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TORONTO — Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty promised on Monday to reduce poverty by specific targets, but he declined to say what those targets will be.
“You've got to develop indicators and we are going to do that by working with stakeholders and experts,” Mr. McGuinty said after touring the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.
Mr. McGuinty said his government followed the same procedure to develop targets to reduce health care waiting times, but again he declined to offer specific targets or say how they would be developed.
“We're going to talk to experts. Don't be afraid to talk to Ontarians; they've got a lot of wisdom,” he told reporters.
“I think that it's really important that, as a society, we begin to recognize that there is poverty. Let's agree on some telling indicators. Let's make those transparent, let's measure those on a regular basis and let's put in a focused strategy so that we can show that we are making progress.”
Gail Nyberg, the executive director of the food bank, said she was frustrated that no targets have ever been developed to reduce poverty and she vowed to hold Mr. McGuinty accountable to his pledge to come up with a strategy in the first year of a new mandate.
“We're going to hold him [accountable], and any other party who sees their way clear to commit to this over the next year, to come up with real numbers about how they are going to reduce poverty, by how much, and in how long,” Ms. Nyberg said.
She added that it is important to first come up with a proper measure of poverty. “Then we need to put in real [targets], whether it's 25 per cent, whether it's 23 per cent, whether it's 18 per cent. We need to have real numbers,” she said.
During a speech welcoming Mr. McGuinty, Ms. Nyberg praised former British Prime Tony Blair for developing targets and reducing poverty to less than 25 per cent of the population.
Mr. McGunity declined to commit to the same figure.
Ms. Nyberg also couldn't come up with a specific target but added: “It takes a long time. I would like to be able to close Daily Bread in 2015.”
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