Ontario Works–Works for Whom?

An Investigation of Workfare in Ontario

Julie Vaillancourt

This book is an institutional ethnographic investigation of the Ontario Works program and the problems that it creates in the lives of people on social assistance. Ontario Works is a work-for-welfare program that was implemented in Ontario in 1996 as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state. The book shows that Ontario Works has not, in reality, been used to help people on assistance and rather has been used as another means of facilitating an attack on them, while providing subsidized and cheap labour for companies and social agencies.

Contents

Introduction • Welfare Within the Capitalist System • Problems in the Everyday Lives of Recipients • Enforcing Work Norms • Ontario Works – Program Priorities • Problems for Participating Organizations • Meeting the Needs of Social Assistance Recipients • References

About the Author

Julie Vaillancourt is a recent graduate of the Masters in Applied Social Research program at Laurentian University. Prior to pursuing graduate studies she earned degrees in criminology and sociology from the University of Ottawa and Laurentian University. She has worked in various research capacities, having been employed in the public and not-for-profit sectors for over eight years. Previously she has worked for the federal government, the municipal government, and in a youth detention facility. For the last four years she has worked in the area of public health, and recently accepted a position as an economic and policy analyst with the federal government. She has been active on local anti-poverty groups and participated in a number of local anti-poverty forums. 

Excerpt

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