« Pétition pour augmenter les montants de l’aide sociale.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Attendu que les montants de l’aide sociale de l’Ontario sont bien en dessous du seuil de pauvreté officiel du Canada établi selon les Mesures de la pauvreté fondées sur un panier de consommation et loin d’être suffisants pour couvrir l’augmentation des coûts de la nourriture et du loyer : soit 733 $ pour les personnes bénéficiant du programme Ontario au travail (OAT) et 1 227 $ pour les personnes bénéficiant du Programme ontarien de soutien aux personnes handicapées (POSPH);

« Attendu qu’une lettre ouverte adressée au premier ministre et deux ministres du cabinet, signée par plus de 230 organisations, recommande que les montants de l’aide sociale soient doublés pour le programme OAT comme pour le POSPH;

« Attendu que la petite augmentation récente de 5 % appliquée au POSPH maintient ces citoyens en dessous du seuil de pauvreté et que les bénéficiaires de ce programme comme des personnes qui perçoivent les montants gelés du programme OAT ont de la difficulté à survivre en cette période d’inflation alarmante;

« Attendu que le gouvernement du Canada a reconnu, dans son programme de Prestation canadienne d’urgence (PCU), qu’un revenu de base de 2 000 $ par mois est le montant d’aide standard requis pour les personnes qui ont perdu leur emploi pendant la pandémie;

« Nous, soussignés, citoyens de l’Ontario, demandons à l’Assemblée législative de doubler les montants de l’aide sociale alloués aux personnes bénéficiant du programme OAT et du POSPH. »

Je veux remercier Sally Palmer pour cette pétition.

I agree wholeheartedly and will pass it on to page Isaac.

I’d like to ask a question to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. I’m just wondering if you have any concerns about access to service. We know the objective of the bill, but in practice, in northern communities, it doesn’t always look that way. I wonder if you could speak to that.

I would like to thank the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for this bill. It’s a very important bill, and it certainly matters to people in Thunder Bay–Superior North, where I am. I think the problems with the inadequacy of the Northern Health Travel Grant keep the people in my office very, very busy.

The amount for kilometres is 41 cents a kilometre. It hasn’t been adjusted since 2007. I think the hotel amount was adjusted in 2017, but there are very few places—I believe the hotel amount is a $100 a night but only to a maximum of $500. We know it costs an awful lot more than that to stay in a hotel these days.

I’ve got a few specific examples. For seniors in Greenstone—Greenstone is 250 kilometres, I think, from Thunder Bay, and the cost of travelling to Thunder Bay for seniors is something that they worry about quite a bit.

I was actually just up in Greenstone and met with a group of seniors, and the Northern Health Travel Grant was the top of the list for their concerns. People can take a van from Greenstone or from Geraldton to Thunder Bay for $350, but the Northern Health Travel Grant only covers $184, not including hotel accommodation. Imagine if you have to travel regularly to Thunder Bay for dialysis; the cost is going to be in the thousands of dollars. In fact, a couple from Kenora—this was an issue a few months ago—had to stay in Thunder Bay over an extended period of time. Well, it was cheaper to actually rent an apartment than stay in a hotel, but it still cost them $9,000 to cover their dialysis treatments.

I recently heard from a constituent in my riding who is now out $20,000 because they had to travel from Thunder Bay to Toronto for a kidney transplant at the Toronto General Hospital. This required staying in a hotel from November 21 until checkout on January 6. They’re actually only eligible for $555 for accommodations. Then, there was of course the travel and so on, which was very high, partly because of the medical condition and having to sit in first class and so on to accommodate that condition.

The thing is that we are supposed to have equal access to the health care that we need where we live, and if we have to travel to get it, then the support needs to be there so that we can have equitable access to health care. The set-up of the Northern Health Travel Grant doesn’t meet those needs at this time, so I think the recommendation to have a table to actually really work out what’s going on and how people can be supported is important. I support the motion, and I would like to pass things over to my colleague from Sudbury to add.