Response to Campbell's Promise

Nov 9, 2006: Submitted to Victoria Times-Colonist

Premier Gordon Campbell’s promise to raise the shelter allowance for people receiving welfare reflects the severity of the poverty crisis in BC. In the last five years, we have become the province with the highest rate of child poverty and the worst record for affordable housing among low-income families. Emergency responses such as raises to the welfare rates are sorely needed.

In his speech at the Union of BC Municipalities convention the Premier introduced the welfare raise announcement by saying, “Can we do more? Sure we can do more.” We agree. We recommend that the February budget not just include a raise in shelter allowances but also funds dedicated to begin an independent, public task force on income security in BC.

When Campbell releases the upcoming budget it will five years since he announced his 30 percent cut to welfare spending and mandated the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance to reduce the number of people able to access welfare. Since then, the government claims success as far fewer people in BC are eligible for help and over 100,000 are no longer accessing benefits. Is helping fewer people really helping? The BC government has no idea what happens to the people no longer accessing benefits. It has no measures in place to monitor or evaluate the impacts of its policies and practices. Outside government, there have been numerous research reports documenting the harm caused by these sweeping changes, and warnings from the Provincial Health Officer, the Auditor General, and the Ombudsman, as well as Mayors, school boards, frontline services, police, business leaders, and faith groups.

Raising the welfare rates is a necessary emergency measure, but is a very limited solution to a complex problem. Shelter increases will not help people who can no longer access welfare benefits, nor will they help the working poor, who make up 10.2% of the total workforce in BC – nearly twice the national rate of 5.6%. It is time for the public to take the lead in creating real long-term solutions.

Can we do better? Sure we can. Quebec, Newfoundland, and regions outside Canada have introduced innovative initiatives to increase and stabilize incomes for people living in poverty, decrease the costs of living, and ensure sufficient public funding for social programs. These are examples we can learn from to build a sustainable, non-stigmatizing, simple-to-administer social assistance system that ensures every resident of BC can afford adequate housing, food, clothing, health care, and other basic necessities of life.

In his speech, the Premier asks 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”. We agree. Mr. Premier, in the next budget fulfill your promise to increase welfare rates but also include funds to initiate an independent, public, binding task force that can fulfill this other promise.

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Bruce Wallace and Joshua Goldberg have supported the provincial Raise the Rates campaign through their work at the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG).