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Introduction

There is deep and continuing dissatisfaction with the existing social assistance system from all quarters: community groups, business, labour, politicians the people who run the system and those who receive its benefits. But there is not yet a province-wide consensus about what to do.

A review of Ontario’s income security system is needed because social assistance, and the wider income security programs around it, is not doing the job it needs to do in Ontario’s modern economy: neither in supporting those who need assistance nor in promoting long-term prosperity in the province.

Ontario needs a well-functioning income security system as a core element of its ‘social infrastructure’ just as much as it needs roads and bridges as part of its physical infrastructure. The ability of every Ontarian to contribute to his or her full potential is required. A good income security system is for all Ontarians, and all Ontarians have a stake in it functioning properly.

One of the most basic purposes of an income security system is to support people through periods of economic disruption and transition. Ontarians turn to their income security system for a variety of reasons: a lost job, birth of a child, marriage breakdown, the search for a first job after graduation, job discrimination, the onset of a disability, through illness or accident, including a mental illness, care-giving for aging parents, a death in the family.

Any of these circumstances may occur in any of our own lives, or to our family, friends and neighbours. Our income security system needs to provide reasonable support so individuals and families can preserve stability through these changes – and, in turn, so that the province can maintain a stable, growing economy within a well-functioning society where everyone has the opportunity to make their contribution count. Transformation of Ontario’s income security system is as much about setting the stage for economic prosperity as it is about ensuring an economic safety net for individual Ontarians and their families.

This is all the more important as a tumultuous global economy threatens a predictable and secure working life for many Ontarians. The nature of work has changed from what it was in the 1950s and 1960s, yet today’s income security system has not adequately kept up with the new reality. Precarious forms of work such as temporary, contract and casual work that depart from the standard full-time, full-year job increasingly define the labour market. A TD Bank study reports that “traditional manufacturing industries are giving way to service-based sectors and full-time, well paid jobs with benefits are being replaced by part-time, temporary jobs.” [Drummond and Fong 2010 1.] Some groups are particularly vulnerable to becoming the working poor, such as youth, women, recent immigrants, racialized Ontarians and First Nations. Family incomes will often fluctuate greatly over time.

A carefully designed review will provide a shared vision of a better income security system that reflects the Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy’s vision “of a province where every person has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential and contribute to and participate in a prosperous and healthy Ontario.” [Poverty Reduction Act 2009]

It should assess the role of federal programs such as Employment Insurance, provincial programs such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, as well as municipal and First Nations, local and community roles.

A transformed income security system in Ontario should seek to:

• Contribute to labour market opportunities to ensure jobs provide real pathways out of poverty.
• Provide workforce development and related services to help all Ontarians do better, including support for out-of-work and underemployed Ontarians to transition into sustainable employment.
• Support Ontarians in good and bad times through liveable incomes and community supports.

The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council’s role is to recommend the scope and terms of reference for a review that will provide a practical road map for pursuing this vision.

The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council is fully cognizant of the current difficult fiscal situation facing the province. We recommend transforming income security not despite Ontario’s fiscal situation and a changing global economy but because of it. As part of its road map for future growth the province needs a plan for the income security system it wants to build. Ontario needs to articulate its interests and perspective to the federal government and the other provinces and territories. Now is the time to construct a long-term vision so that we do not find ourselves making piecemeal and reactive reforms.

We hope that the review process can lead to a substantive and detailed consensual vision for Ontario to guide successive governments over the next decade and beyond.