The Ontario 2010 budget, released on March 25th, confirms that the McGuinty government's "poverty reduction" efforts are all pretense. Specifically, the government eliminated the Special Diet, a vital benefit that 20% of Social Assistance recipients in Ontario had been relying on to buy food and pay the rent. This is the most devastating social cutback since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995.

People on OW and ODSP live on rates that are shamefully inadequate. Since the 1995 cuts, these rates have been reduced in real terms by at least 40%. For 15 long years, people have been forced further and further into poverty.

Dr. Roland Wong talks about the relationship between poverty and health and the McGuinty government's attacks on poor people.

For more information about the Special Diet: socialistproject.ca/bullet/329.php