QUEENS PARK – The decision by the Ontario Government to cancel the Basic Income Pilot Project has drawn fire from the Opposition. NDP leader Andrea Horwath has issued the following statement in response to Doug Ford’s plan to cut social assistance rates and cancel the basic income pilot program:
“Doug Ford’s decision to slash the meagre increases to social assistance is appalling, it drags Ontario backwards, and it pushes those already at a disadvantage even deeper into poverty.
For Mr. Ford’s attack on low-income people is disgusting. And cancelling the unfinished and promising basic income pilot project is a waste and a shame.
Instead of dragging Ontario backwards, I want to move us forward. Let’s address Ontario’s homelessness and poverty problems — not let Mr. Ford make them worse. Let’s tackle homelessness in our cities, not allow Mr. Ford to force people onto the streets and into emergency rooms through his callous cuts.
People struggling to get by have been waiting for the social assistance system to be fixed for 20 years, and we now have the Income Security Roadmap for Change. The NDP will keep fighting for Ford to follow that roadmap.”
