New report condemns Wynne government for slow progress on child poverty: DiNovo

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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QUEEN’S PARK – In a new report released today, Campaign 2000 strongly condemns the Liberal government’s 2012 decision to delay scheduled increases in the Ontario Child Benefit and to freeze the minimum wage. Ontario NDP Anti-Poverty Critic Cheri DiNovo says these recent Liberal government decisions are to blame for the slow progress in reducing the child poverty in this province.

“In 2008, this government made grand statements to reduce child poverty by 25% over 5 years and in 2013 it is nowhere near achieving that very modest goal,” said DiNovo during question period this morning. “How does this government justify its lack of action in reducing child poverty by 25%?”

The Campaign 2000 report cites a number of other serious cuts to supports for low income people made by the Liberal government. In 2012, the Liberals cancelled discretionary benefits for people on social assistance, including discretionary health benefits and the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit.

“This report clearly lays out the failures of this government when I comes to addressing child poverty,” said DiNovo, the MPP for Parkdale-High Park. “How does Premier Wynne explain those decisions to the hundreds of thousands of Ontario children who go to sleep hungry every night?”