Statement by Janet Paterson and Moses Sheppard of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Worker Support Group:
Premier Ford is, according to him, a champion for the little guy.
Thus far, he has cancelled the Basic Income Pilot Project, which was designed to test a growing view at home and abroad that basic income could provide a new approach to reducing poverty in a sustainable way. The cancellation of this 3-year program has thrown the lives of 4000 people and their families into total chaos, due to the broken promises of our premier. The planned 3% increase to welfare and disability support for the little guy has been cut in half.
The WSIB then announced cuts of just shy of 30% for the employer premiums to the WSIB for the little guys, like GM Canada, Weston Bakeries, Bombardier, Mining Companies, etc. Policies that have been in place for the past 100 years no longer support the injured worker. Instead, their mandate is now to take care of the employers and the cost of supporting workers injured, made ill with occupational disease or killed in the workplace, is being transferred to the public purse.
Workers now face the certainty that there will be no supports for any workers who are injured, made sick or killed in the workplace in the future. Premier Ford apparently has given new meaning to the term “the little guy.”