Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force Submission to Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy

28 November 2025

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force contributed to the Government of Ontario’s consultation on its next Poverty Reduction Strategy. Read our submission to the Honourable Minister Michael Parsa, Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. We also joined with over 200 agencies led by Maytree in an Open Letter recommending that Ontario’s next poverty reduction strategy commit to reducing the poverty rate to no more
than 7.5 per cent by 2030, representing a 50 per cent reduction over 2015 levels.

In Bruce and Grey Counties, poverty is not an abstract policy issue—it is a daily reality for thousands of residents who face rising living costs, stagnant incomes, and chronic housing shortages. As rural regions with aging infrastructure, limited transportation options, and a rapidly rising cost of living, Bruce and Grey Counties are experiencing poverty at levels far above what a prosperous province should accept. A bold, data-driven strategy is urgently needed.

Poverty in Ontario has risen significantly since 2020, and local conditions mirror—and often exceed—provincial trends. The number of residents unable to meet basic needs has accelerated sharply, particularly among groups facing systemic inequities, including Indigenous residents, lone-parent households, youth, newcomers, and people living with disabilities.

In Grey County alone, one in four children now lives in poverty, while Bruce County continues to see some of the highest child-care-cost-to-income ratios in rural Ontario, limiting parents’ ability to work or pursue training.

A new Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy offers a critical opportunity to address the structural conditions that pull people into poverty—and trap them there—while strengthening the social and economic foundations of rural communities like ours.

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force and our United Way partners stand ready to support a community-informed, evidence-based provincial strategy that ensures everyone can live with dignity, access safe and affordable housing, secure stable employment, and receive the supports necessary to thrive.

The Government of Ontario can meaningfully alleviate poverty and build the social and economic infrastructure needed for the future prosperity of the province by: 

  1. Laying the groundwork for financial security, good jobs and strong rural economies
  2. Getting people housed and keeping them housed by expanding non-market affordable housing, investing in supportive housing, and strengthening renter and tenant protections
  3. Ensuring the sustainability of Ontario’s community services infrastructure to continue delivering the critical services that meet the unique needs of communities across the province

1. Laying the groundwork for financial security, good jobs, and strong rural economies

Income inadequacy is at the heart of persistent poverty in Bruce and Grey Counties.
Despite recent adjustments to ODSP, rates remain deeply insufficient—especially in rural regions where transportation, food, and housing costs are substantially higher than the provincial average.

  • A single ODSP recipient receives $1,408/month, yet the local living wage average rate is $24.60/hour, translating to a monthly income need far above current assistance levels.
  • Ontario Works (OW) rates remain frozen, providing just $733/month, significantly below the income needed for basic survival in any Bruce–Grey community.

These inadequate rates are reflected in skyrocketing local demand for food and income supports. In 2023–2024:

  • Food bank usage increased by over 40% across Bruce–Grey, with many food banks reporting record-high first-time users.
  • The cost of the Nutritious Food Basket rose 15–22% locally, outpacing income growth.
  • Nearly 60% of food-insecure households have employment income, underscoring that low-wage, precarious work is failing to keep families out of poverty.

Precarious work is particularly widespread in Bruce and Grey Counties, driven by tourism, agriculture, and seasonal employment. Many workers lack benefits, stability, or predictable hours—conditions that make it impossible to maintain long-term housing, childcare, or financial stability.

To ensure all Ontarians—including rural residents—have the means to live with dignity and participate fully in the workforce, we urge the Government of Ontario to:

  • Raise ODSP and OW rates to livable levels and ensure annual cost-of-living indexing for both programs.
  • Increase the provincial minimum wage to match regional living wages, recognizing significant cost-of-living differences across the province.
  • Remove punitive financial barriers during transitions to employment, including temporary continuation of benefits and earned-income exemptions that prevent the “poverty trap.”
  • Invest in rural employment supports, including transportation solutions, digital access, and regionally tailored training geared toward economic diversification.
  • Build pathways to stable, well-paying jobs, especially for youth, newcomers, and individuals facing systemic barriers.

2. Getting people housed—and keeping them housed—through expanded non-market housing, supportive housing, and stronger tenant protections

Housing affordability is the most urgent and rapidly worsening crisis in Bruce and Grey Counties. Local data shows:

  • Average rents in Grey–Bruce have increased by more than 40–60% since 2019, with one-bedroom units now regularly exceeding $1,400–$1,700/month.
  • Vacancy rates remain below 1% in many communities—functionally zero.
  • More than 50% of renters are living in core housing need, unable to secure affordable, suitable housing.
  • Rural homelessness has grown dramatically, with both counties documenting sharp increases in chronic homelessness, encampments, and hidden homelessness.
  • Indigenous residents continue to face disproportionately high barriers to suitable, safe, and affordable housing.

Deeply affordable housing options are disappearing, while market rents climb far beyond what low-income households can manage. Local shelters, motels, and emergency systems are overwhelmed, and both counties continue to rely heavily on costly, short-term emergency accommodations without sustainable provincial funding.

