Ontario Works ? Works for Whom?: An Investigation of Workfare in Ontario

An ethnographic study of Ontario Works--a jobs program for welfare recipients--this reference points to unsolved problems going back to 1996, when the program was voted in as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state. Key findings show that the assigned jobs often complicate the lives of the workers; that the workers provide subsidized and cheap labor for companies and social agencies; and that workers don`t get enough assistance in keeping jobs or building skills.