No Surprise Here At All

The BC Liberals just don't get it do they?, Words like poverty, hunger and the like seem to be a foreign language to these people. Our Welfare/Disability system is BROKEN, BATTERED and has been ABUSED by an administration that has an idealogy about the poor, the sick or the elderly that could be considered inept. Here are some facts for your readers to consider about welfare and disability in BC, despite the BC Liberals claims they have put policy in place that discourages people from seeking help, the rates are too low for people to find decent housing. Welfare in it's current state was never designed to carry the burden our government now expects. It is a ministry that is broken and needs fixing, it's simple yet our government still IGNORES this issue. We as a society must accept that some of our fellow citizens will get sick or for some other reason cannot work and that this just part of life hands out to some people. Congrats to anyone on welfare who gets work or returns to school etc. But our government should be ashamed of it's record on this issue and poverty in BC. This is not about millions of dollars being mispent, it's about the fairness and equality that all citizens deserve, So far only one candidate has mentioned poverty as an issue in BC. That is a good start but much much more needs to be done to not only return some cases back to employment but more importantly to return dignity and hope to those in need

Where are they?

Food Banks have an increase client load.

And let's not forget

Some of their kids died too.

I love dogs and I can see why that story was so upsetting, I'm sure it was to most people.

But this government's policies have also meant little kids not reaching their 2nd birthday because Mr Campbell chose to help those that donate big bucks to the Liberal party instead of those too poor to care for their kids.

He chose to spend his time making it harder for desperately poor people to access welfare and making it easier for foreign corporations to make a profit.

And then the same man has the gall to whine that his family has been hurt by what people say about him in the blogosphere.

21 dead children and he has nothing to say but he had time to talk to the media about how hard its been for his family.

where are they

buses,vans, shelters, boats
and dead

YES MAN WHERE ARE THEY..............

ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE BY TYEE AND ANDREW MAClEOD.

I AM GLAD TO SEE THIS ARTICLE FINELY COME OUT. GLAD TO SEE STATS CAN REVISED THEIR UNEMPLOYMENT STATS ALSO.

I MUST OF EMAILED A THOUSAND PEOPLE IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE TO TELL ME WERE THE JOB CREATION WAS.

I SPOKE TO THINK TANKS, COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, JOB CLUBS, UNIONS, EMPLOYERS, COMMON PEOPLE IN THE STREETS WHO WERE DISMAYED.

FACT IS FOLKS VERY FEW JOBS THAT WERE LOST CAME BACK OR WILL EVER COME BACK.

OUR GOVERNMENTS ARE A TOTAL FAILURE TO RESPOND TO THE WANTS AND NEEDS OF RUNNING A COUNTRY LIKE A BUSINESS.

MOST ARE TOO TOO ARROGANT TO LISTEN TO COMMON SENSE OR ANY INPUT FROM THE VERY PEOPLE THEY ARE TO REPRESENT.

OUR UNEMPLOYMENT IS DOUBLE DIGITS AND WILL REMAIN THAT WAY UNTIL GOV. EMPLOYERS AND UNIONS CAN GET THEIR SHIT TOGETHER AND WORK TOGETHER.

YOU GUESS WHEN PEOPLE GIVE UP YOU GET THE GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS YOU DESERVE.

APATHY CREATED THIS SHATTY MESS AND GETTING OFF OUR DUFFS WILL RESOLVE IT.

A Complete Mess

And a tower of greed -- the Campbell Liberals, that is.

Over the last 30 years I've had some on and off experiences with the welfare folks. I won't recount all of that, of course, but I've got a good story.

I was laid-off from a 50k annual tech writing job in 2003, and being poorly organized financially I had minimal savings and a high debt load. In late 2004 I ran out of money. I had managed to score a minimum wage make-work slave job at Book Warehouse but the hours were so few that I couldn't make my rent ($680), and eventually I was fired because of my ongoing requests for more hours -- the unemployment insurance folks deemed this a wrongful dismissal, so I was able to claim for EI.

