Twenty-seven years after former Progressive Conservative minister David Tsubouchi said social assistance recipients could make due on a $90 monthly food budget, five NDP MPPs are taking on the challenge.

They're doing it to draw attention to Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works rates (OW), which are too low and leaving people in "legislated poverty," according to Hamilton Mountain NDP MPP Monique Taylor.

The PC government just increased ODSP payments by five per cent and promised to index future boosts to inflation. Individual recipients now get $1,227 per month, up from $1,169, where it'd been since 2018.

In 2018, recipients were supposed to get a three per cent raise, but the Ford government halved that.

The five NDP MPPs have promised to feed themselves with just $47.60 per week from Sept. 6 to Sept. 19.

"There is no amount for groceries on social assistance. There's a shelter amount and an amount for basic needs," said NDP MPP Chandra Pasma, one of the MPPs participating.

NDP MPPs Lise Vaugeois, Joel Harden, and Jessica Bell are also partaking. They'll track their spending and only walk or use public transportation to get groceries, as most ODSP recipients do.

Because shelter costs in Ontario are so high, that ends up eating into peoples' food budgets.

"So most people are spending the majority of their social assistance on shelter and then whatever is left on groceries, so the amount for groceries can really vary," she said.

The MPPs got the $47.60-per-week number based on the infamous "welfare diet" popularized by Tsubouchi, who was minister of community and social services in the mid-1990s. He released a grocery list of suggested foods to fit within the $90/month budget that was decried as inadequate and unhealthy.

An updated version of the Tsubouchi diet costs about $190/month now, Pasma said, which is where they got the $47.60 per week from.

"There's a big range and so we fall somewhere on that range. It's hard to say whether we're towards the middle or the high end," she said.

John Stapleton, a former Ontario government official, figured out the $190 number by shopping the Tsubouchi diet in mid-August.

The Market Basket Measure, Canada’s measure for the poverty line that accounts for food, shelter, clothing and transportation costs, ranged from $1,871 to $2,223 a month in 2022 according to Tammy Schirle, a professor of economics at Wilfred Laurier.

Andrea Hatala, a member of the ODSP Action Coalition Coalition, said the end of the month always brings hardship.

"No matter how careful I am, I find myself running out of money before the month is through and I have to scrimp and save," she said. She relies on grocery store reward points, gift cards, food banks, and more to keep herself fed.

Even before her money starts running out by the end of the month, Hatala and other ODSP recipients are struggling to get by.

"One of the things that we've learned in talking to people who are living on social assistance is that it can be practically a full-time job to live on social assistance," Pasma said.

"You can't just go to the grocery store and buy whatever you want. You have to do a lot of planning in advance, looking at prices, and if you have multiple grocery stores within walking distance, to compare prices and shop at multiple locations."

During the election, the PCs promised their five per cent boost while the Liberals promised a 10 per cent boost per year over two years. The NDP at first promised a 20 per cent increase next year before revising their pledge to be double the current rate to match what the Green party included in its platform.

On a recent episode of the QP Briefing podcast, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy was asked why his government is so reluctant to raise rates.

The PCs campaigned on the five per cent promise, he said, which was "roundly endorsed by the people of Ontario."

He called it a "meaningful increase" and touted the benefits of indexing it to inflation. He also talked up other measures the government is taking, like opening up eligibility for the low-income tax credit, as ways the government is helping disadvantaged Ontarians.

Nearly 500,000 Ontarians rely on ODSP, according to the most recent government figures. Of those, nearly 300,000 are single recipients.

In addition to invoking the spectre of Tsubouchi, the NDP MPPs are hoping to draw on another historical parallel, but from their own party.

In 1982, former NDP MPP Richard Johnston lived on a "welfare diet" for a month to protest low rates and push the Bill Davis government to pay up. Johnston was ultimately successful, as David raised rates by six per cent in 1985.

With files from Andy Tagaki

NDP MPPs to go on two-week ODSP diet

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