The Ford government is fueling xenophobia by excluding temporary residents and undocumented migrants from accessing Ontario’s social assistance programs, critics say. 

On Thursday, Children, Community and Social Services Minister Michael Parsa announced that the new rules, effective immediately, are meant to protect taxpayer dollars, ensuring Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program are focused on supporting only families and individuals who are legally authorized to live in Canada.

“They are promoting xenophobia with these speeches that migrants are stealing and leeching off the systems, which we are not,” said Luisa Ortiz-Garza, a migrant community co-ordinator at Parkdale Community Legal Services. “I think this is just an openly racist policy.”

Added MPP Lisa Gretzky, the NDP’s critic for children, community and social services: “We need to ensure that we are communicating with people responsibly and not using language that further marginalizes people that are already marginalized, and doesn’t feed into racist and discriminatory language.”

But a lawyer at Toronto’s Income Security Advocacy Centre said it’s far from clear that there are any substantial changes coming. Details have yet to be published.

In July, Premier Doug Ford first vowed to make the change in response to a media report about a tribunal decision that awarded Ontario Works payments to a man who came to Canada in 1997 on a temporary work permit that has since expired. The man survived by doing cash jobs until 2023, when he entered the homeless shelter system.

“Our government will always be there to support people on hard times — but that doesn’t include people living in Canada illegally,” Ford posted on X. “If provincial regulations need to be changed to make that crystal clear, we’ll change them.”

Robin Nobleman, a staff lawyer at Toronto’s Income Security Advocacy Centre, said most people without status, as well as study and work permit holders, were already ineligible to access those supports. She’s unsure what the “new” rules are supposed to mean.

“This is not a big problem that the Ontario government is trying to target,” she said. “Before the rules changed, they were not eligible for social assistance. After the rules changed, they are still not able to access social assistance.”

There were a few exceptions in the old rules for what Nobleman calls “edge cases” such as a failed refugee who couldn’t be deported to their home country because it is too dangerous to return or someone with a pending permanent residence.

A single person gets $733 a month through Ontario Works; the rates have been frozen since 2018. Ortiz-Garza said the changes will still have devastating impacts on those who will now be removed from the social safety net.

“We’ve had clients who are undocumented and are waiting for their permanent residency applications to be processed,” she said. “They’ve worked many years in Canada, but then they’re sick and not able to work. This (social assistance) saved their lives.” 

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services was unable to provide the Star with the percentage of people on its social assistance programs who are in Canada illegally or temporary residents such as study and work permit holders, as well as the projected savings from the new rules.

Ford government accused of xenophobia for going after temporary residents, undocumented migrants on social assistance