Premier Christy Clark will use what could be her government’s final throne speech Thursday to offer a host of social reforms, including hikes to the welfare and disability rates.
The Liberal government is expected to announce a $100 increase to monthly social assistance payments, bringing the rate to $710 a month.
It’s the first rate increase in 10 years, and marks a climbdown for the Clark administration, which has long rejected welfare increases and argued that government’s efforts would be better served trying to find those people jobs.
The government is also expected to index the disability rate to the rate of inflation. Disability rates were increased by $50 a month in the February provincial budget, up to $1,033 a month, in what was largely seen as a move to overcome controversy over a previous decision to claw back disability bus passes.
Thursday’s throne speech will also outline the expansion of the government’s Single Family Employment Initiative, to including underemployed single parents who work fewer than 20 hours a week. Previously, the program was just for single parents on social assistance or disability.
The employment program was launched in 2015, and offers free tuition, child care and transportation for single parents who want to go back to school and train in an in-demand trade or job. While at school, the single parent can also stay on disability or social assistance, and the program includes another year of funded training or paid work experience on the job.
Clark’s Liberals were sharply criticized during the spring election campaign for not offering more support for social programs to help the province’s most vulnerable, compared to an NDP platform that promised rate increases, a $15 minimum wage and a poverty reduction plan. The Liberals lost their majority on May 9, and have only a tenuous and temporary hold on power at the moment.
Thursday’s throne speech will also contain a commitment by the Liberal government to ban corporate and union donations. That too marks an abrupt reversal from the party’s long-standing position that the public would prefer to see transparency on political donations and not necessarily a ban of big money.
Promises made in Thursday’s throne speech would require Clark’s government to have the confidence of the house to enact the changes through legislation or regulation.
However, an alliance of NDP and Green MLAs has a one-vote advantage over Clark’s Liberals, and has signalled it will vote down the throne speech the following week, forcing Clark to resign as premier and toppling her government.
