Hamel made the opening remarks at a recent conference in Halton region, where changes to provincial welfare rates were up for discussion...

"Imagine for a minute that you have an infection and go to see the doctor. The doctor tells you that you need 10 mL. of an antibiotic for 15 days to clear up the infection completely.

"He then prescribes you 5 mL. for 10 days. Sure, you might feel better a bit, but there is no doubt that you will need to be back for ongoing refills of the antibiotic."

"We would never run our health-care system this way and I struggle to understand why we are using this approach to tackle poverty."

Jennefer Laidley of the Income Security Advocacy Centre discussed a recently-released Commission for the Review of Social Assistance report at a poverty reduction forum hosted at the Oakville Conference Centre by the Halton Poverty Roundtable.

Clarissa Lassaline of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (SCAP) said that her group is "really fearful" about the impact that budget measures might have on the poorest people in the city -- "people living in poverty, people making minimum wage, who are not able with the income they have to feed themselves, to clothe themselves, to find proper housing."

Our food system is broken.

Farmers are now making less money off their farms than they did during the Great Depression. Our national food guide tells us to load up on fruit and vegetables, but we don't grow them any more - 80 per cent of produce is imported. Just four companies control more than 70 per cent of food sales in the country! Around 2.5 million Canadians are constantly hungry, and a quarter of us are obese. Canada is the only G8 country without a nationally funded school meal plan ...

If you did -- and even, or especially, if you didn't for lack of physical or economic access to food -- you should know that behind closed doors sits a group of industry leaders claiming to be non-partisan, objective, independent and representative. They are hammering out a national food strategy for Canada.

On April 9 and 10, the Conference Board of Canada hosted their 2nd Canadian Food Summit in Toronto, an event focusing on, in their own words, "constructive ways to make the most of our opportunities, resources and talent to achieve the great economic potential of the food sector and meet the full range of Canadians' food needs."

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