Kimberly Rogers Inquest Alerts

Peterborough Social Planning Council
Press Release

December 20 2002

For Immediate Release

The Peterborough Social Planning Council is deeply concerned about the refusal of the Ministry of Community, Family and Children’s Services to act on the recommendations of the coroner’s jury in the inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers.

The PSPC welcomes the jury’s recommendation to end lifetime and temporary bans for anyone convicted of welfare fraud. The province’s lifetime ban for people convicted of welfare fraud is unduly harsh, and, as Kimberly Rogers’ death sadly shows, may result in extreme hardship to the point of death. Given that the province has not introduced similar penalties for other types of fraud (e.g. tax evasion, over-billing by doctors, ministerial misuse of expense funds), it is clear that the ban unjustly targets people receiving social assistance.

On October 28, 2002, following a presentation from the PSPC, Peterborough City Council passed a resolution calling on the provincial government to rescind its lifetime ban policy, stating that the lifetime ban “represents an unduly harsh punishment of infinite length that may cause undue danger to the health and welfare of men, women and children in need.” The City is one of over a dozen municipalities that have officially opposed the lifetime ban.

The provincial government has not been willing to release data on the number of lifetime bans imposed across the province, and there has been no attempt to track what happens to people banned from receiving social assistance. According to City & County of Peterborough Social Services, since April 2000, when the lifetime ban policy was enacted, there have been 15 welfare fraud convictions resulting in lifetime bans in Peterborough County. Based on the September 2002 year-to-date average caseload of 2,728, this represents only 0.5 percent of the caseload.

PSPC also endorses the jury’s recommendation that social assistance rates should be reviewed to ensure that they reflect the cost of living. Social assistance rates were cut 21.6% in 1995 and have not increased since that time, despite continuous increases in the cost of living. The Coroner’s jury recommended that benefit rates should reflect the actual costs of housing and food using average rent data published by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and nutritional food basket information published annually by local Boards of Health.

PSPC does not condone fraud. However, the current state of social assistance regulations in Ontario forces people to exist in untenable circumstances: it is only a matter of time before unjust laws drive desperate people to desperate measures.

If the provincial government truly wanted to reduce the social assistance caseload and help people to become more economically self-sufficient, it would not enact regulations and procedures that prevent people from moving out of poverty, and that strip people of their dignity. Instead, it would work to provide meaningful opportunities for every person to contribute to our communities.

PSPC challenges the provincial government:

• to release accurate statistics on the actual rate and circumstances of welfare fraud across the province
• to provide credible, unbiased evidence of program outcomes for current and former Ontario Works recipients
• to end the lifetime ban, and thus end the unjust targeting of social assistance recipients
• to review social assistance rates and base them on the documented cost of living in communities across the province
• to ensure that their policies are just, and that they promote the dignity of all people living within our province

For more information please contact:

Margaret McCutcheon
Research & Policy Analyst
(705) 743-5915

Frances Adams
Executive Director
(705) 743-5915

www.pspc.on.ca