Renfrew County council is speaking up for those who don’t have a voice.
Sitting as the community services committee, Renfrew County’s mayors and reeves passed a resolution last week calling on the province to raise the rates for Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) “above and beyond” the rate of inflation.
The resolution notes that Ontario Works payments have been frozen since 2018 at $733 a month.
ODSP benefits, meanwhile, have received inflation adjustments in 2023 and 2024, but even with the increases still fall “significantly below” the disability-adjusted poverty line of $3,091 a month.
Admaston Bromley Mayor Michael Donohue said that, with inflation, “freezing” rates since 2018 means that people receiving Ontario Works have actually seen a “dramatic reduction” in their buying power.
“I would ask anyone in this room or anyone that resides in the County of Renfrew how they would feel if, in fact, their paycheques were reduced 20 per cent since 2018, or if they were in fact frozen in 2018 and never saw any increase,” he said.
“So how we could ask those that are leading the most perilous and precarious lives to adapt to that? It is appalling and completely unacceptable”…
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