If you only had $3.96 a day to spend on groceries, what would you buy?

That's a question Laura Shields deals with every day. Laura is a 61-year-old woman who grew up in Winnipeg's North end. From the age of 17 she worked in a number of factories on an assembly line. Later, she worked for the post office. Because of a slipped disc and twisted pelvis, Laura is unable to work. Her husband, Lyle, used to work selling the Winnipeg Free Press but the paper stand at Hargrave and Portage closed down. With a Grade 6 education, Lyle has been unable to find a stable job. Their stories have been used with permission.

The Ontario government has prorogued the provincial legislature, returning September 12 with a new throne speech.

The throne speech has been cast as government "pressing the reset button" following a recent by-election loss and ongoing controversies such as election finance scandals, hydro privatization, and high hydro bills.

Each of those controversies need to be tackled head on, but what should "pressing the reset button" look like for a government that is mid-term, purporting to be "activist" in its approach and less than two years away from a general election?

The answer starts with the question: what is the role of a provincial government in creating the conditions for decent work and reduced income inequality?

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The Ontario government has announced some modest reforms to lower the outrageous interest rates charged to customers of payday loan companies.

Many people who rely on payday loans have no other place to turn in a financial emergency and over the past 20 years, the payday loan industry has been only too eager to prey on desperation.

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