Land Acknowledgement
Raise the Rates is a broad coalition working across all of Ontario. That work, and the work of our member organizations, takes place on traditional Indigenous territories across land governed by 46 treaties and agreements. Recognizing and respecting the longstanding history of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people, and their continued presence and contribution to communities across Ontario is essential to dismantling ongoing colonialism and the oppressive systems that establish and further entrench colonialism.
What Binds Us
Raise the Rates is always excited for new organizations and individuals to join. We are united by a single guiding mission – to meaningfully increase the rates of social assistance to allow all Ontarians to live with dignity.
That, however, is not enough to guide our movement. Members of the coalition have politics that cut across parties and issues. Our Basis of Unity lays out a common direction and guiding principles for how we work in relationship to one another, the value of lived experience, and the vision for a more inclusive and equitable society we are advancing.
Our Values
We make space. Our coalition has members who are activists volunteering their time, people with critical lived experience, and paid staff members or allied organizations. All perspectives are welcome – but we endeavor to elevate and privilege voices that are not often heard or have been historically ignored.
We build collective power through community-based organizing. We commit to being courageous in how we advocate, we are supportive of those willing to share personal experiences, and we are undaunted by challenges we face as we bring more partners and allies into our coalition to push for real change.
We start with respect. Ending legislated poverty isn’t only about outcomes – it demands a different answer to the question of what we owe our fellow humans. That starts in how we relate across differences within our coalition by recognizing everyone’s inherent value. It expands outwards by fighting not only for an end to poverty but by emphasizing the need to embed the dignity of all in our social systems.
We stand firm against hate. While we believe in a broad tent united in ending legislated poverty and increasing human dignity, there is no room in this movement for racism, ableism, or discrimination based on sexual orientation, religion, country of origin, citizenship status, ancestry, income, or any other marker used to create artificial hierarchies and divide people.
We recognize a diversity of tactics and opinions in our pursuit of dignity for all people receiving OW and ODSP. Underpinning that goal is the inherent justice of ending poverty and we embrace all groups who share that vision.
What We Believe
Poverty is neither a character flaw nor a choice.
All Ontarians deserve enough to live and that means funding all benefits for everyone on social assistance and making discretionary benefits easily accessible eliminating wait times and means testing.
People should not be kept in a poverty trap or punished for working by a welfare wall. That means they deserve their entire social assistance income without deductions or punitive claw backs.
Barriers to accessing support are numerous and have been intentionally erected by systems of power to further atomize and disenfranchise. These barriers are legal, economic, bureaucratic, and cultural, including immigration status, inequitable geographic access, overly complex application processes, and linguistic challenges. All barriers to support must be removed to ensure equitable access to social assistance.