Ontario continues to make investments through the poverty reduction strategy that are helping low-income families during challenging economic times.

Today, the second annual report of the Breaking the Cycle strategy was released, detailing progress made over the past two years to help children and families hit hardest by the recession and stimulate Ontario’s economic recovery. These include:

• Rolling out Full-Day Kindergarten in nearly 600 schools across the province for approximately 35,000 students, and maintaining approximately 8,500 licensed child care spaces and 1,000 child care jobs
• Providing up to $1,100 per child per year through the Ontario Child Benefit to over one million children
• Cutting taxes for 93 per cent of Ontarians who benefit from personal income tax cuts and eliminating personal income tax for 90,000 lower-income taxpayers
• Providing tax benefits and credits for the HST, property taxes and energy costs through Ontario’s tax reform package
• Increasing the minimum hourly wage to $10.25
• Releasing a long-term housing strategy and announcing a review of social assistance -with the goal of improving outcomes for low-income Ontarians
• Increasing access to education and skills training, which is helping thousands of Ontarians retrain for new careers and gain postsecondary education
• Introducing the Open Ontario Plan to strengthen the province’s economy and create more jobs

These combined investments and initiatives are already making a difference for Ontario families. Because of the steps taken, a single mom with a young child, working full time at minimum wage, now lives above the poverty line.

Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy aims to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over five years, and is part of the Open Ontario plan to break the cycle of poverty.