With British Columbia holding the dubious distinction of having both the highest wealth and poverty rates in Canada, a report released yesterday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calls on the provincial government to start setting some ambitious targets to reducing poverty.
A five-year project by the CCPA and Simon Fraser University, A Poverty Reduction Plan for B.C. offers more than 50 recommendations for the government to follow. Some of the key items in the report’s plan include: raise the minimum wage to $10.60 an hour; raise welfare rates by 50 per cent; build 2,000 units of social housing per year; and provide universal publicly-funded child care.
Just as important, the report says B.C. needs to follow the lead of other provinces, such as Ontario and Newfoundland, and set timelines for the targets. It claims the province can reduce the poverty rate by one-third within four years, eliminate deep poverty (those living 50 per cent below the poverty line) in two years and end street homelessness by five years.
“You want to have it so that year-in and year-out the public can assess how progress is going and the government can announce what additional measures it’s going to take to get on target,” says Seth Klein, CCPA-BC director and co-author of the report.
While Klein admits implementing all of the report’s recommendations would cost an untold amount of billions of dollars and require the province to go into deficit, he says once fully implemented, the plan would only cost the between $3-4 billion a year.
And even though Finance Minister Colin Hansen has said the global financial crisis is expected to cost B.C. more than $3 billion in revenue over the next three years, the report insists a poverty reduction plan is more important than ever.
“If the province finds itself in recession, the unemployment rate will increase and we risk a higher poverty rate, making the need for action that much greater,” the report states.
Klein adds that investing in poverty programs will save the province billions in the long run. He points to an SFU report called Housing and Supports for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in B.C., which showed that the average homeless person costs the province $55,000 a year, while providing the adequate housing and support would only cost $37,000 a year.
Emboldened by a recent Environics poll, commissioned by CCPA, that found 77 per cent of British Columbians feel that in the face of a recession, governments should focus even more effort on supporting the poor, Klein expects poverty to be a major issue in the next provincial election.
Sean Condon is the editor of Megaphone Magazine.
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realisticman
3 years ago
Almost as slow as government
"A five-year project by the CCPA and Simon Fraser University, A Poverty Reduction Plan for B.C. offers more than 50 recommendations for the government to follow."
Took five years huh? OK we'll give it some thought. What did it cost? Nice gig. Are the parameters of 2003 still relevant now that the forestry industry has tanked due to the market shutting down? Is the global financial meltdown of 2008 of any import?
2003, what a year, December 12: Paul Martin is sworn in as Canada's 21st Prime Minister. The WHO issues a global alert on SARS.
G West
3 years ago
Perhaps you'd care to parse
Mme Justice Turpel-Lafond's report while you are at it Realisticman.
How long have I been trying to wake you to what is going here in the Best Place on Earth©?
As long as I’ve been aware you were posting here, that’s how long.
And now you'll 'give it some thought'.
How very big of you.
realisticman
3 years ago
Better refer to the Feds
The study says:
"To date, the government’s response (and the opposition’s) to the economic crisis has been to initiate a new round of tax cuts."
Not much hope on either side there.
and:
"Aboriginal people are dramatically over-represented among those living in poverty in Canada. In BC, according to the 2001 Census (the most recent data available on Aboriginal income), the rate of Aboriginal poverty was 35.9 per cent, over double the non-Aboriginal poverty rate of 17.2 per cent."
Maybe it is time to ask Chief Robert Louie of the Westbank First Nation Council how they succeed. Shouldn't take a five year study for that.
Did you see that story in the Dec.1.2008 New Yorker by Amanda Fortini?
One thing jumps out:
"...Many treatment professionals argue that granting this much agency to addicts is no way to treat a condition that Bill Wilson, the co-founder of A.A., described as “self-will run riot.” “Addicts need frustration; they need limits; they need structure. They need to learn how to tolerate those things,” Dr. Drew Pinsky, the service director of the well-regarded rehab program at Las Encinas Hospital, in Pasadena, said. “The more you cater to an addict’s demands, the more you support their disease. Our approach at Las Encinas is ‘Get with the program or get out.’ ”..."
High rates of addictions and in particular excessive alcohol use is, of course, a major component of the problem. Time for some compassionate tough love. Zero tolerance.