Essay/Term paper: From welfare to workfare

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities Essays

From Welfare to Workfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE ORIGINS OF WORKFARE 1
THE BASICS OF WORKFARE . 2
PC POLICY DIRECTION OF WORKFARE 2
WHY? A CONSERVATIVE POINT OF VIEW 4
WHY NOT? AN OPPOSITION'S POINT OF VIEW 6
CONCLUSION 8
WORKS CITED

"THE ORIGINS OF "WORKFARE"

There's an old joke that goes something like... Where do you hide a
welfare recipient's cheque, where he'll never find it? Under his work boots.
When Mike Harris was campaigning for the Progressive conservative party in 1994
he promised a "common sense revolution". This mixed with the huge unpopularity
of Bob Ray's policies, made him a favourite for the upcoming election. With
this new "common sense revolution", came Ontario Works, or workfare. (a program
designed to help recipients find their cheques) The workfare topic was a huge
issue to voters, and will effect not only the thousands of Ontario welfare
recipients but every Ontarioan in one way or another. When the election was
close, Mike Harris often called workfare his "hand up" on the other candidates,
(Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Nov. 17, 1995, 846), arguing that the current
welfare system is just "hand outs".
The decision on behalf of the conservative party to introduce Ontario
Works in Ontario is an interesting one, with respect to traditional, and modern
day Conservative party beliefs. This issue will be discussed in depth further
into the essay, but much research and (case) study went into the prospects of
workfare by the Tories.
To better understand workfare, one must understand the basics and
reasoning of welfare. John Romanyshyn wrote "Free men living in a community of
free and equal men is the democratic ideal", (Armitage, 59) which describes the
ideals of welfare. Welfare is a liberal and/or democratic program and policy
and is intended to allow equal opportunities of success to all. Other welfare
goals include giving temporary assistance for people who are living below the
poverty line and are basically implemented by using the insurance principle: pay
premiums when you're able in order to reap benefits when you are unable.
These are principles consistent with the liberal democracy point of view.
Nowhere does welfare help the community or society. (Conservative beliefs)
Welfare should help people in their time of need until they get back on their
feet. This was becoming less and less the case in the late eighties and early
nineties, when welfare abuse became such a major issue. According to the
Progressive Conservatives, this gave way to workfare.

"UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF WORKFARE"

As earlier stated, the subject of workfare was first introduced in the
1994 campaign of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. After the election
of Mike Harris and the PC party a committee was set up by the Minister of
Community and Social Services, the Honourable David Tsubouchi, comprised of
MPP's to study how the promised of workfare should be executed. Communities and
MPP's of all parties were encouraged to give their suggestions on how to better
implicate workfare. (Legislative Assembly of Ontario, March 28, 1996, pg.
1966.)
Ontario Works policy direction taken by the Ontario Progressive
Conservative Government

Workfare is intended to put "able-bodied welfare recipients to work in
exchange for their welfare benefits". (Legislative Assembly of Ontario, March
29, 1996, pg. 1650) Here are some main points of Ontario Works program:

• handicapped, elderly, injured, full time students, and single
parents with young children will be excluded from mandatory
workfare.
• recipients will be required to work, or volunteer, seventeen
hours per week, in order to receive assistance.
• municipal social services will work directly with charity and
community organizations for volunteer and employment services.

The main intention of workfare is to help the welfare recipient become
self-sufficient and ultimately get him/her employment. The full plans were
introduced in the Ontario legislature on June 18, 1996 by the honourable David
Tsubouchi, when he discussed the three major ways that Ontario Works will be a
success.

1) Contracting out job agencies: These agencies will be paid two
hundred
dollars up front to find the recipient a job. If employment
for the recipient is not found, the two hundred dollars must
be paid back. The agency can then receive two more payments;
one after three months employed, and one after six months
employed. The agency can only receive a maximum of twelve
hundred dollars per recipient.
2) Welfare recipient entrepreneurs: Many of the welfare recipients
today have bright ideas of starting their own businesses.
Ontario works will hook the recipients up with other agencies
specializing in entrepreneurship. If the recipient's business
is established, the agency will be paid accordingly.
3) Ontario Works will provide recipients with access to tools
necessary in getting a job in the nineties. ie. Computers,
printers, fax machines, etc. This will also include basic
education and training as necessary.

(The above cited from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, June 18, 1996.)

