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A Call to Action Against the Cuts to Come: Submission on the Ontario Provincial Pre-Budget 'consultations'
Submitted by ocap on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 19:53.
The Ontario Government’s pre-budget consultations are currently underway at Queen’s Park. The Federal budget is set to be released at the beginning of March (that is unless Harper decides for another spontaneous vacation), with the Ontario Budget, and most Provincial budgets, then set to be released by the end of March or beginning of April.
It will, no doubt, be the same tired old routine. Agencies,services,and organizations will line up to sing for their supper in front of the all-party Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. The committee will be sent the same message that the government has gotten and ignored time and time again – that people in this province are suffering,that the people of Ontario cannot handle further cuts to programs or cuts to jobs,that their poverty reduction strategy is failing and that this province desperately needs to see a raise in funding for social assistance,childcare, and education.
Saturday, December 12th: Time To Make Public Transit Affordable
Submitted by ocap on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 03:47.
Angry About The TTC Fare Hike?
Public Action
Against Transit Fare Hikes
1pm
City Hall
(Queen and Bay)
On November 17th, the Commission ignored community outrage, and instead voted for a TTC fare hike. For poor and working people in this city transit costs are already too high and often unaffordable. The TTC deficit should not be loaded on the backs of people who need transit. It should not be paid for by poor and working people and it should not be paid for by the workers who run the buses, streetcars. Public transit in this city should be federally funded and affordable and accessible to all! They created this crisis, they ran up these deficits and we refuse to pay for it.
Fight The Fare Hike! Public Transit Should Be Free!
Submitted by ocap on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 18:09.On Saturday, December 12, OCAP members and supporters gathered at City Hall to confront and resist the impending fare increase by the TTC. After several speeches that drove home the message that this increase will massively affect poor communities, dozens of people, carrying signs and chanting slogans, moved to board a Queen Street streetcar. As the driver smiled and passengers expressed support, the OCAP supporters moved onto the vehicle, showing slips of paper stating that they could not pay the high fares being demanded. These bore a striking resemblance to regular TTC transfers.
Having travelled some distance, we got off together and lined upon the other side of the street for the return journey. The first streetcar heading back downtown was, unfortunately, driven by a worker whose sense of solidarity was a little weak and he drove past us. We, therefore, took the precaution of blocking the path of the next vehicle and we were than allowed to board again and pay what every passenger on a public transit system should pay nothing.
Our action on the 12th was not intended just as a symbol of defiance but as a pointing of the way forward. The TTC is already massively expensive compared to other major North American cities and there is every chance that a series of yearly increases will, over the next few years, take the cost of riding the Rocket up far beyond the already outrageous $3.00 coming into effect in January. For poor people and their communities, access to public transit is simply a necessity and, if it is made unaffordable, it must still be accessed.
The OCAP transfers we used at the recent action will be used on a bigger scale and we will build as much support and participation as we can among passengers and workers who operate the system. People have to get to work, to go to food banks and welfare offices and take their children to school. The TTC can't charge fares that force them to walk or that rob them of their rent and groceries. As a public service, it must be affordable and adequate. Ottawa puts nothing into the TTC, Queen's Park neglects it and the City politicians do the dirty work of imposing increases on us. They are all guilty and we have to challenge them.
Refuse to pay the fare hike and fight for the right to public transit!
Support The Struggle And Become An OCAP Sustainer
Submitted by ocap on Tue, 09/29/2009 - 17:14.As little as $10 a month can help us maintain our work across this city and it just got easier to give.
