Pawson: Lisa MacLeod needs to understand the working poor

The new Ontario government has decided to cancel the basic income pilot project, and to reduce increases to social assistance rates from the planned three per cent this year, to 1.5 per cent. It is a stingy increase that will give little help to individuals; neither will it save much public money if it maintains people’s reliance on social housing or food banks.
But program and budget cuts are the simplest decisions to make; the policies that will alleviate poverty — and reduce depen