Social Services Advocacy Priorities

Addressing Critical Gaps in:

Ontario Works   Housing Services   Children's Early Years

Sustainable funding today prevents higher social and economic costs tomorrow.

Ontario Works Advocacy

Hand holding a heart
  1. Raise Ontario Works rates to meet basic needs.
  2. Mandate annual indexing to inflation.
  3. Increase the monthly earnings exemption to $1,000, matching the Ontario Disability Support Program.

Why This Matters Locally

Frozen Rates: Frozen since 2018, Ontario’s social assistance rates are among the lowest in Canada, despite soaring living costs. In Wellington-Guelph, 4,215 recipients live in deep poverty, far below the poverty line.

The Cost of Inaction: Health outcomes worsen and healthcare costs increase when individuals lack access to nutritious food and suitable housing.

Poverty Trap: Current rules reduce benefits after $200/month in earnings, creating a poverty rap that discourages work. As a result, only 8% of local Ontario Works recipients report employment income.

Chart showing the Maximum Annual Ontario Works Income for a single individual is stagnant at under $10,000/year. Where the poverty line is growing from just over $20,000 in 2020 to over $25,000 in 2024.
Note: Poverty line is based on the Market Basket Measure
A bar chart showing the Ontario Works Basic Needs amount being $343 while the Cost of Nutritious Food Basket is $412.
Source: Cost to eat healthy in Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph in 2025

Housing Services Advocacy

Heart inside a house
  1. Provide sufficient and sustained multi-year, flexible operating funding.
  2. Increase provincial funding to meet local priorities and increase housing solutions.
  3. Pass legislation that protects renters from increased rental costs.

Why This Matters Locally

Homelessness Crisis: An average of 263 households a month in Wellington-Guelph experience homelessness. Nearly half are first-time cases.

Alternative Housing Solutions: Over 70% of unhoused individuals in Wellington-Guelph face mental health or substance use challenges, highlighting the need for supportive and transitional housing.

Funding Imbalance: Across the province, municipalities are covering more than their fair share of funding. In Wellington-Guelph, municipal contributions covered 65% of housing services costs in 2025, while provincial and federal contributions accounted for just 11% and 9%, respectively.

Rising Rental Costs: Since rent control was removed for new units, average three-bedroom rents have increased 23% in Wellington-Guelph, reaching $2,091/month.

A bar chart showing how many households a month experience homelessness. The chart grows from 160 average in 2022 up to 263 average in 2025.
Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, Community Dashboard for Wellington-Guelph
A pie chart showing that 65% of housing services costs are covered municipally, compared to 9% federally and 11% provincially. The last 15% is covered by rent and other.
Social Services Budget Presentation, 2025

Children’s Early Years Advocacy Asks

A graphic of a teddy bear
  1. Sustain and increase Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) funding to ensure affordable child care and increase access to child care spaces.
  2. Allow fee subsidy use in any licensed child care programme, not just CWELCC- enrolled programmes.
  3. Implement a Provincial wage grid for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs) starting at $35/hour.

Why This Matters Locally

Cost to Parents: Without CWELCC, local infant care costs could jump from $484 to over $1,300 per month, preventing parents from participating in the labour force.

Access Rates: Wellington’s child care access rate is only 23%. We need 615 more spaces to reach
the provincial target of 37%.

Subsidy Access: Due to CWELCC, 19% of Wellington-Guelph’s licensed spaces are inaccessible to families who need fee subsidy for child care.

Workforce Stability: RECE wages ($24.86/hour) barely meet the local living wage. Insufficient compensation leaves programmes struggling to recruit and retain staff or expand child care spaces, severely impacting the quality of child care.

What happens if nothing changes?

Close up of two people holding hands

Without sustained and adequate investment from senior levels of government, Wellington County and the City of Guelph will continue to face growing pressures on locally funded social services. We will see: 

  • Increased municipal tax pressure
  • Longer shelter stays and higher emergency costs
  • Reduced workforce participation
  • Downstream healthcare and child protection costs

Printable advocacy materials outlining local needs and funding priorities:

Download Brochure    Download Speaking Notes

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