As budget day approaches for Ontario, Anglicans are stepping up calls for the province to help those hardest hit by the recession.
In a brief called “Standing Together,” submitted to the Ontario government’s Pre-Budget Consultations, Archbishop Colin Johnson and the diocese’s Child Poverty Subcommittee urge the government to carry out the following steps to help people in poverty:
Ӣ A $100-per month Healthy Food Supplement for people receiving social assistance so they can afford a more healthy diet.
Ӣ Greater funding for affordable housing.
Ӣ Funding for a threatened child-care subsidy program for low-income families.
While agreeing that the government faces a major fiscal deficit, the brief notes society’s “colossal human deficit, of needless suffering, hardship and lost opportunity.” Foodbank usage soared by 19 per cent in Ontario in 2009, so that 374,000 Ontarians now use foodbanks.
Snore. See Mr. Mead’s post. Pretty much says it all.
Archbishop Johnson was a member of the Conservative club whiloe we were in university at the same time. Looks to me like politics is now his major interest.