Ontario Works has been started gradually, with 20 municipalities in
summer '96, after more experienced, more communities will be affected by the
fall, and eventually, Ontario Works will be implemented province wide by 1998.
The PC government is extremely positive about the program, and is confident
about it's success despite the other strong downsides to the plan.

WHY? A CONSERVATIVE POINT OF VIEW

The progressive conservative party has changed considerably. From
conservative thought of the old English Church to dealing with today's issues,
such as video lottery gambling. Traditional Conservatism believes that "Society
should be viewed as a moral community with shared views, values and beliefs".
(class notes, lectures) Conservatives believe in family values, and nurturing,
etc. Therefore, welfare is right up their alley. Helping single mothers, and
family's with income until better times.
Classical conservative thought is also thought to have a gradual change
with extreme caution. If today's conservative party wants to survive, they need
to sacrifice some of that extreme caution, and show new ideas. Ontario has
problems, and needs them resolved. Mike Harris and the Torries believe workfare
is the answer to a number of problems. Workfare may be a drastic change,
(especially for a conservative government), but this change is not to be
regarded as "kicking the welfare abusers off their butts". Instead the Ontario
Works program is thought of as improving on the welfare system and improving
communities around Ontario by returning to traditional Conservative views of
the community as a "whole".
How can workfare help the community? Workfare helps the community by
putting welfare recipients to work not only in the private sector, but also the
public sector. ie. community. (http://www. gov. on.ca...ge/ news/ owack. html)
It is the Conservative political thought that a Conservative government believes
in families and communities as vital for the wellbeing of society. (class
lectures) The Tories are working with community groups such as local Kiwanis,
and Lions clubs, which help hundreds of communities province wide, to provide
employment and volunteer opportunities to welfare recipients.

The PC's feel that Ontario Works will give welfare recipients the
experience and tools to help them find employment, and in the process help the
environment and the community. Ontario works requires either seventeen hours a
week of employment, or seventeen hours a week of volunteer service. This is
where the community groups as earlier mentioned will benefit. Some examples of
volunteer work the Tories believe can help the communities are eg.

• cleaning up garage and old logs from area rivers and streams to
help ensure the future survival of fish and wildlife.
• develop and maintain snowmobile trails in the area.
• help out at charity events, perhaps a drop-in centre for seniors
or helping at a breakfast program at local schools.

The other main issue is the economic reasons. The cost of welfare for
provincial governments in the nineties, has ballooned to over forty billion
dollars. The focus point in every Canadian election seems to be balancing the
budget and/or cutting costs. One of the biggest and best ideas for the Tories
to cut costs, is Ontario Works. If the main objective in workfare is to stop
the dependency cycle of relying on welfare, having thousands of these welfare
recipients find jobs will take a huge chunk out of the welfare cost in the
budget.

Take the Regional Municipality of Waterloo for example. (includes
Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge). With a population of approx. 370,000,
approx. 10,015 people are currently receiving General Welfare Assistance (GWA)
Of the 10,015 recipients, 7,705 people are considered employable. That means
that over seventy-five percent of recipients are considered employable. In the
month of February, 1996, over $5,447,872 was paid out to all recipients. Best
case scenario: All 7,705 find jobs and no longer need GWA; a saving of over
four million dollars, in one month, in one municipality of the province. It
should in theory be quite a bit cheaper for the government, but as you'll see
later in the cons of workfare, it can be extremely costly to implement such a
program. (The above was taken from MCSS News releases, http://www. gov. on. c .
..ge/ news/ owgack.html, 8/1/96)

