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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'child poverty'
Poverty reduction: What other provinces are doing
June 8th, 2010 · Seth Klein · No Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
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
Early indicators of how the recession has hit BC’s poor
May 29th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 1 Comment · Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Just wanted to draw readers’ attention to a great op-ed piece in The Province newspaper this past Thursday: “Recession slammed BC’s poor; and it’s not over,” by Chandra Pasma. Chandra is a policy analyst with Citizens for Public Justice (a faith-based social justice group), and author of a recent report entitled Bearing the Brunt: How [...]
Tags: child poverty·poverty·recession
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
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 [...]
Food Bank use takes a distressing jump
November 19th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 3 Comments · Poverty, inequality & welfare
On Tuesday, Food Banks Canada (the national association of food banks) released its annual Hunger Count report. While the report received some good national coverage (particularly on CBC), I was surprised to see no mention of it in the Vancouver Sun. The report, which surveys food banks across the country every March, found that in [...]
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 [...]
What should our government be spending money on?
September 16th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · Economy, Education, Environment, resources & sustainability, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
One question that is missing from the public debate on deficits and debt is whether we’re getting the best bang for the stimulus buck. Even if we accept that it’s appropriate for governments to borrow and engage in deficit-financing during a recession, as I have argued here, we need to have a discussion about the [...]
Tags: budget·child poverty·childcare·children·debt·deficit·Olympics·public investment·recession·role of government
Poverty reduction and the party platforms
May 7th, 2009 · Seth Klein · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Poverty, inequality & welfare
The CCPA is a member of the BC Poverty Reduction Committee, the network that has been pressing all the BC political parties to commit to a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. Over 280 organizations have now signed an Open Letter to all the political parties calling on them to commit to a poverty reduciton plan with [...]
Tags: campaign·child poverty·children·employment·Greens·Liberals·NDP·platform·poverty·Poverty Reduction Coalition·Steve Kerstetter·unemployment
