Rally & March to Raise the Rates: Welfare & ODSP

Friday October 1st, 2004
11:00am @ Welfare Office
(in the Charlotte Mews Courtyard)

FREE LUNCH and Public Speak Out March Downtown to the Local Provincial Liberal Office

On the anniversary of their election...
demand that the Liberals raise the rates!

WE WON’T GET A RAISE UNLESS WE DEMAND IT!

For one whole year, a Provincial Liberal Government elected on a platform of change has merely been complicit in perpetuating their predecessors anti-poor agenda. The Liberals have made miserable token gestures when serious action was called for. This Government will continue to consolidate the war on the poor until it is challenged by way of a serious social mobilization.

If you're on OW or ODSP today, you know that the rates are not enough to live on. The 3% raise recently given by the Liberal Government is an insultingly pathetic gesture. For a single person on welfare it amounts to a measly $15.60/ per month. This is not good enough. People are sick of making choices between rent and food, clothing and transportation. People have had enough. We deserve better. We need a 40% raise to restore the 21.7% cut to welfare and fully compensate for ten years of inflation / cost of living increases.

PCAP and our allies across Ontario are organizing in a major way to get the rates raised. We know the liberals have the money but we will have to fight to get it. PCAP is joining people across the province in mobilizing to get a raise in the assistance rates. We know that we won’t get a raise unless we come out in record numbers and put continued pressure on the Liberals to give us what we deserve. We will be heard!