VANCOUVER – BC’s poverty rate is virtually unchanged from where it was a decade ago yet the province remains the only one in Canada without a poverty reduction plan.
And it’s not because BC doesn’t have a poverty problem. At 13.2 per cent, BC’s poverty rate is the second highest in the country says a new report – Long Overdue: Why BC Needs a Poverty Reduction Plan, co-published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the United Way of the Lower Mainland and the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition.
Poverty rates in BC remain much higher than historic lows seen in the late 1970s and late 1980s. Measures of severe hardship, such as food bank use and homelessness, have continued to climb. And working poverty rates are also on the rise.
The report finds that approximately half of those living below the poverty line are either the working poor or children of the working poor.
“Our report refutes the common misconception that the poor should simply ‘get a job’,” said report co-author Seth Klein, BC Director of the CCPA. “The BC government, which stubbornly refuses to develop a poverty reduction plan, claims to be addressing poverty with its jobs plan. Our research points to the failure of the government’s strategy.”
The report also finds that:
• Income for those on social assistance is not just below the poverty line, but thousands of dollars below it. A single person receiving basic welfare of $610 per month has an annual income that reaches less than 40 per cent of the poverty line.
• Someone working full-time year round at the minimum wage of $10.85/hour earns about $3,500 a year less than the poverty line for a single person.
• Costs for core essentials like housing, child care, energy/electricity and food have increased much faster than incomes, and escalating prices of these essentials are placing additional stress on the already-tight budgets of low-income families.
“Families are struggling to make ends meet with increasing affordability challenges, including rising housing costs, childcare fees, hydro rates, and food costs. The social safety net is broken throughout the province, and our economy loses 8 to 9 billion dollars annually paying for the costs of poverty. The need to rebuild that safety net through a poverty reduction plan is long overdue,” said Trish Garner, Community Organizer, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition.
