As the CERB Benefits transition to the new EI,  Ontario is planning to claw back, dollar for dollar, any transitional EI benefits, claimed by disabled peoples' spouses, from a disabled recipients ODSP benefit, leaving their families in financial hardship! With the pandemic still placing this vulnerable group at risk, how is this acceptable?

When CERB was introduced to financially support Canadians during the initial stages of Covid 19, the Ontario Government had initially planned to claw back ODSP benefits from disabled recipients' Spouses receiving CERB, dollar for dollar, or 100 percent, which would have left this vulnerable group in dire financial circumstances!

After a major public outcry from social service agencies, health care providers and human rights organizations, the Federal Government negotiated with Ontario to treat CERB as income and prevented disabled citizens from completely losing their ODSP funding and benefits!

As it stands, when CERB is phased into the new EI, Ontario plans to do the EXACT dollar for dollar clawback on any EI received by the disabled and their families! 

How is this fair to spouses of ODSP recipients, who have WORKED to pay into the EI system? Why are these workers being penalized because their spouse is disabled? Why are other families, receiving CERB, or EI assistance, not having to worry about deductions, if more than one person, in a family unit, files for government assistance during this pandemic? Why should ODSP Recipients be treated differently? Ontario's treatment of ODSP Recipients, their laid-off spouses and families is discriminatory and unconstitutional!

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms Act, section 15 states that everyone must be treated equally including any benefits that are offered to one MUST be given to all!

Despite receiving recommendations from the Federal Government, social service agencies, health care providers and human rights organizations, despite phone calls, emails and petitions to address this issue, Ontario is choosing to completely ignore it's most vulnerable citizens! They have even managed a media blackout on this issue! The Ontario Government has, once again, showed it's disdain for their most vulnerable citizens!

We request the following;

-Request that the Federal Government re-negotiate, with the Ontario Government, to stop the dollar for dollar clawback from ODSP recipients, whose spouses are receiving EI, as this pandemic is not over!

-Request that the Ontario Government treat any of the new EI received, during the Pandemic, with the same rule as earned income, as negotiated with the Federal Government for CERB. This will help ODSP and their families. The extra money saved by Ontario, as was the case for CERB, could be used to help those not eligible for EI, as was the case for CERB ineligibility.

- That the Ontario Government be more compassionate to its most vulnerable by not using a federal benefit to save money off the backs of disabled recipients!

-For the Government of Ontario to be more transparent in their communication to ODSP recipients directly, and publicly! During the initial stages of Covid 19 funding, many ODSP recipients waited in dread, not knowing what their financial situation would be, which caused undue stress on Ontario's most vulnerable! This is happening now, with the CERB to EI transition! 

- For Ontario Premier Ford to fulfill his promise of "We got your back"...to include the most vulnerable in Ontario...the disabled and their spouses, whom have lost jobs through no fault of their own! Their lives matter too!