Carl DeLine

Those who feed the poor in Calgary expect a rush to their doors following the province’s dramatic cuts to welfare benefits for single people.

“We’re going to get whammied,” predicts Carl DeLine of the Inter-Faith Food Bank, which gives out food hampers.

“We’re anticipating an increase in business,” agrees Roy Woodbridge, manager of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, where free lunches are served.

The province has cut $115 from the monthly benefits for individuals just going on to the welfare rolls who are deemed to be employable. They will receive $326 for food and shelter beginning Monday.

The Social Services Department says recipients should accommodate most of the cut by reducing their rent and has dropped its rent guideline for single individuals from $290 a month to $180.

However, staff at several agencies which deal with the city’s poor say people won’t drastically change their lives to cut their rent. Instead, they will pay rent out of the $146 the welfare system allots them for food.

“They’ll attempt to live by buying macaroni and cheese but eventually they’re going to have to go to the food bank. They can’t help it,” says Fred Robertson, until recently the acting director of the Unemployment Action Centre.

Because of the cuts, DeLine is pressing harder for donations in an appeal this spring to churches, community groups and companies.

“I’m going to tell people I want a third more food this year than in the past,” he says.

About 7,500 people in Calgary are single, employable welfare recipients, out of 22,700 welfare cases.

The lower rates for singles have been paid to new applicants since April 1. Long-term recipients get smaller cheques beginning Monday.

Social Services Minister Connie Osterman advises those whose benefits shrink to find roommates to share the rent and to learn to budget better to save money on food.

That makes Robertson scoff. “Try living on $326 per month,” he says.

He expects people to look for other ways to make ends meet.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see an increase in the crime rates. And by cutting welfare (society at large) will be responsible for creating these violent people.”

Clive Mallory, of the Coalition for Support of Persons on Welfare, says the government has been careful to avoid a public outcry against the cuts.

While slashing benefits to those who are alone, it has given a bit extra to a group of recipients that is viewed with greater sympathy–single mothers.

They’ve been given an increase of $21 per month because, Osterman says, single parents can’t cut corners as easily as others.

Mallory also notes the government instituted the cuts in the spring, when it’s warm. Because people can sleep outside this time of year, he says, there won’t be sudden crowding at the emergency shelters, which might embarrass the government.

Originally published May 31, 1987 by the Calgary Herald (Calgary, AB), credited to Jack Hanna.