I went to welfare to see what my options were, and they were none and none. You see, aside from the fact I was collecting a voluminous $320 from EI my rent at that time was so high ($680 per) that I was not eligible for any assistance whatsoever even had I not been receiving EI. They said the only way they could accept my application was if I moved to some place with rent below $385 (there were really no such places even then, and anyway moving costs a lot of money) -- what kind of double think nonsense is that?

So, after almost ten years at the same address I became homeless.

I went back to welfare to see what my new "homeless" options were. I was now eligible for the support part of assistance, but of course not rent because I had no rent and was NFA (no fixed address).

Now, the funny part of the tale is that while applying to welfare I had to guide my intake worker, who was new to the job, through the entire computer-based intake process because I, at my 2002 tech writing job, had built the web-site and eLearning system that the welfare people use. Talk about irony. In effect, I gave her a 45 minute skills training lesson at her job. Unpaid, of course. She was, to her credit, mortified.

Institutional unemployment

Interesting article at the American Prospect about the US economy.

The opening paragraph :

"When he was CEO of General Electric, in 1998, Jack Welch pithily summarized his vision for corporate America: "Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy." Since then, corporations have discovered that they don't need barges in order to unmoor themselves from the American economy."

And what I thought was a key paragraph :

"The existing debate pits those who believe that the downturn is cyclical and that public spending can restore prosperity, against those who believe that it's structural -- that we have too many carpenters, say, and not enough nurses -- and that we should leave things be while American workers acquire new skills and enter different lines of work. But there's another way to look at the recession: that it's institutional, that it's the cumulative consequence of our leading banks and corporations investing in job-creating enterprises abroad rather than in the U.S."

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=business_is_booming

Jack Welch

Well investing abroad to help create jobs is much, much better than simply sending them foreign aid. Particularly because so much aid becomes stolen and as long as foreign workers are employed they will not be likely to jump on to rusty boats to squeeze in here.

Jack also indirectly points out that low corporate taxes are necessary for creating the conditions for investing and retooling. US corporate taxes are too high.

John Greg

Your outstanding post should be required reading by all.

It reveals so well the senseless, disorienting bureaucratic meanness that is now posing as our social safety net.

There is a Kafkaesque 'Tower of Greed' book waiting to be written here.

I hope one day you write it.

"There is a determined though unseen bravery.... Noble and mysterious triumphs that no eye sees, and no fame rewards, and no flourish of triumph salutes. Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes."

r'man

Actually the Left and the Right in Canada agree that China shouldn't be on Canada's foreign aid list. So your argument is a red herring.

As for Jack's desire for low corporate taxes, they can be set to zero and the work will still be done offshore. There's no reason to do it in the USA.

The roads not traveled ... how are they available?

Some people who are fortunate enough to figure out how to jump through the hoops of welfare applications will still never be employable.
They are obnoxious, socially inept, or have no teeth. Who would hire them?

They have no education, no skills, are mentally incompetent, emotionally incontinent, drug addicted, and simply can't be trained to do anything that will make a buck in a capitalist world.

And Revenue Canada/StatsCan expects these people to file income tax every year? Why would they?

Many others can't figure out how to jump through the hoops at all (they need help), and end up on the streets. Once there, it's extremely hard if not totally impossible to get them back to any kind of possible help.

I'm a highly educated person but didn't know when, many years ago, I became disabled that I could apply for a disability pension through CPP. Why didn't I know this? Was it because my disability at the time affected my brain/thinking so I just didn't 'get it'? Did my family expect I would know this stuff and not realize that my brain was not at all functional, thus my ability to apply to the proper government agencies was totally inept?

I'm now retired and have figured out how to apply for CPP, OAS, and GIS ... lucky me. Thanks to a guy who had aleady been through the process.

I ran into a street lady tonight who I have seen for many years in my neighbourhood ... I had never given her a dime. A scrawny little woman, always pleasant but drug addicted to something like meth or whatever drug(s) makes you skinny and aggitated and destroys your life.

