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With summer now truly underway, many people are thinking about taking some vacation time off work and enjoying time with their friends and family. However, for an awful lot of people the idea of a paid vacation does not exist.

Some of them work in jobs or for employers that don't provide such benefits, and others simply cannot afford to do what so many of us might take for granted and consider a traditional rite of summer.

To that end, the provincial government is seeking input from Toronto residents on temporary worker legislation and the issue of poverty as a whole this month.

Local MPPs have been holding community meetings on poverty recently, seeking input on how to deal with issue. It's great that these meetings are taking place and MPPs are inviting solutions. However, at the end of the day, as one recent letter writer to Toronto Community News pointed out, it is the job of our MPPs to tell us what they are going to do about poverty - not the other way around.

Given the serious impact poverty has on real lives, we do hope the provincial government has some concrete ideas on this front and isn't holding these local meetings for mere appearances' sake.

Also looking for input on the poverty issue is the City of Toronto which plans to hold a pair of "community discussions" from 7 to 9 p.m. on July 9 at Toronto City Hall and on July 10 at the Scarborough Civic Centre.

Along with talking about poverty, the province is also looking for comments on the situations faced by temporary workers with their benefits and employment terms.

Labour Minister Brad Duguid, MPP for Scarborough Centre, said his ministry knows there are temporary workers "whose rights are being abrogated, who are not getting the protections they deserve."

Certainly this is not the case with the majority of temporary employment agencies, but there are some bad apples whose operations need to be curtailed.

There are some 700,000 people in Ontario provided with both short- and long-term jobs through temp agencies. We need to hear their concerns, and make sure they are being treated fairly.

One Toronto man, who arrived in Canada eight years ago and has been stuck in temporary jobs ever since, said he feels trapped by the system. "I never thought I would become a slave in this country," Ben Li told Toronto Community News.

In his case, he is bound to an agency by a requirement that would force him to quit his connection with his temp agency and wait a year before the company where he has been working can hire him full time.

Also of concern for many temp workers are the rules regarding statutory holidays. The province says it is considering changing its "elect to work" legislation which basically makes it legal for temp workers to work on stat holidays and not be paid extra.

Those wishing to comment on the practices of temp agencies and possible changes to provincial legislation, can do so until Monday, July 7 by sending an e-mail to tempagencyempl@ontario.ca.

Local residents should take these opportunities to let our politicians know how they feel about these important issues of poverty and the rights of temporary workers.