Welfare Time Limits in British Columbia

A Constitutional Defence of the Benefit Time Limit on Eligibility for
Income Assistance Under the British Columbia Employment and Assistance Act
2006
By Chris Schafer
Abstract—Pressing back against the juggernaut of Canadian constitutional academic scholarship wedded to the “progressive” vision of an ever-expanding state, this paper presents a constitutional defence of the benefit time limit on eligibility for social assistance under the British Columbia Employment and Assistance Act. The constitutional defence set out shows that BC’s benefit time limit does not render social assistance recipients incapable of exercising their right to security of the person without government intervention under section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, nor does it violate their equality rights under section 15 of the Charter.
Introduction
I. Income Assistance in British Columbia
II. The Impact of the BCEA Program
III. The Impact of U.S. Welfare Reform
IV. The Constitutionality of the BC Benefit Time Limit
A. Opposition to the Time Limit
B. Section 7 of the Charter
C. Section 15 of the Charter
D. Section 1 of the Charter
Conclusion

< Note to social conservatives: feel free to skip this next bit and go right to the end of this commentary >

In recent years, Chris Schafer has written and co-authored a number of reports for the right-of-centre Fraser Institute. When he asked me by e-mail last week to post a link to this recent article of his from the Canadian Student Law Review, I was curious as to why he would want to flog a dead horse, i.e., BC's welfare time limits. After all, anyone who has followed the saga of welfare time limits in BC has pretty much deduced that it was an ill-timed political move by the Campbell government to curry favour with the social conservatives in the province. The policy was loosely based on welfare time limits in the U.S., and it would make BC the first Canadian jurisdiction with such a welfare time limit.

In his article, Chris argues that if BC were to impose time limits on welfare eligibility, this would not violate sections 7 or 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I'll leave the Charter arguments to the Charter experts, but I was under the impression, like Shelagh Day, that "the government retreated in the face of mounting pressure from community organizations, churches, unions, city councils, social policy experts and individuals who let Victoria know that the 24-month rule is both impractical and morally repugnant." [Excerpt from a Vancouver Sun article by Shelagh Day "Time limits for welfare disregard the humanity of poor people (Feb. 16/04).

I'm posting this article because I felt that his points concerning sections 7 and 15 of the Charter might interest the legal eagles in the social advocacy and academic communities who visit Canadian Social Research Links from time to time. You'll find footnotes and references to related online resources in that article as well...

I find it mildly amusing that the abstract of Chris Schafer's article speaks of "[p]ressing back against the juggernaut of Canadian constitutional academic scholarship wedded to the 'progressive' vision of an ever-expanding state..." In fact, I thought it was a conservative juggernaut that was prevailing these days in Canadian social programs. As for the progressive vision of Canadian constitutional academic scholarship, I don't think it focuses on an ever-expanding state, but rather one that respects social justice and dignity of the person and that helps the most disadvantaged among us.

Yet another opportunity to stand on my soapbox and remind folks that the Canadian and American welfare systems are very different from one another:
Please see footnote 17 of this article : "...the composition of Canadian provincial welfare rolls and US state welfare rolls varies on a number of levels. For example, while single-parent families comprise the bulk of US welfare caseloads, in Canada that figure is approximately 29 percent." Unlike the Canadian welfare system, state welfare programs under the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) initiative exclude single people and childless couples, who must apply to the national Food Stamp program and to residual aid programs where they live (if there are any such programs, which is not always the case), as well as people with disabilities (who must apply under the separate American Social Security program). In Canada, singles and childless couples make up close to 60% of the total welfare caseload and households headed people with disabilities account for about a third of the total caseload. These are just a few of the more significant reasons why Canadian welfare shouldn't be compared so simplistically with American programs under TANF.

I finally understand why the advocacy community has been pushing for the BC government to repeal section 27 of the Employment and Assistance regulation ("Time limits for income assistance") even though it's been rendered toothless by the addition of so many exemptions (25) that only a few hundred cases were affected (rather than thousands). It's because as long as there is a section 27 in the regulations, social conservatives will be pressing back against the juggernaut of BC common sense and decency by demanding that those time limits be implemented and enforced, and they will continue to present arguments like those in this article to support their case.

Welfare time limits may not be a contravention of the Charter - but that still doesn't make them good social policy.

