Step It Up Ontario - End Violence Against Women

March 26, 2007

Ontario Budget 2007: Too Many Steps Short

At the recent meeting of Provincial-Territorial Ministers for women’s issues hosted by Ontario, violence against women, women’s economic security and support for Aboriginal women were named the top 3 priority issues for action. The 2007 Ontario Budget does nothing to reflect these priorities.

Instead, the Ontario Budget 2007 contains many restatements of promises, release of funds promised at the beginning of the mandate, statements of funds already allocated—and re-announcements of funds stretching out over the years from earlier budgets. There are some baby steps to celebrate, but all in all it's pretty disappointing.  And a call to action for the next election.

Here is a brief scan of the 2007 Budget in relation to our 10 Steps to End Violence Against Women. 

Step 1: Understand that violence against women is an equality rights issue.

Despite statements by the Liberal government supporting the need for a gender-based equality approach to ending violence against women, equality for women wasn’t on the 2007 Ontario Budget agenda.

Step 2: Recognize that male power is upheld by rape and sexual harassment.

Sexual violence against women was not mentioned.

• Sexual assault centres have only received a 3% increase in core funding in over 12 years.

• Lack of additional funding to address sexual violence continues an absence of meaningful government concern about sexual violence against women in Ontario.

Step 3: Stop racism/oppression; make Ontario accessible.

Not surprisingly, with no mechanism for budget analysis on equality, resources for ending intersecting inequalities for women, especially systemic racism, were also missing.  There were some budget announcements, however, that provided a little for marginalized communities, while leaving a lot out:

What was added:

• $3.5 million to address the backlog of uninvestigated complaints under the Employment Standards Act, which regulates employment practices.

• Some small initiatives to improve employment and training for newcomers.

• Establishment of the Office of the Fairness Commissioner to oversee implementation of the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, which is meant to recognize so-called “foreign”credentials.

• A small increase in funding for English and French as a second language programs for 2007/08—from a total of $51 million to $53 million.

• A 2% increase in Ontario Disability Support Payments roughly in step with the cost of living. It does nothing to address the real needs of ODSP recipients or to address frozen budgets of the Harris years. Like many of the budget announcements, the raise doesn’t go into effect until November—after the October election.

• An additional $200 million for developmental services over four years and $7 million in capital funding for developmental services.

• Additional funding of $8 million for a Human Rights Legal Support Centre. This centre is a commitment made with recent changes to the Human Rights Act.  Human rights advocates expect this funding will fall short of what will be needed to support human rights complainants. 

Missed steps:

• No action announced on addressing the many areas where low-income Ontarians, especially immigrant women and women of colour, are exploited in temporary, part-time and contract work, discriminated against in employment and training or refused work for which they are qualified.

• No response announced to support non-status immigrants by advancing regularization of status.

• No real response to the poverty of women with disabilities and Deaf women.

• No additional funding for the implementation of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act or to recognize and respond to the unique marginalization of women with disabilities and Deaf women.

• No new funding to support the Human Rights Tribunal, which is expected to have a large increase in cases with the establishment of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre. Human rights advocates fear that the Human Rights Commission budget may be reduced to cover the increased expense, restricting the Commission’s role to investigate and challenge systemic discrimination issues.

Step 4:  End poverty—NOW.

Tackling poverty is the centre piece of the 2007 Ontario Budget, especially child poverty.  It is certainly a welcome change to see poverty action showcased as a vote getter in Ontario after so much has been done in Ontario to punish low-income families, especially those on social assistance.
Yet there is no real poverty reduction strategy to put a context to the initiatives announced—no overall plan to tackle the increasing income gap between rich and poor. And the initiatives announced are ‘good from far’ but ‘far from good’ when examined closely.

Budget features to support low-income Ontarians:

• A new $2.1 billion Ontario Child Benefit, spread out over five years.

• Provides funding for children in low-income families, whether or not they are on social assistance.  The benefits can, therefore, be used when women move from social assistance to any low-income work, a positive change for women with children.

• By July 2007, a down-payment will be provided for each child in the program of up to a maximum of $250 or $20.83 per month. The full program begins only in July of 2008.

• These children will net only approximately $50 more a month by the end of the five years.

• This benefit does NOT end the National Child Benefit Supplement clawback, as claimed by the Liberals—at the top level it is about $72 less than children are currently owed per month as a result of the clawback. Low-income families who are not on social assistance will get both the National Child Benefit Supplement and the new Ontario Child Benefit. Families on social assistance will receive the OCB, but continue to have the NCBS clawed back.

• The Liberals promise to continue flowing through any increases by the federal government of the NCBS, as they are doing now.

• A 2% increase in Ontario Works rates—which is, as the budget papers say, to help “manage the increased cost of living”.  Not a real increase in rates.

• Compared to the 40% increase needed to bring recipients up to the poverty line, the increase does nothing to change poverty levels. 

• For a budget that promises to make child poverty a priority (the word ‘children’ appears 67 times in the budget papers), it dismisses the poverty of their mothers, the primary caregivers of children. (The word ‘women’ appears once.)