To address rural housing need and ensure residents can both access and maintain stable housing, the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force recommends that the Ontario government:

  • Invest substantially in non-market and supportive housing, recognizing the lack of private-sector solutions for deeply affordable units in rural communities.
  • Provide provincial surplus land to non-profit and co-operative housing providers, ensuring new developments are deeply affordable.
  • Create a provincial non-profit acquisition fund to preserve existing affordable rental housing stock before it is lost to private redevelopment.
  • Support rural municipalities with dedicated funding for housing project development, given limited in-house planning and development capacity.
  • Strengthen eviction prevention measures and ensure low-income renters have access to legal supports, arrears programs, and rent stabilization.
  • Fund Indigenous-led housing solutions, developed and delivered by Indigenous communities.
  • Expand emergency and transitional housing for women and children fleeing violence, recognizing the acute service pressures across Bruce and Grey.

3. Ensuring the sustainability of community services that rural residents depend on

Community agencies across Bruce and Grey Counties provide critical services—food access, housing stabilization, mental health supports, transportation assistance, harm reduction, settlement services, and more. Yet these organizations are under unprecedented strain.

Local realities include:

  • Historic levels of demand, particularly for food security, mental health, addictions, housing, and income navigation supports.
  • Chronic staffing shortages, worsened by low wages, job precarity, burnout, and lack of sustainable funding.
  • Rapidly increasing operating costs, with no corresponding increases in program funding.
  • Declining volunteerism and charitable giving—key pillars of rural service delivery.

The non-profit sector is a major contributor to the Bruce–Grey regional economy, but without stable provincial investment, the capacity of organizations to meet growing community needs is rapidly eroding.

We urge the Government of Ontario to:

  • Transition to long-term, stable, flexible operational funding that reflects the true cost of service delivery—including inflation and competitive wages.
  • Develop a province-wide nonprofit workforce strategy, addressing recruitment, retention, training, and wage parity.
  • Fund innovative rural service models, including mobile, outreach-based, hub-and-spoke, and co-located services.
  • Support initiatives to restore volunteerism and strengthen charitable giving, critical in rural communities.
  • Create a dedicated provincial home for the social services sector, improving coordination across ministries and systems.

In Conclusion

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force thanks the Government of Ontario for the opportunity to contribute to the development of the 2025–2030 Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Rural poverty in Bruce and Grey Counties is deepening and accelerating. A bold, measurable provincial strategy—grounded in evidence, equity, and community expertise—is urgently needed. We stand ready to work with the provincial government, municipalities, Indigenous partners, and community organizations to build a future where everyone in Bruce and Grey Counties has the resources, housing, supports, and opportunities they need to thrive.

Now is the time for coordinated action, sustained investment, and meaningful commitment to reducing poverty across all Ontario communities—including rural regions too often left behind.

jillumbach Advocacy, Media

Poverty reduction key to fairer, more prosperous Ontario

By: Sarah Blackstock Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Published on Wed Dec 04 20

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Five years ago this week, the Ontario government embarked on a bold and historic challenge to reduce child and family poverty across our province by 25 per cent by 2013. While it appears Ontario will fall short of its “25 in 5” target, the province has made some progress and laid three critical building blocks that should provide the foundation for its next five-year strategy, expected in early 2014.

The first building block was forged in understanding the connection between fairness and economic prosperity. Ontario should take a page from the response to the most recent economic downturn, where a rising consensus emerged – including World Bank economists and finance ministers of all political stripes – that fighting poverty is required to grow our economy.

Ontario’s 2008 maxim that “we need all hands on deck” to drive our province’s recovery rings as true today as it did then. In an increasingly competitive global economy, it is crucial that we maximize the potential of every Ontarian to both participate in and benefit from economic activity. In a time of fiscal challenges, governments must invest in pathways to opportunity or be saddled with rising costs in health care and social services borne of persistent poverty.

Ontario’s second building block against poverty comes from knowing that good intentions alone cannot sustain a long-term commitment to poverty. Clear goals backed up with a comprehensive strategy must be part of the roadmap to progress.

The government’s willingness to set a clear “25 in 5” target in 2008 came with political risk and took courage. While Ontario’s performance was far from perfect, it has led to tangible gains. Ontario’s child poverty rate of 13.8 per cent in 2011, the latest year for which Statistics Canada figures are available, was down from 15.2 per cent in 2008. This means 41,000 fewer children were living in poverty, a reduction of just over 9 per cent in three, economically challenging years.

Different choices would have undoubtedly led to better outcomes, especially for households without children. But substantial early investments in policies like the new Ontario Child Benefit, refundable tax credits for low income people, and minimum wage hikes show that smart social policy works. Or at least as much as you are willing to invest in it.

The next plan must raise the bar. It should seek to cut poverty among all Ontarians in half by 2018, achieving a reduction in the overall poverty rate in Ontario to below 6 per cent and the child poverty rate to below 7.5 per cent.

The third building block for Ontario’s next poverty reduction strategy is building momentum by starting strong.

