CCPA Policy Note

Entries Tagged as '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.
The report [...]

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New Brunswick Plans for a $10 Minimum Wage

January 6th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 8 Comments · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare

On January 5, New Brunswick’s provincial government announced plans to increase their minimum wage from the current $8.25 per hour to $10 over the next two years. The move has gotten surprisingly little coverage in the mainstream media out West so far, but I urge you to check out this excellent article on the Times [...]

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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 [...]

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Food Bank use takes a distressing jump

November 19th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 2 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 March [...]

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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 [...]

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Will job creation solve our poverty problems?

September 28th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · Economy, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare

You may recall that during the leaders’ debate prior to last May’s election, Gordon Campbell argued that creating jobs is the best poverty reduction strategy out there. Since his re-election, the government’s attention has been focused on the economy, while social policy has taken a back seat. But is this the best approach?
A recent report [...]

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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 [...]

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Wishing away child poverty

April 3rd, 2009 · Seth Klein · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare

This past week, local CTV news ran a series on child poverty called “BC’s Shame”. They’ve posted the series on their website, along with the full interview reporter Mi-Jung Lee had with Premier Campbell about child poverty. The series was very good, but the premier’s comments were disappointing.
Premier Campbell spent much of the interview disputing [...]

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Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

March 27th, 2009 · Shannon Daub · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Children & youth, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare

Or twenty thousand as the case may be. The CCPA published a number of major studies in recent years about BC’s unacceptably high levels of poverty and homelessness, as well as provincial welfare policies that contribute to hardship and homelessness. These issues are brought to life in a series of narrated slideshows created for the [...]

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Food as a right of citizenship

March 19th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Housing & homelessness, Municipalities, Poverty, inequality & welfare

I came across an interesting piece in YES! Magazine about a city in Brazil that took an innovative approach to poverty reduction and practically ended hunger by adopting a food-as-a-right policy.
Belo Horizonte, the fourth largest city in Brazil, has a population of 2.5 million people, slightly larger than the Lower Mainland. The city grappled [...]

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