In April 2002, British Columbia became the first Canadian jurisdiction to impose a time limit on eligibility for welfare in the province.

Click on the links in the BC Government box below to see how the policy works, then scroll down to see links to a collection of related info arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent material at the top.

NOTE:
BC welfare time limits are inspired by American welfare reforms of the mid-nineties - see Welfare Time Limits - The American Experience for links to related sites in the U.S.
(this link takes you further down on this page)

The BC Government Policy

From the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance :
(formerly Human Resources)

Time Limits Update - Updated: February 19, 2007
- includes the definitive list of all 25 exemptions to the time limit policy

Time Limit Policy to Protect People in Need
News Release
February 6, 2004
"VICTORIA – The province has released a report projecting the number of clients that will be affected as the government follows through on its commitment to limit income assistance for employable clients to two years out of every five. The report, released by Minister of Human Resources Stan Hagen, honours a commitment made by the previous minister. The report shows that a total of 339 employable clients who have been receiving assistance for more than two years may become ineligible over the coming year, or receive a rate reduction, as a result of non-compliance with their employment plan. (...) A total of 339 clients will potentially be affected this year, far lower than the tens of thousands that the opposition claimed. At the same time, we are ensuring that those who are unable to work, or are doing everything in their power to find work, will be protected.”

Fact Sheet: Time Limits Update (*See David Schreck's related commentary immediately below this box)
February 6, 2004
"(...) As part of the province’s emphasis on employment and personal responsibility, time limits were introduced in April 2002 in order to motivate employable income assistance clients to find jobs as quickly as possible. Employable clients who do not meet any of the 25 exemption criteria are limited to a cumulative 24 months (two years) of assistance out of every 60 months (five years). The 25 exemption criteria are designed to ensure that no one who is unable to work or who is actively looking for work will lose assistance."
- incl. monthly stats for April, May and June of 2004 and a projection for all of 2004-2005 showing the estimated number of clients who will have received income assistance for 24 months and do not comply with employment plans (i.e., failure to search for employment, leaving employment without just cause, dismissal with just cause and failure to accept employment.)

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Here's where it all started:
Time Limits : BC Employment and Assistance
May 2002 - (seven exempt categories)
NOTE: this is a time-limited link, i.e., the BC Government will soon be removing it because the information is superseded.
It's interesting to compare the original and final lists of exemptions while you still can...

*Government Backs Down over Heartless Policy but won't release numbers
Commentary by David Schreck of Strategic Thoughts.com
January 6, 2004
"(...) What they don't say is that at the last minute government added a new 25th reason for exempting people from the arbitrary time limit. The new exemption is "People who have an employment plan, are complying with their plan, are actively looking for work, but have not been successful in finding employment." Everyone on assistance has completed an employment plan because it is a requirement in the initial application. It has always been a requirement that employable people look for work. In other words, rule 25 exempts everyone and the two year rule was a cruel exercise that caused needless anxiety for people who are already down on their luck."
Source:
Strategic Thoughts.com

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From PovNet :

Two Year Limit on Collecting Welfare in British Columbia
"Resources and links to information about the BC provincial government's two year limit on eligibility for welfare in the province."
- incl. links to resolutions and motions against the welfare time limit (by a growing number BC city councils, unions and school boards), Canadian and American research on welfare time limits, local initiatives, news stories, newsletters and opinion pieces

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Resisting Two Year Limits on Welfare in British Columbia (PDF file - 69k, 9 pages)
Spring/Summer 2004
By Marge Reitsma-Street and Bruce Wallace
"The opposition to B.C.’s new welfare era and the campaign to abolish the two year welfare limits appeared to have fostered thoughtful public debate on the meaning of welfare limits, encouraged different people to become allies, and secured an important new exemption in welfare policy that put money into the hands of many who needed it for survival. More campaigns are required, however, to reclaim citizens’ entitlement to human dignity and rights to economic security. From our analysis of this campaign, there may be value in determined, diverse and yet linked efforts to uncover and abolish the inhumane, ineffective and arbitrary aspects of policies."
Source:
Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group

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BC’s U-Turn on Welfare Reform Spells Disaster
Editorial (Vancouver Sun, February 16, 2004)
By Jason Clemens, Sylvia LeRoy and Niels Veldhuis
"In a disastrous U-turn on welfare reform, the BC Government de-legitimized what was one of Canada’s most important social welfare reforms to date; a limit that capped the amount of time employable adults could collect welfare to 2 out of every 5 years. Late on Friday afternoon, February 6th, the BC Liberals announced a series of new exemptions to the time limits, including one that exempts anyone abiding by their work plan. The policy change effectively nullifies the time limit rule and speaks more to the government’s immediate political concerns than any genuine concern for those still struggling to make the transition from a life of welfare dependence to one of self-sufficiency."
Source:
The Fraser Institute

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Giving the family a bad name:
Paul Martin might want to have a quiet word with his Liberal friends in British Columbia
NOTRE: this article is no longerFebruary 23, 2004
Carol Goar
"They've already embarrassed him once. Just 16 days after the Prime Minister's swearing-in, police raided the offices of two top Liberal organizers at the Victoria legislature. Now, another problem is brewing. The B.C. Liberal government is poised to start throwing people off welfare this spring. Social activists across the country are rallying to save what's left of Canada's battered income security system. More than 125 organizations — food banks, churches, women's shelters, city councils, human rights associations, health-care groups and First Nations — have appealed to Martin to intervene in B.C."
Source:
The Toronto Star

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Welfare recipients preparing constitutional challenge
to time limit seek clarification about new exemption
News Release
February 13, 2004
"Vancouver - Lawyers with the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BCPIAC) wrote to Human Resources Minister Stan Hagen and Attorney General Geoff Plant on February 12, 2004 to ask whether their clients have been exempted from the provincial government’s 24-month time limit on social assistance. BCPIAC, in association with the Poverty and Human Rights Project, has been preparing a constitutional challenge to the time limit. BCPIAC represents several community groups and four individual clients who stand to be affected by the time limit.
Source:
BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre

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Letter to Campbell and Martin on Welfare Time Limits
(Posted February 12, 2004)
"More than 125 organizations are calling on B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to totally rescind the two-year time limits on welfare benefits. The organizations are also asking Prime Minister Paul Martin to attach conditions to the transfer of federal dollars to the provinces in order to bar British Columbia or any other province from making receipt of social assistance subject to a time limit in future."
Cover letter (PDF format)
Letter to Campbell and Martin - incl. the list of endorsers (PDF format)
Press release - February 12, 2004 (PDF format)
Source:
PovNet

Related Links:

British Columbia's 24 month time limit on eligibility for welfare
Same content as above from the PovNet website, but in HTML (vs PDF) and all on one page: the February 12 press release, the covering letter dated Feb. 12 and the original letter with the list of endorsers dated Feb. 5.
Source:
Federal Election 2004 - Home > Issues
DisAbled Women's Network - Ontario

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A Response to the Two Year Welfare Limits in British Columbia (PDF file - 133K, 7 pages)
Marge Reitsma-Street (University of Victoria)
Paper presented to the B.C. Association of Social Workers Fall Conference “The Power of Social Work “
Vancouver, Nov. 15, 2003
"Is British Columbia going into history as the first province in the 21st century to exile certain groups of people as undeserving, unnecessary, redundant? Two years, and you are out."
Source:
Studies in Policy and Practice
[ Human and Social Development ]
[ University of Victoria ]

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British Columbia: Tens of thousands may be cut off welfare next April
By Keith Jones
24 October 2003
"A British Columbia government document estimates that as many as 29,000 people could be kicked off welfare next April. That is when a new time-limit provision that prohibits employable persons without dependants from drawing welfare for more than two years in a five-year period comes into effect."
Source:
Canada: News & Social Issues===>250+ links to articles about social issues in Canada, back to November 1997
[ World Socialist Website ]

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The workforce according to Coell
October 21, 2003
"On April 1, 2004, the Ministry will kick thousands of BC residents off welfare. This measure is one of a series of measures designed to cut $600 million from the income assistance budget by 2005-06 on top of the $240 million in cuts to the Ministry of Children and Families. How many people will lose benefits as a result of the government's time limit? Murray Coell knows. And he spent Question Period last Wednesday and Thursday refusing to reveal the information contained in his Ministry's own briefing note."
Source:
rabble.ca

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Community groups prepare for constitutional challenge to welfare cut-off
News Release
"Vancouver, October 20, 2003
Leading BC community organizations gathered in Vancouver today to announce the preparation of a constitutional challenge to the two-year time limit on eligibility for social assistance."
Source:
B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre
Poverty and Human Rights Project (PDF file - 85K, 2 pages describing PHRP)

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The Right to Social Assistance - British Columbia's Two Year Time Limit
14 Questions and Answers (PDF file - 181K, 14 pages)
October 2003
"British Columbia is the only province in Canada to place a time limit on welfare eligibility. From diverse perspectives, many people are concerned about the harmful results of this harsh and unprecedented new rule. This report is a response to numerous requests that the Poverty and Human Rights Project has received from concerned groups and individuals for an analysis of the human rights implications of the 24 month cut off rule. (...) ...there are central touchstones in constitutional and international human rights law that support the view that the 24 month cut off rule is not consistent with people's rights to security and equality as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or with the values that underlie the Charter.
The goal of this report - which is written in a question and answer format - is to describe these touchstones. Through this report the Poverty and Human Rights Project hopes to raise public awareness about the importance of strong social and economic rights for all Canadians, and the threat to human rights commitments that is posed by British Columbia's two year time limit.
Source:
PovNet

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The ticking time bomb of BC's welfare time limits
By Seth Klein
October 6, 2003
Opinion Piece
"Of all the changes the BC government has made to social assistance, the most radical is the introduction of welfare time limits. The rule kicked-in April 1, 2002, and limits "employable" people without children to only two years of social assistance during any five year period. Once they hit the two-year limit, they will be completely cut off assistance. Employable people with children over three-years-old will not be cut off, but will lose $100 per month from a support payment that is already far below the poverty line, making it virtually impossible to make ends meet. BC is the first province in Canada to introduce welfare time limits. Time limits are an import from the United States, where a five-year lifetime limit was implemented federally in 1996. BC's move represents a fundamental shift in Canadian social policy--a denial of welfare when in need as a basic human right. As such, the eyes of the country are on us, and if allowed to take root in BC, this new policy will likely domino through provinces eager to follow BC's lead.
But before we allow this to happen, what are the risks?"
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office

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Martin Linked to Welfare Cuts : Researchers rap Paul Martin for role in diminished social assistance
"In 1995, Paul Martin eliminated national welfare standards. Some say this led to B.C.'s unprecedented decision to impose time limits on many recipients."
Oct. 2-8, 2003 Issue
By Charlie Smith
Vancouver social policy watchdogs seem to think that Paul Martin had something to do with the BC welfare rule (starting in April 2002) that employable welfare recipients can collect benefits for only two out of every five years. Since the 1995 federal Budget, the Prime-Minister-in-Waiting has been responsible for "...the elimination of the Canada Assistance Plan, cuts to unemployment insurance, and maintaining low inflation rates -- designed to meet the corporate sector's wishes for a more 'flexible' workforce." (...as well as the $100 billion in tax cuts over the next five years announced in the 2000 federal budget.)
- in April 2004, some 62,000 BC welfare recipients in the "expected to work" category will start seeing their benefits revoked (or more precisely, suspended for three years).
Source:
Georgia Straight - "Canada's Largest Urban Weekly"
[Vancouver]
Found in:
www.paulmartintime.ca/

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Google Canada Web Search : "welfare time limits, Canada"

The American Experience:

Welfare Time Limits - U.S.
- from the Economic Success Clearinghouse (formerly Welfare Information Network)

How Much do Welfare Recipients Know About Time Limits (two-page PDF file)
December 2003
Source:
The Urban Institute

Time-Limited TANF Recipients (PDF file - 1.1MB, 12 pages)
By Andrea Wilkins
July 2002
- incl. info on how states are applying the TANF welfare time limit provisions
(NOTE: a dozen states use the formula that the BC government chose, i.e., 24 months out of a 60-month period, or some variation)

Welfare Time Limits : State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families (July 2002)
- from MDRC (formerly Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation)

Limites de durée de l'admissibilité à l'aide sociale en Colombie-Britannique

Welfare Time Limits
in British Columbia

Limites de durée de l'admissibilité à l'aide sociale
en Colombie-Britannique