Chair of Hastings County Community and Human Services Belleville Councillor Garnet Thompson and Director Erin Rivers, (File photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Quinte area officials are concerned about the move by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government to cut-in-half a planned 3% welfare increase.
Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced this week the increase scheduled by the Liberal government will be cut to 1.5% while the Progressive Conservative administration embarks on a 100-day review of social assistance programs.
Hastings-Quinte Community Human Services Committee Chair Belleville Councillor Garnet Thompson calls it “devastating.”
He says the local budget was set assuming the increases would occur.
Thompson also commented, “That’s why the Poverty Roundtable is working to come up with solutions. All the agencies around here are working very diligently to make sure nobody goes without.”
In Hastings County, 16.3% of households are living in poverty and in Prince Edward County that figure is 13.5%.
