As part of a push to double Ontario\u2019s paltry ODSP and OW rates, a group of NDP MPPs will spend part of September on a \u2018social assistance diet.\u2019<\/p>\n
Chandra Pasma, NDP critic for Poverty and Homelessness Reduction; Monique Taylor, critic for Community and Social Services; Lise Vaugeois, critic for Persons with Disabilities and Accessibility; Jessica Bell (University\u2014Rosedale) and Joel Harden (Ottawa Centre) will eat only what they can buy with $95.21 for two weeks, which works out to an average of $47.60 per week. The effort is meant to draw renewed focus and urgency to addressing the inadequacy of ODSP and OW rates, and help amplify the experiences and voices of people who live this every day and have been saying this all along.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecipients of ODSP and OW have been clear that the rates are far too low,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cWe\u2019re in an affordability crisis: the cost of food was up 9.7 per cent in July, food banks are seeing record usage, and housing costs were up 7.4 percent. An extra $58, if that, is a drop in the bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s five-per cent increase to ODSP, which comes into effect this month, amounts to an additional $58 per month, at most, per recipient. Meanwhile, Ontario Works recipients have had their rates frozen at $733 per month.<\/p>\n
The MPPs are inviting the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Merrilee Fullerton, to join them in experiencing a small part of what it is like to live on social assistance, given her government continues to force hundreds of thousands of recipients to survive on such a small amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody can live a decent, healthy or dignified life on $733 or $1,227 a month,\u201d Pasma said. \u201cWe\u2019re using our platform as MPPs to amplify how Ontario\u2019s social assistance rates are callous, unhealthy and undignified.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Sept. 6 to 19, the five MPPs will live on a \u2018social assistance diet\u2019 of $95.21 \u2014 an approximated two-week grocery budget for assistance recipients. Their advocacy coincides with the 40th anniversary of former NDP MPP Richard Johnston\u2019s \u2018welfare diet\u2019 advocacy in 1982, wherein the MPP lived on a social assistance grocery budget for one month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize that we are privileged, and that our respective economic and housing situations don\u2019t match the realities people on social assistance live daily,\u201d said Vaugeois. \u201cOur experiences over these two weeks will not match theirs \u2014 after this, we\u2019ll return to our regular grocery budgets and diets \u2014 a luxury not available to social assistance recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we can take on this challenge to show how hard it is, and to raise awareness for the need to immediately double OW and ODSP rates,\u201d Bell stressed.<\/p>\n
The MPPs will spend the two weeks connecting with individuals who are recipients of ODSP and OW and bringing attention to their stories and calls for an increase to rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is that this initiative puts pressure on the Ford government to do the right thing and double social assistance rates so that people can live dignified, healthy lives,\u201d said Harden.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n Until recently, ODSP recipients received $1,169 per month. Rates inched up to $1,227 per month, at most, on Sept. 1, when a five-per-cent increase took effect.<\/p>\n OW recipients have not received any increase, continuing to receive only $733 per month.<\/p>\n The NDP MPPs participating in the two-week \u2018social assistance diet\u2019 will spend no more than $95.21 on groceries during the two-week period. They\u2019ll keep a record of what they spend that money on.<\/p>\n The $95.21 figure is based on research done by John Stapleton and Yvonne Yuan on the Harris government\u2019s \u201cwelfare diet\u201d from the 1990s. Stapleton and Yuan have been tracking the how the cost of the Harris \u201cwelfare diet\u201d would change over time, accounting for inflation. As of mid-August, the Harris \u201cwelfare diet\u201d would now cost $190.41 over a month. Divided across two weeks, it works out to $95.21.<\/p>\n The MPPs will try to walk or take transit when picking up groceries when feasible, recognizing that social assistance recipients must often do the same.<\/p>\n This effort falls on the 40th anniversary of a 1982 advocacy effort by former NDP MPP Richard Johnston, who lived on a \u201cwelfare diet\u201d for one month to push the PC government of the day to raise social assistance rates \u2014 which it subsequently did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of a push to double Ontario\u2019s paltry ODSP and OW rates, a group of NDP MPPs will spend part of September on a \u2018social assistance diet.\u2019 Chandra Pasma, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorials"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 04:38:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55781,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55780\/revisions\/55781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}