Premier Campbell has pledged that the coming provincial budget will include an increase in the shelter allowance for people receiving social assistance. In announcing this increase the Premier added: “Can we do more? Sure, we can do more.” We agree: we can do more, and we absolutely must to do more to help those in need in our province.

For a start, the shelter allowance must be raised to a level that truly reflects the cost of housing. In Vancouver, the $325 shelter allowance for a single welfare recipient doesn’t even cover the rent on the majority of single rooms in the rundown hotels of the Downtown Eastside.

In Victoria, the shelter allowance would have to be raised to $560 to pay for the average bachelor apartment. It would have to be doubled to cover the rent on an average one-bedroom apartment. The situation for families is possibly even worse. Last year in Victoria, the average rents for a 2-bedroom apartment increased from $837 in 2005 to $874 in 2006, but a family of four receives only $580 a month for rent – regardless of the real costs.

There is just as compelling evidence that the living allowance also must be increased. The living allowance for single recipients looking for employment is a mere $185 a month – about $6 a day. The rates for non-disabled adults have not been increased for 12 years, and while the rate for adults with disabilities has been increased it is still less than it was 12 years ago if you factor in inflation.

Yes, raise the shelter allowance, but also provide the public with a transparent, accountable process for determining welfare rates that is based on actual costs of shelter and food and index these rates to inflation. This approach would indicate that the provincial government is committed to the principles of accountability, transparency and fairness.

The Premier has asked us to “look ahead to a province that provides care and support to those most in need,” and to “imagine what we can be when we work together.” Raising the shelter allowance will indeed help some people, but will it significantly reduce poverty or homelessness in Victoria?

Clearly, we need a new agenda in BC, an agenda that actually reduces poverty. There is an obvious lack of public support for the current welfare system in BC as people see the increasingly visible problems of homelessness and poverty.

We call on the Premier to announce the goal of reducing poverty in BC. Five years ago the Premier announced in the Legislature that the welfare ministry‘s key priority was to reduce total income assistance caseload as part of the government’s Strategic Plan. The ministry has accomplished this goal, but at what cost? There are now so few people receiving assistance that poverty and homelessness has noticeably increased.

A recent Ipsos Reid poll found that when people were informed about the current welfare rates, 74 per cent said that they would support an increase. In another question, 89 per cent agreed that “access to welfare should be a right for all British Columbians.”

It is time for the provincial government to engage the public in substantive change and create programs that work in the best interest of those in need, and which have public confidence and support.

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Rev. Allan Tysick with Our Place Society, Kathleen Gibson with Faith in Action and Bruce Wallace with the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG).