Poverty Reduction Strategy

Raise the Rates members believe that the provincial government could significantly reduce poverty if it implemented a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy and provincial action plan committed to:

• full government compliance with its obligations under international law (UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child), to ensure the human right to an adequate standard of living for all.


• a broad-based consultation process to ensure that the poverty reduction targets and the ways in which they are measured are agreed upon by the community as a whole, including people living in poverty.


• integrated income, housing, nutrition and social policies - free of charity and stigma - focused on poverty prevention and the eradication of homelessness, hunger and social exclusion.

Other provincial governments within Canada and other countries around the world have already committed to poverty reduction strategies:

• Newfoundland and Labrador - Last spring, this government announced a strategy to become the province with the lowest poverty rate by 2016, in response to the high levels of poverty in this province. (Reference)


• Quebec - This government has had anti-poverty legislation since 2002 - Bill 112 instituted a national strategy for combating poverty and social exclusion. (Reference)


• Ireland - In the mid-1990s, this national government adopted a poverty reduction strategy, and reduced poverty from 15% to 6.8% in just 10 years. (Reference)


• Norway - which with Denmark, Finland and Sweden enjoy the lowest child poverty rates in the world - has embedded the obligations of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into its domestic social policy legislation to end poverty: why not BC?

The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right...”