Food policy Council on new workplace legislation

Susan Belyea | Jan 17, 2018

I am writing as Chair of the Food Policy Council for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, an independent body consisting of a diverse group of people who live or work in KFL&A area. The Council’s mandate is to work towards the KFL&A's Food Charter's purpose of creating a secure and sustainable food system for our region.

We believe that in order to best way to ensure food security for all in KFL&A we must build a system in which everyone has the money they need to be able to access healthy food. To that end, we support the new minimum wage legislation in Ontario, as well as other reforms to workplace legislation. I am attaching the letter we wrote to the provincial Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs outlining our support for Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act.

The Food Policy Council for KFL&A focuses on food policy and identifies inadequate income as the root cause of food insecurity. Food insecurity is a serious public health problem that takes a measurable toll on individual health and the well-being of the whole of society. Too many Ontario workers are being paid wages so low as to make it impossible to pay for basic necessities such as rent, food, and hydro.  Our FPC recognizes food as a basic human right and supports all levels of government working together to address this urgent social justice issue.