Tom Cooper, Director of Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction Credit: Photo provided by Tom Cooper
Tom Cooper, Director of Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, has a mandate that includes advocating for increased Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), and Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) payments, as well as addressing income inequality and homelessness. Without question, that is a massive mandate!
In his January 18, 2025 Hamilton Spectator op-ed, Homelessness in Ontario is fueled by income inadequacy, Tom stated, “We cannot continue to let people fall through the cracks of a broken system.” Tom and I discuss exactly what that means.
In his February 5, 2025 Hamilton Spectator op-ed, A stronger Canada starts with economic security for all, Tom maintained that in order to fight against Trump and his call to make Canada the 51st state, folks have to have a stake in Canada’s future. For Tom, that means ensuring all Canadians have access to a Basic Income – what I call a Universal Standard of Living. A Basic Income would ensure all Canadians have the resources they need to participate in the economy and society and that will create a stronger, more self-sufficient country. Tom and I explore what that would look like.
Increasingly, progressive Canadians have been calling for a shift away from a “pro-business” stance at all levels of government. Instead, they’d like to see increased taxes on the wealthy — Canada’s one per cent.
Let’s be crystal clear, this is not a tax on middle income folks or trades people. Because let’s face it, folks need to be making about $400,000 annually to afford that $1 million townhouse or condo new build in Hamilton, Burlington or Oakville. With the average Ontario worker making about $55,000 annually, trades people and those earning $400,000 hardly qualify as wealthy, let alone the one per cent.
Instead, think about taxing those folks who have their names on hospital wings like the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Centre wing at the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital named after an Oakville developer, or financial advisor Michael Lee-Chin who financed the Crystal addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario and a major addition to Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, along with grocery magnets like Galen Weston and the CEOs of Sobey’s and Metro.
Tom and I discuss what a wealth tax could mean in terms of social safety nets and a Basic Income/Universal Standard of Living for Ontarians.
Those of us who pay attention know that since Doug Ford became Premier, there is no such thing as rent controls in Ontario. Despite Ford claiming that buildings occupied before 2018 are still under the 2.5 per cent annual increase, that is a complete and utter fantasy given the litany of ways the Ford government created and implemented to get around any existing rent control rules.
In fact, one of my kids rented an apartment with roommates in a century old home in Hamilton and they were not immune from higher than allowed rent increases and renoviction. These young professionals returned home one day to find an architect in their apartment scoping out how to increase the number of bedrooms in the two-story unit to increase the rent the corporate landlord could charge for their apartment.
And, on February 22, 2025, The Hamilton Spectator ran an article about an older, low rise building where the new owner was trying to renovict tenants in order to subdivide existing two and three-bedroom units depleting affordable family-sized units during a provincial housing crisis.
Tom lays bare what it’s really like to be a tenant in Ontario these days especially if you are living on fixed incomes like old age pensioners, ODSP and OW recipients and are facing economic eviction.
Tom and I then discuss the role credit unions, co-ops, non-profit and secondary dwellings can play in solving Ontario’s housing affordability crisis.
Finally, with the recent disappointing election results in Ontario, we discuss the best strategies to help working-class, middle-class and lower-class folks survive the next four years under the current Ford government.
Additional resources:
Criminal lawyer, Alison Craig, speaks truth about Ontario's bail system, overcrowded jails and the need for a Universal Basic Income/Universal Standard of Living.
Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy tantamount to social murder
Tell the Ford government to end its contract with the American corporation FedCap which oversees Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments.
Ontario First Credit Union’s new partnership to tackle affordable housing crisis
Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS)
In My Backyard (IMBY)
Why Hamilton should be a ‘paid-plasma-free’ city — and, why selling body parts should never, ever be considered a viable poverty reduction strategy or means to make ends meet.
Living on ODSP should not mean living in poverty
Hamilton social justice advocate and Basic Income recipient, Michael Hampson, who thrived while on the Basic Income pilot, but died after Ford prematurely cancelled the program and forced Michael back onto ODSP Credit: Jessie Golem
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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