TVO Today | Ontario’s housing dystopia is an utter scandal
TVO Today | Ontario’s housing dystopia is an utter scandal
OPINION: A new report calculates how much you’d have to make per hour to afford rent. The result is an indictment of all levels of government
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In Ontario, the minimum wage is $15.50, but the rental wage for a one-bedroom apartment is $25.96 and for a two-bedroom unit, $29.90. In B.C., a $15.65 minimum wage is up against $27.54 for a one-bedroom and a whopping $33.10 for a two-bedroom. The closest any province comes to affordability is Newfoundland and Labrador, where a minimum wage of $13.70 is chasing a one-bedroom cost of $15.94 and a two-bedroom cost of $18.08.
Toronto leads the pack at $33.62 for a one-bedroom and $40.03 for a two-bedroom. Ottawa is second in the province at $26.68 and $32.37, still way above the minimum wage. Third is Barrie at $25.62 and $29.56, followed closely by Guelph at $25.77 and $28.83, and Hamilton at $23.02 and $28.77. Of the Ontario cities included in the study, the most “affordable” for renting is Thunder Bay, where an affordable one-bedroom requires a wage of $18.54 and a two-bedroom needs $22.60.
ODSP is just $13k a year. The equivalent full-time job pays $6.50/hr. The Ontario government would very much like disabled people to just die, and they're offering MAID rather than help.
As someone who is very much for MAiD I disagree with this rhetoric, it's also not something that is very easy to access. The government definitely fails vulnerable people constantly and ODSP is a joke. I'd love to see those making the decisions to live on a 6.50$/hr salary, see how they'd manage.
I'm also for MAID but it has to be offered as an alternative to other solutions. They have to actually provide other options to exhaust before considering MAID! When we've been suffering for decades for want of any political attention whatsoever, and then the only thing they give us to relieve the situation is actual fucking death, it sends a very strong message.
Recently they expanded the eligibility for MAID to include even more disabled people. But no new help for us. What are we supposed to understand from this?
Is it not currently being offered only by the request of the person, and considered only after the person has exhausted all other treatment? That was my understanding of the eligibility requirements from the government website. I'm actually asking, I felt like the news were very sentionalised so I looked it up. Although, yes, there has been some rogue people recommending it instead of the (little) help available.
I do wish there would be expanded treatment options for all types of disability and illnesses, the healthcare system is fucked and not much is being done to actually help. Personally, I don't feel like the sentionalised version of MAiD would actually do much to help that either because it would just put more stress on another part of healthcare. There needs to be more for every sector.