Category: Editorial

Joint Statement: Let’s Break the Cycle

The Ontario government has embarked on yet another consultation cycle on income security reform, which is delaying real action to reduce poverty.

Social assistance rates in Ontario continue to be inadequate, causing food and housing insecurity, and ultimately leading to poor health.

Research is clear that lower income and food and housing insecurity are associated with earlier mortality.

HPAP has joined several groups in calling for immediate increases to social assistance in Ontario. Please consider signing on.

This statement was also published today in The Toronto Star!

Op-Ed: Poverty Impacts Health in Rural Ontario

The erosion of social assistance rates, rise in precarious employment, increasing costs of living, colonization, and systemic racism all contribute to poverty in Ontario. This has a significant and detrimental impact on health, particularly in parts of the province where there is inequitable access to health care.

HPAP member and family physician, Katie Dorman, writes about this in her recent editorial in The Toronto Star.