How a society cares for the most vulnerable speaks volumes about that society.
So it has to be perceived as a step backwards in Saskatchewan that some 2,700 people are about to see their social assistance benefits cut.
In the budget, the Saskatchewan Party government announced it would move forward with changes to some of its income supplement programs to increase equity and fairness, as well as addressing the problem of duplicate benefits paying for the same needs twice.
Individuals relying on supplemental social assistance have started receiving letters saying they will no longer be receiving extra living income benefits beyond the standard living income benefits.
Effective Sept. 1, the government will end the Saskatchewan Employment Supplement’s practice of grandfathering benefits for families with children aged 13 and over.
The government will also end the practice of exempting Seniors Income Plan and Guaranteed Income Supplement top-up benefits in the Saskatchewan Assistance Program (SAP) and the Saskatchewan Assured Income Disability (SAID) program and simplify the provision of Transition benefits for children under SAP and SAID when families are not receiving the Canada Child Benefit.
Effective Oct. 1, Social Services plans to remove the exemption of the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement when calculating benefits for those who are receiving extra or excess shelter benefits under SAP and SAID.
The result, a person receiving benefits from SAID and the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement will see a reduction in the benefits they receive, essentially receiving only income benefits†from one program, not both.
The idea of reducing program duplication in its face seems to be logical.
The problem is that most social service programs provide at best minimum support. It works if a recipient is in the lowest cost housing available, which of course brings to mind the condition of the lowest cost rentals, not to mention whether every person on assistance can find such housing.
So last week a small group of people gathered on the steps of the Saskatchewan Legislature placards in-hand to protest the cuts.
The government has suggested vacancy rates are up in terms of rental units, and equate that with lower costs. While some rental units might offer occupancy deals, rare is the case that existing rates ever decline.
But the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s latest rental report in Regina, cited online, shows despite an increase in available rental apartments in Regina from October 2014 to October 2015, rental rates still increased overall, including bachelor, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
We are of course aware the provinceís finances under the Wall government are sinking deeper into the red with last year’s Saskatchewan budget deficit worse than previously projected.
Recently the Ministry of Finance said the deficit was $675 million as of March 31, 2016.
That’s a whopping 58 per cent higher than the deficit projected in the ministry’s third quarter financial update.
And it gets worse when you recall the government had predicted a $107 million surplus when the budget was released March 18, 2015.
The government has suggested deficit is caused by low resource prices, particularly when it comes to oil and potash, which has been the reason for pretty much every missed budget target in this governmentís tenure. Getting an accurate read of potash prices is apparently something this governmentís experts are just not capable of achieving.
So a deeper deficit does require the government to assess programming and spending, but even in the guise of fiscal responsibility in the light of a bath of red ink, money for social services programming, especially that flowing directly to clients is not the most reasonable place to trim.
