My constituent Robert is on ODSP and was faced with an impossible choice at Walmart this week: to buy diabetic socks or food. Every diabetic knows that proper socks prevent ulcers, infections and, ultimately, amputations, so Robert’s choice was really about going hungry or potentially losing his toes or feet. Some 85% of diabetic amputations are preventable with proper care.

ODSP is legislated poverty, as we all know. Low rates mean that Robert is an expert at stretching a dime into a dollar, but still, it isn’t enough.

When will the Premier listen to experts and double ODSP to lift people with disabilities out of poverty and save people like Robert from losing his limbs?

As reflected in their flawed budget, this government’s miniscule changes to ODSP are simply not enough. When Robert is choosing between food and medical necessities, that tells me it’s not enough. ODSP barely covers a few pairs of socks a year. I don’t know about the Premier, but I need to change my socks daily.

Why does this government insult people living on ODSP by insisting that they get a job, by telling them to go back to work, even as the ODSP application process tells them to describe their disability in detail?

I would like to submit a petition that was submitted to me by Dr. Sally Palmer from the School of Social Work at McMaster University, titled “To Raise Social Assistance Rates.” It reads as follows:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent:” which is “$733 for individuals on OW and $1,227 for” people on “ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small budget increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens well below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to live in this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

And I forgot the next step of this submission—