, what do these things mean for working people? In reality, these policies and the media response provide some important lessons regarding the opportunism and hypocrisy of government and media.

Nonetheless, the $8 million (308 MP’s X $25 000 per year) would have impact on people lives if it meant giving money for grants to low and middle income families looking to put a child through University. Likewise, the $400 000 (44 Councillors X $9000) would have benefited communities like Parkdale with hiring of a few more inspectors to shut down slum houses, or in Lawrence Heights where parks are in need to repair and clean up.

These same levels of government, not matter what Party controls it all are opposed to measures to increase the real or social wage for the majority of people. Not only this, but they have also implemented policies that DECREASE people’s wages. The municipal government continues to increase cost of services like the TTC, which the Federal government has gone out of its way to destroy the idea of a national system of affordable child care.

With the wages and services for the majority of people in decline, Politicians think it justified to be rewarded while our lives become harder. These increases will not make government more responsive and in fact show how hypocritical and unconcerned they are already.

Politician’s salaries should be indexed to minimum wages, so that politicians can’t raise their wages without raising the wages of all. We should remind these politicians that we need cheaper services, higher wages and more, better paying jobs.