I thank the member for his question. A lot has been talked about ODSP, and we on this side of the House are very proud of three major measures we’re doing to this program:

(1) We’ve increased it by 5%, as you well know. That’s a major change, something that hasn’t been done before, and that’s now in the books.

(2) Indexing it to inflation, beginning in July of next year, and that again will connect ODSP payments to inflation—a fundamental change.

(3) The measure in this fall economic statement of increasing the income threshold from a monthly level of $200 to $1,000 is a game-changer. We heard from committee representatives in the finance committee first-hand how powerful that will be, and we’re looking forward to seeing that as an effective change, if this bill is passed.

Thank you to the Minister of Finance and his parliamentary assistants for their debate. One of the things the bill talks about a lot is how difficult it is to make ends meet, and one of the things that concerns me is that people on social assistance, ODSP and OW—I know they’ll talk about increasing allowable earnings and the 5% increase to ODSP. In OW, there was no increase at all.

What I want to draw attention to is that the poverty line in Ontario is $19,930. OW yearly makes $12,478, and ODSP with the 5% increase will make $15,472.80. Are the minister and parliamentary assistants comfortable with this massive deficit, recognizing these people will be below the poverty line by a substantial amount for the next four years?

I want to thank Dr. Sally Palmer from McMaster University for designing this petition and getting it out.

“Petition to Raise Social Assistance Rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“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: $733 for individuals on OW and soon $1,227 for 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.”

I support this petition. I’ll sign it and give it to page Scarlett to deliver to the table.

I appreciate and I thank the member for her comments. I want to start by thanking her for mentioning the ODSP changes as well as the GAINS changes as elements of Bill 36 that, if I heard correctly, she could support.

I want to ask, though, about health care funding, because she commented in her remarks about it being a resource issue. On this side, we acknowledge that and would say that we’re spending more on health care in Ontario than has ever been spent before. The budget increased by a whopping $5.6 billion year over year, which is about 7%. Doesn’t that allow the member to say, “Yes, we have the resources here,” and support Bill 36?

I was listening very closely to the member from London North Centre, and I always enjoy being in the House. He brings a focus from his constituents and the people from London. It’s nice, me being the member from Algoma–Manitoulin, to make the connection in the House as to how similar our issues are, and the one issue I want to talk to him about is exactly that, the ODSP.

It’s great that we’ve seen in this fall economic statement that the government is going to provide the opportunity for those who have the ability to work in sedentary work, other different kinds of work, accommodation work—that they’ll be able to increase their income from $200 to $1,000 a month without any clawback. However, the vast majority of those who are on ODSP cannot work and have no ability to supplement their incomes.

To the member: What could have been, or what should have been, or where are the priorities of this government for having failed so big on this mark?

I would like to thank the member opposite for the debate.

You mentioned WSIB—and I would like to ask: How come you are not supporting this legislation? You know that this government changed the support for persons with disabilities, the people who are on ODSP, increasing the money they get, and they elevated the exemption from $200 a month to $1,000, which will put money back into the pockets of those groups of Ontarians who are in bad need of that.

I really enjoyed the comments the member from Niagara West offered this evening. He’s quite articulate. I always enjoy being in the House listening to him, and I’m glad that he touched on the ODSP rates.

My question to him is—as the member from Algoma–Manitoulin, I always try to bring to the floor the questions of people across my riding, and today’s question that I’d like to put to you is on behalf of Donna Behnke. She’s in Elliot Lake and she actually texted me a question this morning. She says, “Listen, Mike, I’m on ODSP. I do not have kids so I have not been benefitting from any of the surpluses that have been provided to individuals and families on ODSP.” And she’s quite happy that they were successful in that. She says, “I cannot work, just like many people on ODSP who cannot work. How is it that this fall economic statement is going to be benefitting me, because I can’t go out and work to supplement my income to what the government has done to $1,000?”

What can we tell this constituent of mine as far as, what is this government going to do to help her?