Really, Ontario? Ten more years to end homelessness?

For more than half of my life, I’ve watched governments bandwagon around feel-good statements about ending poverty.

Over that same time period, they’ve opposed livable wages; fought collective agreements; extended the retirement age; eroded medical coverage; defunded public services; and weakened corporate accountability.

I’m an eternal optimist. However, I’ve been hearing the government declarations to end poverty for over 25 years. One of the reasons that I’m proud to be a union activist is that unionists are dedicated to providing dignity and strength to workers. We fight for fair wages, healthy retirements, medical coverage, strong public services and reasonable corporate accountability.

The gains that progressive activists have fought for and won in our country are so substantial that most of them are now ingrained into our society. Overtime, safety regulations, parental leave, universal health care, minimum wage and harassment laws are all examples of benefits that every citizen enjoys - unionized or not.

None of these were ‘gifts’ from a benevolent government. They are ‘lefty’ ideas that required sacrifice from organized, active and involved working people.

And so, here we are again: another Liberal government vowing to end homelessness - not now - but 10 years from now.

Meanwhile, they ignore the lack of corporate accountability of U.S. Steel in Hamilton. They underfund hospitals, which has led to 355 job losses in North Bay. They threaten education workers across the province, and they’re ignoring the advice of Ontario’s financial accountability officer that the sale of Hydro One “will be a subsequent worsening of the government’s fiscal position”.

The fact is, you can’t suck and blow at the same time. The Wynne government is either delusional or they hope that Ontarians won’t notice that their current actions are more likely to increase poverty and homelessness in Ontario than to reduce it.

Jamie West
Sudbury