For some reason tonight, I gave her a toonie, and then a $5 bill.
I said: "I thought you were dead."
She said: "I've know you for 10 years and you've never given me anything."
I said: "It's your birthday present."
She said: "How did you know it's my birthday? I just turned 40. Thank you!"

She told me her name, and I told her mine, and we hugged quite long and intensely. I'm 65. She's 25 years younger and looks like my grandma. Who died at 92.

What to do with people like this? Can she be saved? I doubt it. Can she be housed? Probably. If the goverment(s) were willing to provide assisted housing to homeless people.

I suggest that all government people from the top down or the bottom up read Gabor Mate's book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts". He explains why some people are they way they are.

We can't 'fix' people. But we can house most of them, and save a lot of money.

When I was in dorms at UBC in the '60s, I lived in a 8' x 10' room (if it was that big) with shared washrooms/showers down the hall for 22 people per floor. It worked just fine. I could live in this small space for 2 years running.

I suggest that a similar size accommodation be given to homeless folk. When the TV show "Da Vinci's Inquest" was shooting at a former women's prison, the cells looked better than the dorm rooms at UBC.

Why are logic and simple solutions not ever available?

Your Article Inspires Hope And Dignity

In my previous post I noted that our system(s) of support are broken and need repair and I still believe that. I wanted to repost to point out that poverty is an issue on many levels not just for the sick, or the elderley but for many working 3 or 4 jobs just to pay the rent or buy some food. Currently the rates for an employable individual are about $610.00 per month ($375.00 for shelter and the rest for food and any other basic need, based on the support amount an individual gets about $7.83 per day for all 3 meals, a person on disability assistance gets about $2.00 a day more for all 3 meals. As a person living with a chronic illness this (according to doctors, CCPA, Dieticians and the like) this amount is deplorable. The question I'd like to propose is two fold to this issue, one how do we as a society help those most in need that for whatever reason cannot help themsleves and secondly how do we fix a system of supports that is so old and outdated?. During the Campbell administration so many offices were closed, volunteer admin was discontinued and benefits were cut or reduced. Can any government rebalance this ministry and develop a plan not only to restore people to employment but to also assist in restoring people's faith and dignity within this ministry. Is legistated poverty the only solution that a government can come up with to aid social programs?. We as a society have a choice and as a voter who has paid into income taxes, cpp etc I honestly think that we deserve a bit better than what we have in place. The government needs to rehire staff within this ministry and restore some of the previous cuts (like schedule C for example), reducing or eliminating poverty has no quick fix, it will take money, time and effort from all levels of government. Poverty is a major issue in BC and I hope that the readers of the tyee will encourage thier MLA's to address this issue once and for all. It is after all about all of us and the protection of our future.

for those who have been able

for those who have been able to survive on a
sub-sistance income.
Sadly there are few Politian or the general public that care about the elderly, sick - disabled or just poor. I believe the liberals take advantage of this apathy or lack of understanding.
the cut backs hit those on Income Assistance very hard and for many homelessness is the result. Only when facing this stone wall does a person realize how dumb it is to not have the help needed to get on with life.
I have heard lately that even emergency food and shelter takes weeks.
Start with these cut -backs :
medical –equipment and other needs
drug coverage
dental -coverage
eye exams + glasses
must now be paid out of the grocery part of the monthly income
fair appeals / tribunals liberals appointees got the jobs and as I understand it the rate of payment went especially for those who said no.
the liberals have damaged many since they took over.
There

also

If you need to contact someone in the ministry
you are out of luck. the phones go to an 800 number and often cut you off then. The liberals created a maze that goes no where - such a rude attitude.
So if a disabled person needs medical help from the worker - tough - you have to into the office. If you do get through the main word seems to be NO.
When the world started to have problems gordon and gang (if the gave a darn) should changed the rules so workers would not end up suffering or homeless

John Greg

I, too, wanted to express my thanks for your post. The personal is the political...

Thank you.