WELFARE TIED TO DRUG TREATMENT

TORONTO -- The Ontario government will soon require welfare recipients
addicted to drugs or alcohol to undergo mandatory treatment or lose their
benefits, Sun Media has learned.

A government source said cabinet has reviewed the outcome of a five-month
consultation and decided to press forward with the controversial election
commitment.

"This isn't designed to be a punitive measure," the source said. "It's
designed to help people with addiction problems which are preventing them
from getting work."

The source said the Ministry of Community and Social Services consulted
widely with police, law enforcement officials, frontline social workers,
civil libertarians and welfare recipients who suffer from drug or alcohol
dependence.

The government now plans to set up three to five pilot sites across the
province early in the new year.

"If a caseworker believes there is a drug or alcohol addiction that is a
barrier to employment, then that recipient will be required to submit to a
drug treatment consultation," the source said.

The recipient will meet with an addiction expert who will decide whether
it's appropriate to order a drug test.

"It is a tool that is available at their discretion," the source confirmed.

If a problem is identified, the recipient will be required to undergo
mandatory addiction treatment.

"Failure to comply with any of that will result in termination of
benefits," the source said.

Mandatory drug testing and treatment has been condemned by anti-poverty
groups and both opposition parties at Queen's Park. Liberal Leader Dalton
McGuinty kicked off a "pee-mail" campaign in December, 2000, to encourage
people to send an electronic message of protest to the Tory government.

"I want people to understand how mean-spirited it is to demand that only
one group in society that receives government cheques provide urine
samples," McGuinty said at the time.