63,200 peo­ple joined the wel­fare rolls in Ontario last year. The increase cor­re­sponds with the unem­ploy­ment rate in the province as Ontario was not immune to the global recession.

From CNews Canada, writer Antonella Artuso breaks down the numbers.

The social assis­tance case­load increased by about 20% between Novem­ber 2008 and Novem­ber 2009, accord­ing to the lat­est gov­ern­ment fig­ures avail­able.
…

The Ontario gov­ern­ment took a num­ber of steps since 2005 to help peo­ple find work through mea­sures such as increas­ing the max­i­mum deduc­tion for child care for work­ing par­ents and extend­ing drug, den­tal and vision care ben­e­fits to peo­ple leav­ing social assis­tance for work, she said.

The total num­ber of ben­e­fi­cia­ries — 365,319 — still falls dra­mat­i­cally short of the 1.3 mil­lion Ontar­i­ans on the dole dur­ing the last reces­sion of the early 1990s.
…

John Clarke, of the Ontario Coali­tion Against Poverty (OCAP), said social assis­tance rules — by design or appli­ca­tion — deny many peo­ple their right­ful benefits.

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