Thunder Bay – Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois has completed her two week ODSP Diet, colloquially known as the “social assistance diet”.
The diet consists of only eating what you can purchase with $47.60 a week, which Vaugeois says was difficult and even found it having an effect on her mental health. “My ability to think diminished if I got hungry, which I did quite often, and I didn’t have immediate access to food then I found myself losing the ability to concentrate.”
Vaugeois adds if there are any dietary restrictions it only increases the challenge of budgeting, which she amounts to a form of cruelty. “It seems there is a particular level of punishment reserved for people who are incapacitated in one way or another, and that strikes me as very cruel.”
She even admits that to an extent they gave themselves a little bit more than what people normally are able to have stating, “we allotted ourselves, I think about 95 dollars for two weeks, and that’s actually way more than most people have after they’ve paid for rent.” She says that means many on ODSP or Ontario Works don’t even go grocery shopping and as a result this forces them to use food banks or local initiatives like the Dew Drop Inn to fill the gaps.
Several of Vaugeois’ Provincial NDP colleagues also undertook the diet with her. Which they now intend to take those experiences and use them to pressure the Ford Government to double the rates for those receiving social assistance and disability payments.
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