The 40 Stomachs of Parkdale

People on welfare had their benefits cut 22 per cent in 1996. Single adults are now allotted under $500 a month to pay for rent, phone, food and clothes. To live at this level of poverty is very difficult, very stressful. Each day at my outreach job in Parkdale I can see the stress and feel the frustrations recipients have dealing with the bureaucracy of government. The poor are backed farther and farther into the "just-fuck-it" corner.

Then, in October, Social Services Minister David Tsubouchi made a comment in the Legislature that epitomized his lack of understanding for the daily level of difficulty of someone who lives in poverty.

"Even if a can of tuna is not priced at 69 cents, quite often you can make a deal to get it at that price," David Tsubouchi told the Ontario Legislature, referring to the feasibility of living on a food allowance of $90 a month.¹ He has studies to prove it.

Reality check. "As a Tory I thought he'd have an understanding of the marketplace," retorted John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. "If you can't pay for it, you don't get it unless you steal it."²

What is in your stomach?… What is in your stomach?… I walked the Parkdale streets with a pen and clipboard to ask people to draw their response to this question. Shop owners, residents, street people, NDP representative David Miller, Betty the Librarian, Andy the art critic, Terry the Friar, Len the Minister — I paid each participant five dollars for their answer. And what is your biggest fear?

"Premier Mike Harris said people should contribute to food banks, noting he planned to leave a donation at a local firehall on his way home from work.

"Mr. Clarke advised him to be careful because he's not popular with the food bank set these days."³

Quotes 1-3 Toronto Star, 04/10/96

~ By Deborah Waddington

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project. No thanks to David Tsubouchi or Mike Harris who didn't respond to my faxes asking for a drawing.