March 4, 2008 In a province-wide show of solidarity,
hundreds of staff of the Ontario Disability Support Program rallied outside
OSDP offices today to demand the provincial government stop the
understaffing crisis affecting the delivery of public services to 325,000
Ontarians with disabilities and living beneath the poverty line.
OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas told a Queen’s Park
news conference the union supports the government’s war on poverty.
“But you fight the war on poverty by respecting people and
by providing them with a decent, sustainable income and by providing our
most vulnerable citizens with public services they are rightfully entitled
to,” Thomas said.
“That’s not the current situation with the ODSP – not when
each ODSP worker is struggling to cope with a caseload ratio of 530:1 – more
than twice the average found in other provinces.”
Thomas repeated his demand made earlier this winter to the
Legislative Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs that $60 million be
added to this spring’s provincial budget to bring Ontario’s income support
caseload ratio closer to the national average of about 250:1.
Noon hour information picket lines were set up at ODSP
offices across Ontario.
Photos from:
Ottawa
Whitby
Stratford
Kirkland Lake
North Bay
Brantford
Peterborough
Smith Falls
Thunder Bay
Toronto
Woodstock
Kenora