WHY NOT? AN OPPOSITION'S POINT OF VIEW

There are a few huge benefits of workfare, but there seem to be many
more negatives. For every supporter of workfare there are dozens that condemn
it from every political party and way of life. Take the liberal point of view
for example. They believe in leaving the people to manage their own estate.
(class lectures) They believe that governments should let the public live, with
as little involvement possible from the state. There was obvious conflict when
the Tories come to power and force this burden on welfare recipients. That's
not the only burden on workfare recipients; workfare candidates are forced to
accept training and/or job placements if offered. (Monitor, July/August 1996)
(Anything forced upon society is not the liberal point of view) On top of it
all, working welfare recipients don't even get paid for their seventeen hours a
week. Because of these reasons, the largest problem facing welfare are the
employment problems.
The biggest downside to workfare, is how it will affect the private
sector jobs. Companies are forced with the dilemma of hiring new employees at
full pay, or getting as many free labourers for seventeen hours a week each from
Ontario Works welfare recipients. This has many liberal MPP's, unions, and
workers up in arms over workfare. The liberals argue that the best cure for
unemployment is employment. (Monitor, July/August 1996). After the Harris
government took power, he scrapped Jobs Ontario, which was one of the few NDP
projects that was working, and plan on implementing Ontario Works as a "make-
shift substitute".
Another problem is the training of the recipients. As earlier mentioned,
candidates could be forced to pick up garbage in forests, and/or make snowmobile
trails. Does this sort of training actually prepare them for the real world?
One of the goals of workfare is to stop the dependency of welfare by putting
these people to work, and ultimately making them self- sufficient. Instead of
being self sufficient the workers continue to get cheques from the government,
and not the private sector. (An administrative nightmare, 4) That is
definitely not self sufficiency.
The money-saving is not as the Tories planned. Critics state that from
past experience, it always ends up costing more than anticipated. As previously
described, the government sponsors job agencies to help welfare recipients.
This costs a great deal of money, along with the many other civil servants
needed for the further responsibilities of the Ontario works program in society.

Case history should also be taken into consideration before deciding to
implement workfare in Ontario. Workfare has been tried in many states, and
other provinces in Canada. New Zealand is famous for its social reform and
penny pinching governments, but in all previous attempts at workfare is a
failure. (Workfare Watch Bulletin, June 11, 1996) The main reason for the
program's unsuccessfullness is the tremendous economic burden and not resolving
the "deeper" issue of unemployment first.
Critics of Ontario Works state that seventy percent of people on welfare
are single mothers and more than forty percent of the people affected by welfare
are children. It is simply unhealthy for single mothers in society to be
worrying about mowing lawns and cleaning up garbage in a forest, with little
children at home. (Nicole DeKort, www. jdkthor. interlog. com) Workfare will
affect the people that need the welfare assistance. It may give a wake up call
to the one or two percent abusing the system, but it hinders the most needworthy
recipients of welfare.

CONCLUSION

Workfare is an interesting and modern issue. Mike Harris and the
provincial Progressive Conservative party swear by workfare, yet its success is
sceptical. It is unlike traditional Conservative Party thoughts to implement
such a drastic change in the province. The change though is one back to
Conservative beliefs. Helping communities by making employable welfare
recipients volunteer and work in and for the community. At the same time,
workfare helps give these individuals the tools, education, and training
necessary to be self-sufficient in the workforce of the nineties.
It may look good on paper, but the workfare program will likely cost a
great deal more than anticipated by the Tories. Liberal and Democratic
opposition are strongly opposed to workfare because of their party beliefs that
no single person should be forced to do something, and should be entitled to
live their live as they please. By far the greatest downside of workfare is on
you and I, the working public. Our jobs may be replaced by a seventeen hour per
week welfare recipient that doesn't get paid. This has unions up in arms. Do
"make-shift jobs" help welfare recipients break the dependency cycle on welfare?
These answers and more will soon be answered after the results are in from the
first wave of welfare reform in Ontario.


WORKS CITED

Armitage, Andrew. (1988). Social Welfare in Canada. Toronto: McClelland &
Stewart Inc.

Canadian Council on Social Development. (1975). Social Services in Canada: An
Introduction. Ottawa. The Canadian Council on Social
Development press.

Crane, John. (1994). Directions for Social Welfare in Canada. D.W. Frieson &
Sons.

Hansard. Ontario Legislative Assembly of Ontario. (1995-1996). Office of the
hansard. (various dates specified in essay)

C. McCormack (personal communication, Nov. 7, 1996)

...Workfare Watch News ("CCPA Monitor," July/August 1996)

...Backgrounder ("Community of Social Services home page",
"http://www.gov.on.ca", Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1996)

Henderson, Gord (Apr. 9, 1996) Give Tories' workfare plan a chance in Ontario.
Windsor Star.

...Ontario Works makes ("Community of Social Services home page", "http://www.
gov. on. ca", 1996)

Workfare Watch ("bulletin posted on Internet", "www. worldchat. com/ public/
tab/ wrkfrw/ bul1.htm") (various dates specified in essay)