From My Bottom Step

Please be advised that I wish to draw to your attention, today’s excellent Toronto Star article entitled “Meal subsidy sought for poor.”

In the article, Donovan Vincent quotes the Toronto Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown, with having said that the province “ought to increase social assistance rates to include a ‘nutrition allowance’ to help the poor pay for healthy meals.”

Kindly respond, indicating whether or not the London-Middlesex Board of Health has ever adopted a similar stance and communicated that position to the Ontario provincial government? And if not, whether it might consider discussion of doing so on it’s next agenda?

I note that the costs cited in your “Nutritious Food Basket” (http://www.healthunit.com/articlesPDF/12491.pdf) article has not been updated since July 2006. Might I suggest that the Ontario government largesse (25 cents/hour increase to minimum wage vs. 25% increase in MPP salaries) has already been lost to inflation?

Also, there are no links from that article to any spreadsheet containing the actual components of said Food Basket or the costs attributed to those items. Might I ask for a bit more transparency please? How can I obtain said data which should be considered to be public information?

Respectfully,

Mr. Greg Fowler,

2006 Ward 1 Municipal Candidate.