Anti-poverty activists say they are shocked the Ford government had contemplated cuts to the Ontario Child Benefit as part of efforts to slay the province’s $11.7 billion deficit.A proposal to slice $500 from the benefit that pays up to $1,403 annually per child to the province’s poorest families was among a long list of cuts proposed in a leaked draft document prepared for cabinet in the lead-up to last month’s provincial budget.“To even consider a reduction in the small, but important amount of support families receive from the Ontario Child Benefit is unfathomable,” said Laurel Rothman, a member of the steering committee for Campaign 2000, a coalition fighting to end child poverty. “These are cheques to people living day to day, who struggle to pay for food, shelter and clothing, let alone medication, transit and child care,” she said. “People count on these cheques to survive.” The Nov. 20 document, obtained by the Star this week, offered various cost-cutting scenarios that amounted to as much as $2 billion this year and added up to $11 billion by 2024. The child benefit cut was suggested as a way to find $600 million – and avoid deep cuts to programs supporting victims of human trafficking, women and children fleeing domestic violence and Indigenous children and youth.Other potential “savings” included a 1-per-cent cut to social assistance payments, funding cuts for the developmentally disabled and amalgamating the province’s 38 non-Indigenous children’s aid societies, according to the document prepared by staff in the ministry of children, community and social services.Read more:Opinion | Royson James: The Special Olympics booers see Doug Ford for what he isDialysis patients cry foul over end to OHIP coverage outside CanadaOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Secret document shows how far Doug Ford’s Tories would cut social services — until they were talked back from the ...
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