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The School of Policy Studies' Policy Matters: Beyond the Brief Speaker Series:

DEB MATTHEWS was elected to the Ontario Legislature representing London North Centre in 2003, and served as a Member of Provincial Parliament until 2018. She held a range of ministerial portfolios, including Deputy Premier, Children and Youth Services, Poverty Reduction, Health and Long-Term Care, President of the Treasury Board and Advanced Education and Skills Development. Her proudest accomplishments from her political life include being a driving force behind the Ontario Child Benefit, which helped reduce the number of children living in poverty by 50%, and the transformation of OSAP, the Ontario Student Assistance Plan. As a result of those changes, hundreds of thousands of people were able to afford a post-secondary education. Deb earned a PhD (2005) from Western University in Social Demography, with an interest in the impact of immigration on Canada. She currently serves on the UHN Foundation Senate, is a senior fellow at both the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and at York University’s Glendon College and works as a consultant in the health sector.