Five years ago, Ontario did not flinch in the face of a recession. The government immediately accelerated investments in the Ontario Child Benefit. It increased minimum wages when workers needed them most. It moved quickly to entrench poverty reduction into legislation. It invested in community services in priority neighbourhoods. And it revised legislation on worker protections and predatory lending practices within the first year of the plan.

These down payments were critical in achieving initial gains against poverty. They also put real money in the hands of real people to spend in their communities, providing stimulus to a battered economy.

But Ontario has not always carried through with as much vigour as the challenge of poverty requires. Case in point was the 2012 decision to eliminate the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB), a modest fund intended to provide a life-line to Ontarians at risk of homelessness.

As the next five-year blueprint is set to be unveiled early in 2014, it is time for Ontario to raise the bar on poverty reduction, starting with a substantial down payment as a building block for success.

Such a down payment should increase social assistance, the Ontario Child Benefit and the minimum wage, to build on gains from the initial strategy.

Addressing the need for affordable housing is key. As municipalities struggle with the repercussions of the CSUMB cut, Ontario should shore up its commitment to the most vulnerable by making transitional housing and homelessness funding permanent. And the government should also match federal housing funding commitments.

Action to resolve the growing precariousness of jobs is another urgent step to take to achieve fairness while helping to drive the economy.

But so much more needs to be done. The 2008 Poverty Reduction Strategy opened the door for substantive action. It’s now time to act boldly toward eradicating poverty in our province by investing in a prosperity agenda that benefits us all.

Sarah Blackstock of YWCA-Toronto and Greg deGroot-Maggetti of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario represent the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction.

jillumbach Advocacy, Media

Rural Residents Need More

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force wants gas tax to help fund rural transportation.

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(Grey Bruce )-The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force is calling on the Ontario government to put more resources into rural communities.

In its updated Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy, the province is reviewing that strategy and the Poverty Task Force wants to ensure that they receive feedback and ideas from people in Bruce and Grey counties.

United Way of Bruce Grey Executive Director, Francesca Dobbyn says they heard similar messages from across the community.

Issues such as transportation, jobs, health services; and safe, affordable housing were among the issues brought up in the survey.

Families who responded to the survey indicated they had benefited from the government’s Child Benefit Taxes, Student Nutrition Program, and full-day kindergarten.

However, families with dependents over 18 and middle-aged people, seniors or those almost at retirement age are not eligible for these benefits.

The Poverty Task Force asked area MPP’s for comments on the submission, and both Bruce Grey Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker and Huron Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson contributed to the report.

Thompson says the Task force report is a testament to the years of neglect by the Liberal government.

She promises to continue to push for rural Ontario’s fair share through lower energy bills, and a fair share of the gas tax for rural residents so we can invest in transportation.

MPP Walker says the gas tax is the most persistent anti-rural policy of the last decade.

He says they want immediate action from the government to allocate a fair portion of the gas tax to all rural communities so we can meet our transportation and infrastructure needs.

The task force report is being sent off to Queens Park.

jillumbach Advocacy, Media, Partner Activities, Research

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force and area MPPs issue feedback on provincial poverty reduction strategy

3 October 2013

Joint Media Release

The Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force is calling on the Ontario government to put more resources into rural communities in its updated Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy.

The Ontario government is reviewing its Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Poverty Task Force wants to ensure that they receive feedback and ideas from people in Bruce and Grey counties.  The Task Force’s recent submission to the government’s review is a summary of voices from low-income families across both counties.

“We heard similar messages from across the community,” said Francesca Dobbyn, United Way of Grey Bruce, “Issues such as transportation, jobs, health services; and safe, affordable housing along with service gaps as most of the poverty reduction has been focused on children.”

Families responded that they had benefited from the government’s investments in Child Benefit Taxes, Student Nutrition Program, Healthy Smiles dental program, and full-day kindergarten. However, those families with dependents over 18 and middle-aged people, seniors or those almost at retirement age are not eligible for these benefits.

See the full submission report: PTF Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy Review_Submission_2 Oct 2013

The Poverty Task Force asked area MPPs for comments on the submission:

“This report is a testament to the years of neglect by this government. I and my colleagues will continue to push for rural Ontario’s fair share through our policy proposals that include fresh food for local food banks, lower energy bills, and a fair share of the gas tax for rural residents so we can invest in transportation and ensure our communities are sustainable over the long-term.”
– Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce

“The gas tax is the most persistent anti-rural policy of the last decade. We want immediate action from this government to allocate a fair portion of the gas tax to all rural communities so we can meet our transportation and infrastructure needs. Rural Ontario has an enormous opportunity for growth, and so the sooner this government starts supporting our policies, the sooner we will ignite a comeback for rural communities.”
– Bill Walker, MPP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound

The Poverty Task Force, a group of agencies and grassroots groups across Grey and Bruce Counties have joined together to address issues of poverty.

For more information on the Poverty Task Force please contact Francesca Dobbyn at 519 376 1560

For MPP Lisa Thompson please call 519-396-3007 or 416-325-3467

For MPP Bill Walker please call 519-371-2421 or 416-325-6242