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POLITICS
B.C. not planning to roll out poverty plan
Minister of Child and Family does not see the value in creating a plan
by SHEETAL REDDY
“There are only two ways to address poverty. One of those is to grow the economy and create jobs for families, and the other is to target supports for individuals and families that need that support. In British Columbia, we are doing both of those things.” — Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Child and Family
Despite rolling out several new measures to reduce the province’s high rates of child poverty, the B.C. Liberals have no intention of creating a poverty reduction plan.
Last year, First Call, B.C.’s Child and Youth coalition, released a report card which reported that one in five children in British Columbia lives below the poverty line. The province’s rate of child poverty remains higher than the national average of one in 10 children living in poverty. The coalition has been recommending that the province create a poverty reduction plan for the past six years, which the provincial government continues to resist. Currently, a petition calling for a poverty reduction plan, created by B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition, has the support of more than 400 signatures from different organizations, including the BC Federation of Labour and BC Civil Liberties Association.
While acknowledging that more needs to be done to address the issue, Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Child and Family, does not see the value of creating a poverty reduction plan with timelines and targets. B.C. and Saskatchewan are the two remaining provinces in Canada without a poverty reduction plan either legislated or in the process of being legislated.
“Well, we just don’t have something that is called a poverty reduction plan, but in fact we have all sorts of services and supports that are in place to support people,” said Cadieux in a phone interview on March 20, 2015.
“If you were to look at the plans throughout the country that have ... you will find that they are all very different. Some of them are not particularly informative of what they’re doing or what they intend to achieve. When you look at them and you look at the results, you will find that there is no correlation between having a plan in place and actually reducing child poverty.”
Some provinces in Canada that do have a poverty plan include Québec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. All have experienced varying degrees of success after legislating a plan. Québec, the first province to implement a poverty reduction plan, is the most measurable in terms of poverty reduction rates according to available data. The province experienced a significant reduction in poverty after implementing a five-year plan. According to a committee report from the federal government, the percentage of people living on low incomes in Québec fell from 12 per cent in 2002 to 10.7 per cent in 2007. The percentage of children living in low income families decreased from 11.3 per cent to 9.5 per cent. The rates of child poverty decreased by 18.5 per cent within the same five-year period.
The minister does not believe a legislated plan would be an effective solution to reducing child poverty in British Columbia. “I think its shortsighted actually in many respects to look at creating a piece of paper and saying somehow that if we just say it, it will somehow be done. I’m more focused on doing it,” she said.
As recently as this March, the province passed a motion that will increase the minimum wage by 20 cents in September. Other measures include removing child support clawbacks, which took place last February. After much demand and protest by both the NDP and anti-poverty activists, the B.C. Liberals scrapped the practice that would not allow parents access to child support payments if they were receiving income assistance.
In the budget released for 2016-'17, the B.C. Liberal government has provided an additional $20 million dollars for its income assistance program for 2016, and British Columbians will now be able to earn up to $19,000 dollars before having to pay taxes.
“There are only two ways to address poverty. One of those is to grow the economy and create jobs for families, and the other is to target supports for individuals and families that need that support. In British Columbia, we are doing both of those things,” she said.
A new tax benefit for families with children under the age of six, will grant them $660 a year. The minister said that the tax break will assist about 180,000 families. Also announced in the budget, changes to B.C.’S income and disabilities program will allow single parents who are on income or disability assistance to stay on income assistance for up to 12 months while they train for a job.
“We are not going to legislate a plan, but we are committed to continuing to support people with targeted supports and improving on them where we can,” Cadieux