Thursday, December 04, 2008

Ontario attempts to lift 900,000 children out of poverty

This story has been developing for a while now, and we finally have had a chance to shed some light on it here.

The Ontario government yesterday released a proposal that they say will lift 900,000 children out of poverty. They hope to do this through increased benefits for low income families. They also hope to spend more money on education. But the plan, of course, has drawn some complaints from the opposition party.

The Canadian Press tells us howt the government plans on spending the $900 million dollars in the proposed legislation.

The Liberal government's strategy includes $300 million in new initiatives, and commits the government to reducing the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over five years.

It includes a $230-million annual increase in the provincial child benefit by the end of the five-year plan, which will provide up to $1,310 for each child in a low-income family.

Another $10 million will fund an after-school program for children in high needs neighbourhoods, and $6 million will be used to triple the number of parenting and family literacy centres in Ontario.

There will be $7 million a year to develop what the government calls a community hub program around schools to help respond to local needs on poverty reduction.

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