I'll start by saying that in looking at Professor Sarlo's material, he has managed to persevere through what he considers to be bad data in order to come up with a poverty standard for a single person. If I've read it correctly, that standard is over $10,000 a year.
Just to arrive at this $10,000 amount, looking at Professor Sarlo's absolute poverty line, would require in Ontario a 51% rate increase in social assistance. That's just to arrive at that poverty standard. Looking at the amount that people actually live on, we can guarantee you that, yes, about 100,000 single individuals in Ontario, for example, live on $6,500 a year. That's the maximum you can get. So you would need a 50% increase just to get to Professor Sarlo's line.
This is certainly not the case if you go back to 1992, when the social assistance rate for a single person was $8,000 a year in Ontario. The Fraser Institute poverty line at that time was also $8,000. So as just one very simple measure, you'd need to raise rates in Ontario by 50% just to get back to where they were 14 years ago.
It seems to me that, various statistics aside, Mr. Sarlo has provided us with a very good set of measures. We're glad he's persevered in order to allow us to make this point.