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LETTER: Ford's 'antiquated, draconian mindsets' reinforce social inequality

'Privatizing the (welfare) system or forcing people to work even if they cannot looks like an attempt to save the government’s face,' says letter writer
190619_AP_Doug_Ford2
Premier Doug Ford answers reporters' questions in this file photo. Arron Pickard /Sudbury.com

This letter was originally published at BarrieToday. NewmarketToday welcomes letters to the editor. Please send letters to news@newmarkettoday and include your daytime phone number and address for verification of authorship, not publication.
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Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government should listen to its social workers and tread carefully before reforming the provincial welfare system.

They want to hire foreign companies who will bid for the right to administer Ontario’s social assistance programs in a move to privatize them. This means recipients’ benefits will be issued out of a foreign company’s account and their continued eligibility will be determined by someone other than the government.

The Ford government claims this will help people find work and economize a system criticized by the Auditor General as ineffective.

Why should the Ford government rely on a foreign company to address the needs of its citizens, disabled or not? Private welfare systems were tried in Australia and Britain, but ultimately failed because the greedy corporations were paid only to force people to accept any job. These firms neither considered the suitability of the job for the candidate nor vice versa. The contractors never considered that some disability recipients may never be suitable for employment. Some people lost their new jobs and never again received social assistance.

The cruelty of the labour market and welfare system is that no one really wants to help the chronically unemployed find appropriate work or create a meaningful life for those who will never be able to work – a life of dignity. Privatizing the system or forcing people to work even if they cannot looks like an attempt to save the government’s face. It’s a variation of the Arkansas system, which cruelly forces residents to work or volunteer 50 hours weekly to maintain their Medicaid eligibility. Except in Ontario’s case, recipients will be cut off. The Auditor General’s review overlooked the systemic racism that underscores the hardship of many recipients’ lives.

Antiquated, draconian mindsets like the premier’s only reinforce social inequality.

Christopher Mansour
Barrie

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