The response from all quarters of the anti-poverty movement encouraged the Premier and Finance Minister to steel their resolve, and in an October 1 letter to the SPNO Coordinator and co-chair of the 25 in 5 coalition, the Premier wrote, “By the end of 2008, our government will deliver a comprehensive, long term poverty reduction strategy, including targets and indicators.”. [...] For example, And the Poor Get Poorer, its 1981 report co-authored by the Ontario Welfare Council, and the update of the report in 1983, documented benefit levels and the inequality of benefits under different programs; debunked the myths of large increases in caseload and ‘undeserving’ recipients; examined inadequacies in employment incomes and work incentives; and demonstrated the degree to which [...] In 1991, the Child Poverty Action Group, Canadian Council on Children and Youth, Canadian Council on Social Development and the Canadian Child Welfare Association banded together to found the cross-Canada public education movement Campaign 2000, to build support for the realization of the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to eliminate child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. [...] Other reports by the Metro Toronto Social Planning Council revealed that Ontario was at or near the bottom of all the provinces with regard to the level of social assistance benefits: Living on the Margin (1986) called for a reform of social assistance over the upcoming decade and, noting the large increase in employable welfare cases after the 1982-83 recession, for comprehensive employment suppo [...] The solidarity that built during the Harris years still resonates a decade later, in the presence of the broad-based 25 in 5 Network that came together in its resolve to ensure the development and implementation of a poverty reduction strategy for Ontario.
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