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Raise the Rates - 5 Demands
BC needs a long term Poverty Reduction Strategy. However, in the short term, 5 simple policy changes would lift hundreds of thousands of BC’s poorest residents out of poverty and homeless people off the streets:
- Increase income assistance rates for all, including people with disabilities, to a level that provides an adequate living standard; index new rates to the cost of living. More>>
- Remove the arbitrary barriers that keep people in need from receiving income assistance, including the 2-year independence test, the 3-week work search, employment plans, web orientation, lack of transportation, and inordinate documentation demands; guarantee access to income assistance for all BC residents regardless of citizenship status or participation in immigrant sponsorship. More >>
- End the clawbacks – let all people on income assistance have an earnings exemption of $500/month and allow parents to keep all child support payments. More >>
- Increase the minimum wage to $10/hour and index to inflation; ensure that all workers get at least $10 an hour; end the $6 training wage. More >>
- Build at least 2000 units of non-market social housing per year in addition to assisted living units and shelter beds. More >>
Complete document (PDF)
The Appalling Situation
We are shocked by the scandalous and continuing existence of abject poverty in a province experiencing a long-term boom and boasting a budget surplus of $4.1 billion in 2007. This is clearly an infringement of the human rights of BC’s vulnerable people.
Some statistics:
International Human Rights
What
does the United Nations say about Canada’s
record on poverty?
The key point is that BC continues to act in violation
of its obligations under international law to respect, protect and
fulfill the fundamental rights of vulnerable British Columbians to food,
clothing,
and shelter.
Postcard Campaign
Send a postcard to Gordon Campbell
 
to tell him you want action now.
Poverty Olympics February 3, 2008
Photo by Murray Bush, flux foto
Fun and games amid serious talk. Organizers showed the world that "Vancouver has world-class poverty".
See the Poverty Olympics website: povertyolympics.ca
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September 9-10, 2008
Vancouver Housing Forums
Hosted by Libby Davies, MP Vancouver East, and David Chudnovsky, MLA Vancouver Kensington.
Tuesday 7-9 p.m. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main St
Wednesday 7-9 p.m. Coast Plaza Hotel, 1763 Comox St
What’s being done to address the housing crisis in Vancouver? Hear NDP and progressive elected officials from all 3 levels of gov’t – community speakers – and informal roundtable discussions.
More >>
September 4, 2008
Commission on Social Determinants of Health Report available
World Health Organization
Inequities are killing people on a "grand scale" reports WHO's Commission on Social Determinants of Health
"(The) toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics is, in large measure, responsible for the fact that a majority of people in the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically possible," the Commissioners write in Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health.
Three principles of action:
- Improve the conditions of daily life – the circumstances in
which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.
- Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and
resources – the structural drivers of those conditions of
daily life – globally, nationally, and locally.
- Measure the problem, evaluate action, expand the
knowledge base, develop a workforce that is trained in the
social determinants of health, and raise public awareness
about the social determinants of health.
More >>
September 1-10, 2008
Ten in Ten campaign to raise the minimum wage
BC NDP
The Ten in Ten Campaign is all about getting as many people as possible to make a small donation -- just $10 -- in the first ten days of September. The NDP will use that money to roll out events, material, and on line activity to help force Campbell to do the right thing this fall and raise the minimum wage.
More >>
August 19, 2008
Working Below the Poverty Line
Iglika Ivanova, TheTyee.ca
Big pay raise for BC bureaucrats highlights yawning income gap.
The recent steep pay hikes for B.C.'s senior bureaucrats triggered quite a controversy. Handing out raises in the 20 to 43 per cent range at the top end does seem a bit rich coming from a government that refuses to increase the minimum wage even by a few cents. More >>
May 1, 2008
A Welfare 'Savings' Boomerang
Monte Paulsen, TheTyee.ca
Provincial spending on housing and health care has exploded during Premier Gordon Campbell's second term, and a pair of recent reports suggest that a large part of this ongoing spending may be a direct result of the BC Liberals' 2002 cuts to welfare spending.
Put bluntly: Welfare pays $7,320 per person per year. Homelessness costs an estimated $55,000 per person per year.
More >>
News archive >>
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