The International Labour Organization published a report this week on world youth unemployment that seems to have some relevance here in British Columbia. The study, Global Employment Trends for Youth, outlines the devastating impact the recession has had on young people worldwide. More than 80 million people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed at the [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Children & youth'
The impact of the recession on young people
August 13th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Children & youth, Economy, Employment & labour
12 year olds at work: cuts, strains, dislocations and fractures
August 4th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Children & youth, Law & legal issues
Last month the Medical Officer of Health for the Sea to Sky Region published an article in a Squamish newspaper raising his concerns about child labour in British Columbia. In his column Dr. Paul Martiquet reports that in BC the minimum age for working a regular job is 12 – the lowest of any jurisdiction [...]
Poverty reduction: What other provinces are doing
June 8th, 2010 · Seth Klein · No Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
BC has much to learn from other provinces when it comes to poverty reduction. Six provinces now have poverty reduction plans, although most are still fairly new, and therefore we don’t yet have data to tell us what kind of success they are meeting with, the exceptions being Quebec and Newfoundland. What their plans and [...]
Child poverty: How does BC stack up against those provinces with a plan?
May 29th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 1 Comment · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
A week ago, I appeared before the BC Legislature’s Standing Committee on Children and Youth. The committee, to its credit, had decided to spend a day hearing witnesses on the subject of child poverty, and what BC could do to make a difference. Among the points I raised with the committee: too often this issue [...]
Tags: child poverty·poverty
Living Wage: Congratulations to New Westminster
April 27th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 8 Comments · Children & youth, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Some great news to share on the living wage front. Last night (April 26), New Westminster City Council voted unanimously to adopt the first municipal Living Wage policy in Canada. They have used the broad definition of the family living wage, developed two years ago by CCPA, First Call and the Victoria Community Council (meaning, [...]
Tags: child poverty·living wage·poverty
Women in the Canadian Economy
March 8th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 6 Comments · Children & youth, Economy, Women
Last weekend, I spoke at a community event celebrating International Women’s Day in Vancouver. It got me thinking about the status of women in the Canadian economy, reflecting both on the successes over the last half century and on the areas where work is still needed to achieve gender equality. As a young woman in [...]
Tags: gender inequality·Women
Child Poverty in BC — taking a look back
January 15th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
In response to the provincial government’s efforts to explain away child poverty stats, First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition (which produces the annual BC child poverty report card) has started to produce monthly fact sheets to set the record straight. The first of these short reports was posted to their website this week. [...]
Tags: child poverty·poverty
Healthy eating put out of reach for the poor
December 16th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 5 Comments · Children & youth, Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Remember the Premier’s “Great Golden Goal” (G3?) about healthy eating? True, we don’t hear so much about it these days. But it was a laudable goal. Eating a healthy diet is important if we are to improve the overall health of the population, and thereby help to slow rising health care costs. And it’s particularly [...]
The catch-22 of low-income benefits that are phased out quickly
October 9th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 8 Comments · Children & youth, Employment & labour, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Women
My friend Emily is a single mom. She works full time for a salary that keeps her and her child above the poverty line but doesn’t allow for much more. Her income is low enough that she qualifies for temporary relief from paying her student loans (which are massive even though she is yet to [...]
The recent secretive, haphazard spending cuts should be repealed
September 23rd, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · Children & youth, Economy, Education, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability, Women
Almost daily we wake up to news of yet another important program or initiative whose funding has been cut by the BC government. Literacy initiatives, high school sports, programs that protect women and children from violence, arts and culture: hardly an area of social service provision has been spared. These cuts have been devastating to [...]
Tags: accountability·budget·children·deficit·role of government·service cuts·Women
