Manitoba Liberals promise guaranteed livable income for people with disabilities, over 60

A Manitoba Liberal government would take steps to transform the province's current welfare system into a guaranteed livable income, leader Dougald Lamont promised on Thursday.

Part of the plan involves creating a minimum income program for people with severe disabilities and those older than 60.

This would be a step towardcreating a broader minimum income program for all Manitobans, which would need federal buy-in, Lamont said.

The plan would also give those receiving social assistance more opportunities to work and earn more income.

The Liberals would also create a "Manitoba Works for Good" program, which would provide $150 million in wage subsidies to non-profits and other organizations "to provide work for the public benefit and for community improvements projects," the party said in a news release.

"Yes, we have poverty everywhere in Canada, but it's the worst here and it's the worst here because of the provincial government," Lamont said at a news conference outside the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre.

He slammed both Progressive Conservative and NDP governments for freezingEIA payments while in power.

"For at least 30 years, the common policy of governments in Manitoba has been to create an EIA system that tries to punish people out of poverty instead of lifting them out of it, and by doing everything they can to ensure homeless people don't have a comfortable place to rest," Lamont said.

A recent report from Campaign 2000, a national organization established in 1989 with the goal of ending child poverty by the year 2000, said Manitoba had the highest child poverty rate in Canada, at 20.68 per cent, 7.21 per cent higher than the national average.

The Liberals won three seats in the last Manitoba election and are hoping to add more in the Oct. 3 election.

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