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Comment: Failed opportunity — poverty strategy leaves poorest behind

On Monday, the provincial government unveiled the long-awaited poverty-reduction plan, Together B.C., ending B.C.’s shameful chapter as the only province without a poverty-reduction strategy. As the last province to cross the finish line, B.C.

On Monday, the provincial government unveiled the long-awaited poverty-reduction plan, Together B.C., ending B.C.’s shameful chapter as the only province without a poverty-reduction strategy. As the last province to cross the finish line, B.C. had ample opportunity to learn from the successes and shortcomings of other provincial plans.

Many will be rightly overjoyed by the measures aimed at providing much-needed relief to children and families, and several pitfalls in previous provincial plans have been addressed through accountability measures and reporting requirements.

But we at Together Against Poverty Society can’t celebrate a plan that fails to meaningfully help those who are most marginalized by the status quo.

The poorest of the poor, including those on provincial income and disability assistance, are well past the point that the incrementalism offered by the plan can or should be tolerated. Successive provincial governments sat back idly for decades while B.C.’s poverty rates climbed to some of the highest in the country. B.C. continues to have the second highest rate of overall poverty in Canada, one of the highest rates of child poverty and, in Vancouver, the highest concentration of poverty of any major Canadian city.

The predicable outcome of inaction can be seen in every corner of the province, from the long lines outside local food banks and shelters, to the tent cities that continue to shelter people with nowhere else to go.

The toll of this neglect has already been too high.

According to the B.C. Coroners Service, there were nearly four deaths a day in B.C. from suspected overdose in 2018, a number that disproportionately includes people living in poverty.

Homelessness has meant death for a minimum of 363 people living without a safe place to call home between 2007 and 2015, and the median age of death for someone who is unhoused is between 40 and 49, compared with 76.4 for the general population.

As part of developing the plan, the government undertook extensive community consultations to hear from low-income British Columbians.

Over and over again, people called for substantial increases to bring provincial income and disability assistance to livable rates, improved accessibility to income and disability assistance, and meaningful rent control to offer protection from the rent hikes that have driven so many people into unsafe housing or homelessness.

Instead of these bold policy moves, they received tinkering around the edges, and a near-negligible increase in assistance rates, meaning that the annual income of those with the lowest monthly incomes in B.C. will remain well below 50 per cent of the poverty line, and only a quarter of the living wage in a city such as Victoria.

Recorded as the fourth wealthiest province by share of GDP in 2017, B.C. has more than enough resources to take the necessary steps to bring everyone to a dignified living standard.

Last year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculated that it would cost a mere 0.7 per cent of the annual provincial budget to increase social assistance rates to 75 per cent of the poverty line.

Therefore, if it is not a question of resources, it comes down to political will.

While the plan will no doubt do some good for some people, it has exposed the hard truth that our community members relegated to the most extreme forms of poverty do not enjoy the same level of priority from this government.

And while measures in the plan might be a step in the right direction, incremental steps forward are simply not enough for the people whose lives were depending on this.

Jennifer Matthews, who holds a master’s degree in social work, is a legal advocate with Together Against Poverty Society in Victoria.