Let me start by saying that Social Services was created as a safety net, not a prison sentence. People that go on the system have nothing left to begin with, then they are expected to pay rent, pay bills, and buy food on an inhuman amount of money.
The system allows $375.00 for rent. Anything over and above that amount comes out of the support portion of the cheque. The only places available for that amount of money, or close to it, are where mice and cockroaches out number the tenants 3 to 1. In fact, one of those places is the Ritz Hotel.
Some of these places do not allow cooking in the rooms, leaving the tenant to find other ways to feed themselves. A person can only eat so much cold food. The only way to make money for themselves is by panhandling, or other degrading things. I know what it is like to live in such poverty that I was constantly worried about where the next meal was coming from.
The problem is, is that when people lose all hope they just give up, knowing that even though they are applying and handing out resumes all over the place, just to get another cheque from the system, their chances of employment are between nil and 0.
True, there are some people who take advantage of the system, but they are the minority. The majority of people would rather be working.
I know what it is like to feel absolutely hopeless. I would wake up in the morning dreading the day.
There is a serious problem with the system the way it is set up right now. As it stands now an applicant is told by one worker to do something, but that worker does not put notes in the file. Then when the applicant goes to the office to hand in the paperwork, they are met by a different worker, who has no idea what the first worker told the applicant to do, and gets mad because the client did what the first one told them to.
If the person is already a client, worker #2 threatens to cut that client off.
But there are practical solutions to the problems we face as a society.
That is the key right there in a nut shell. We need to find SOLUTIONS to the problems, and not just toss the minimum amount they can get away with. Watching the news, I hear better solutions from the communities themselves, but nothing from the politicians. The only money spent by the government is on the rich corporations that don't care about people or the environment.
People talk about the poor being a drain on their tax dollars, when it is the government that is wasting tax dollars on appeals in court, just because they didn't get their way. Technically they are stealing money and telling the 'lower class' to make more cuts, and to live at todays prices on yesterdays budgets. The only reason they had a "balanced budget" is that they placed the burden on the backs of the working poor, and those on Assistance. The raise they "gave" those on Assistance is a slap in the face. "We want the disabled and handicapped to go out and get some kind of work, but we are taking away your access to get there."
Stop being a bully! Our tax dollars are not meant to go into your pockets and lining the pockets of the C.E.O.'s of big corporations. It is crystal clear that this government is Not going to listen to the people no matter what. This current government has turned into a dictatorship rather than a democracy. Let's make a change people. Every person in this province, rich or poor, young or old, working or not has value and needs to be protected under the Charter of Human Rights.