• An increase in the minimum wage of $10.25 over three years—at .75 cents per year. The first increase won’t start until March 31, 2008 after the next election.

• It is well short of the immediate need for $10 an hour to bring current minimum wage earners up to the poverty line. 

• The promise doesn’t mention indexing to the cost of living, which will eat up a portion of the raise.  If cost of living increases continue at the same rate as the last three years, it is likely that by the last increase on March 31, 2010 the minimum wage still won’t have reached $10 per hour in real terms.

• The Liberals promise not to claw back the recently announced federal Working Income Tax Benefit, which is the federal version of helping social assistance recipients jump the so-called ‘welfare wall.’ 

Women will still be forced to choose between violence and poverty.

Step 5: Create and maintain housing, non-profit childcare, training–NOW!

Child Care:
The announcement of new funding for child care represents the first new funding for child care in Ontario since the Harris government years. But child care advocates say that Dalton McGuinty promised $300 million annually when we was elected, far short of what is in the 2007 Budget. 

• The province promises to continue funding for 15,000 child care spaces already announced as a result of the now-defunct National Child Care Program. Well, that’s a relief!

• The budget promises $25 million for child care spaces in 2007/08 increasing to $50 million each year after that, in addition to $63.5 million announced last year.  Ontario is also expecting to receive $97 million of the $250 million announced by the feds (after cutting about $1 billion from the original federal child care strategy).

• There was no word about whether the Province will commit their share to non-profit community child care development.

The Liberals promised to build over 20,000 new units of housing for 'needy' Ontarians. So far, according to this Budget, 7,400 units have been approved. 

There is no new funding for housing in the 2007 Ontario Budget, but... 

• The Province promises to finally release the $392 million federal funding it has been hoarding while fighting with the federal government for more. This money should have already been spent.

• $127 million will go to municipalities to build or rehabilitate low-income housing.

• $80 million will be provided to build up to 1,100 units of housing for off-reserve Aboriginal families.

• $185 million will support a monthly housing allowance of up to $100 for 27,000 renters to help the province meet its promise of 35,000 housing allowances for people unable to afford shelter.

• Funding increases re-announced for elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions, part of a program announced two years ago.

• Launch of the Aboriginal Education Strategy of $13 for Aboriginal, Métis and Inuit students.

• No freeze on tuition fees as students have demanded. Tuition fees in Ontario are tied for the highest in Canada. The freeze on fees was lifted in 2005.

Step 6: Provide fair access to justice for women.

Legal Aid:  The Liberals promise to provide new funding of $51 million over three years, starting in 2007/08 to Legal Aid Ontario.

• The funding will be provided to increase support in family law services and to ease the increasing number of (primarily) women who must negotiate the system without legal representation. It is certainly well past time for an increase to family law legal aid and we are pleased that some action has been taken on this issue. It is disappointing that it will take three years to roll out this funding. We will need to closely monitor its impact on support for women escaping violence.
  

• Funding will increase legal aid lawyers’ fees by 5%. Many lawyers currently refuse legal aid cases because of the rates.

• Budget papers also mention increasing access to frontline family law services, but isn’t specific about which ones. This may be money to support the new family law Arbitration system the Province is established under Bill 24.

The budget doesn’t mention legal clinics, expanding eligibility requirements or providing advocate supports to women.

The majority of victims accessing the Board are women who have experienced sexual assault or intimate partner violence.

Step 7: Hold violent men accountable for their actions.

No announcement of new funding for the criminal justice system, thankfully.

Evaluation of the Domestic Violence Courts shows they are not currently providing effective response to women, despite funding of $22 million and additional funding for a bail pilot program announced in an earlier budget.

It is time for systems that are not yet holding men accountable to start doing it with resources already provided before seeking more.

Step 8:  Stop criminalizing and psychiatrizing women. 

No allocations announced that can be linked to these issues.

The child welfare system will receive an additional $34 million in the coming year.

Step 9:  Demand secure funding for women's organizations.

Additional funding for women’s independent, community-based anti-violence services—Zero. 

• Women’s shelters, rape crisis centres and local women’s centres remain poorly funded.
  
• Women’s emergency shelters have never recovered the 5% funding cut from their scarce budgets in 1995 or frozen budgets in the face of cost of living increases over the subsequent 8 years of Tory government.
• Funding cut from women’s provincial anti-violence networks by the Harris government has never been reinstated. 

Step 10:  Listen to survivors and women’s advocates—they are the experts!

Additional support for women’s advocate and survivor expertise and analysis contributions—Zero. 

Additional notes:

• Funding for the 4-year Domestic Violence Action Plan, under which the Liberal government was supporting its violence against women action was announced in December 2004. 

• A number of its allocations were for time-limited programs or projects or for initiatives that would not be annualized. Some of the funding had been announced by the previous Harris government. 

Links to other response to the 2007 Budget:

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)

Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC)

Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)

DAWN Ontario website has a number of links and statements from advocates on the 2007 Ontario Budget here.