MPP France Gélinas went to the Samaritan Centre in downtown Sudbury on Wednesday to help the NDP find solutions to Ontario’s poverty crisis.
“The NDP believe in order to make changes, they have to be engaged,” Gélinas said at a town hall meeting attended by the homeless, hungry and social service workers.
The McGuinty government has pledged to unveil a poverty strategy by the end of 2008, she said, adding, “We will push them very hard to keep that promise.”
At the well organized meeting, Gélinas invited those who had something to say to split into groups, discuss seven issues – housing, discrimination, accessing health care, Ontario Works, education and training and the Ontario Disability Support Program – then have a spokesperson report on the group’s findings.
Here are nine of the comments Gélinas will take back to her party:
1.Wanda asked why the city isn’t helping the owner of a boarded up building on Howey Street to bring the building back up to par so that it can house the homeless.
2.Darryl said a single apple and a single orange are luxuries to us.
3.Karl said he’d like to see some job training programs for the poor. “I’m pretty good in electronics.”
4.Marie said everyone needs a telephone. A telephone, she said, is a necessity not a luxury.
5.Fern said the working poor should get the same kind of dental benefits as those on social assistance.
6.Gary said social assistance rates should go up by 40 per cent.
7.Merlin wants funding to go to people who really need it.
8.A man said the mayor and council should come to the Samaritan Centre once a month and see what’s needed in the community.
9.A man said the city should provide rollout beds for the homeless to sleep on.
The tenth comment, which Gélinas didn’t hear, was from Cory, who stood outside the door.
“They sit there and they brag about it,” he said. “Talk less and do something about it.”
