TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 12/12/12 -- OFL Officers Sid Ryan and Irwin Nanda will join poverty activists and people who are homeless in a sidewalk sleep-out at MPP Glen Murray's Toronto Centre Constituency Office this Thursday night to protest the Liberal government's cuts to social assistance benefits.

"The McGuinty government has betrayed voters who were promised a 25 percent reduction in poverty by 2013 and now they are going to turn off key support for 16,000 of the most vulnerable families," said OFL President Sid Ryan. "McGuinty's austerity budgeting has sunk to a new low. While holding the line on corporate tax cuts, the Liberals are set to cast adrift women fleeing abuse, families staving off homelessness and thousands of people with disabilities."

WHAT: Sidewalk sleep out at MPP Glen Murray's Office to protest cuts to the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB).

WHERE: 514 Parliament Street, Toronto.

WHEN: 6:00 pm Thursday, December 13 to 8:00 am, Friday, December 14.

WHO: OFL President Sid Ryan, OCAP and people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless as a result of McGuinty's cuts.

The cut to the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit set to take effect on December 31, 2012 follows a similar cut to the Home Repairs Benefit last summer. These programs are designed to help the most vulnerable Ontarians to keep a roof over their heads by providing rental deposits, sustaining utilities and preventing eviction such that recipients of Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program can stay one step ahead of becoming homeless.

"Shamefully, nearly one in seven children in Ontario are currently living in poverty and that ratio leaps to one in two in some racialized communities," said Ryan. "The McGuinty government's track-record on poverty is disgraceful and any candidate hoping to lead the Ontario Liberal Party must put equality, compassion and fairness at the centre of their platform."

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow the OFL on Facebook and Twitter: @OFLabour.