Public commission on legal aid formed in B.C.
By Gary Oakes
July 9, 2010
Six of the major players on the British Columbia law stage have formed an organization they hope will find solutions to the continuing crisis in legal aid throughout the province. “Access to justice is one of the cornerstones of our society,” Stephen McPhee told The Lawyers Weekly. “It is as essential a service as health care and education." (...) He’s vice-president of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association (CBABC) and chair of the steering committee that is overseeing the newly-minted Public Commission on Legal Aid (PCLA). It will hold meetings around the province this fall to hear from ordinary people and stakeholders on what’s wrong with the system and then produce problem-solving recommendations to the provincial government. The commission is jointly funded by CBABC, the Law Society of B.C., the Law Foundation of B.C., the B.C. Crown Counsel Association (BCCCA), the Vancouver Bar Association and the Victoria Bar Association.
Source:
The Lawyers Weekly
"Serving Canada's Legal Community Since 1983"

-------------

Homelessness in Canada:
Interview with Penny Goldsmith of PovNet
June 2010
Transcript of the interview (HTML)
Video
Penny Goldsmith is the Executive Coordinator of PovNET in Vancouver, BC. PovNet provides online tools that facilitate communication, community and access to information around poverty-related issues in British Columbia and Canada. They work to collect relevant news and resources of use to advocates, community workers, marginalized communities and the general public.
Source:
The Homeless Hub
Building on the success of the Canadian Conference on Homelessness (2005), the Homeless Hub was created to address the need for a single place to find homelessness information from across Canada. Launched in 2007, the Homeless Hub is a web-based research library and information center representing an innovative step forward in the use of technology to enhance knowledge mobilization and networking.

Dietitians of Canada
Dietitians of Canada represents over 5500 dietitians across Canada and is committed to promoting the health and well-being of consumers through food and nutrition.

Selected reports from Dietitians of Canada:

Low-income families in BC can’t afford healthy food
December 15, 2009
Vancouver, British Columbia – Imagine being $127 ‘in debt’ after your monthly rent is paid and you’ve bought groceries for you and your family, leaving no money for other necessities such as clothing, transportation and school supplies. According to the latest The Cost of Eating in BC report, this is the situation for a family of four living on income assistance in this province.

The Cost of Eating in BC 2009 by the Dietitians of Canada and the Community Nutritionists Council of BC demonstrates that it is impossible for families or individuals on income assistance or earning a low wage to afford enough healthy food. While shelter and food costs have risen significantly over the past decade, income assistance rates have remained virtually unchanged and minimum wage, once the highest in the country, has remained at $8.00/hour.

Complete report:

The Cost of Eating in BC 2009 (PDF - 4.6MB, 12 pages)
December 2009
Why do dietitians publish The Cost of Eating in BC report?
The purpose of the report is to bring attention to the fact that not all residents of British Columbia have enough money to purchase healthy food.
The facts in BC:
• The 2009 monthly cost of the nutritious food basket for a family of four is $872
• A family of four on income assistance would need more than 100% of their income for shelter and food only

Source:
Dietitians of Canada (includes links to a one-page media backgrounder and to earlier reports in this series (2001-2007)
[The Community Nutritionists Council of BC doesn't appear to have a website]

More links to Dietitians of Canada website content - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading

Related link:

‘It makes a huge difference’
By Kelly McManus
December 17, 2009
(...) With a monthly disposable income of $1,773, a family of four living on income assistance spends 49 per cent of its monthly income on food and 58 per cent of that cash on shelter. That leaves them $127 in the red, the [Cost of Eating] report says. The report also found that for those on low incomes, high costs for housing leave little money left over for food each month. In more remote communities, food can be more expensive and healthy choices can be limited.
Source:
North Shore Outlook - "Bringing BC’s Communities together"

Food costs take a big bite of the income pie for low-income British Columbians
News Release
November 28, 2007
Vancouver, British Columbia – Imagine spending 42% of your income after taxes on food. That’s how much a family of four receiving income assistance in BC would need to spend to purchase enough healthy food. Combine this with the estimated 65% required for shelter, and this family is in the hole before purchasing any other necessities of daily living, such as clothing, transportation, and personal care items. Compare these circumstances with a family of four with an average income; that family would spend about 17% of their income on food and 33% on shelter.

The Cost of Eating in BC 2007 Report (528K, 12 pages)
"... profiles the hardships faced by families trying to purchase healthy food while living on a low-income"

The Cost of Eating in BC - 2006
November 23, 2006
Dietitians of Canada, BC Region in partnership with the Community Nutritionists Council of BC produced this 2006 report to demonstrate that some groups within our population are denied the right to safe and nutritious food due to limited financial resources. Individuals and families receiving income assistance and those working in low paying jobs are at high risk for food insecurity. The 2006 report was endorsed by 17 provincial agencies.
- the link above includes all of the links below as well as links to the same report for earlier years (annual, back to 2001)

Related Documents:

* The Cost of Eating in BC - 2006 - Media Backgrounder (PDF file - 268K, 1 page)
* The Cost of Eating in BC - 2006 - Complete report (PDF file - 1.56MB, 19 pages)
* The Cost of Eating in BC - 2006- Overview (PDF file - 481K, 2 pages)

Earlier reports:

Welfare leaves people hungry: Two new reports show that despite BC’s
booming economy over 100,000 people on welfare are left behind
News Release
December 01, 2005
"Vancouver, British Columbia – Thousands of British Columbians with low incomes, especially those on income assistance, do not have enough money to secure safe and adequate shelter or food. Two new reports released jointly today by the Dietitians of Canada, BC Region and the Social Planning and Research Council of BC highlight the stark realities of living on income assistance."

Complete reports:

The Cost of Eating in BC 2005
Little Money for Food—The Reality for Some BC Families
November 2005
- incl. links to the complete 22-page report and a two-page overview for 2005 as well as links to earlier editions of the report back to 2001

Left Behind: A Comparison of Living Costs and Employment and Assistance Rates in BC (PDF file - 593K, 36 pages)
December 2005
"The primary finding of this report is that it is harder for income assistance recipients to make ends meet in 2005 than it was three years ago following cuts to welfare benefit rates in 2002. Few material changes have been made to welfare policy since the last edition of this report in 2002, in which we described the significant reforms to welfare in BC made that year. However, in the intervening years, inflation has continued to erode the meagre incomes available to people receiving social assistance in BC. The already inadequate benefit levels have remained static in spite of increasing costs, particularly for shelter, heating, and transportation."
Source:
Social Planning and Research Council of BC

----------------------------

Cost of Eating Reports for earlier years (back to 2001)

Domestic Abuse Must Stop - (BC)
"Women, Information and Advocacy --- Having survived Domestic Abuse in all its forms we believe that Domestic Abuse Must Stop. We are a non-profit, non-funded association of women committed to that end."
Links - 15+ BC and national resources for victims of domestic abuse
- incl. links to : about us - hot topics - information - workshops - events - links - contact us

Early Childhood Educators of B.C.

B.C. Liberals haven’t delivered on early child development
April 27, 2009
[ Author Vi-Anne Zirnhelt is the president of
Early Childhood Educators of B.C. ]

Economicus ridiculous
... exercises in miserly minimalism
A consumer advice blog with a twist, written by two women (Daphne Moldowin and Chrystal Ocean) who live far below the poverty line.
- includes:
* tips and tricks for getting by on next to nothing.
* discussion of systemic and societal barriers that people in households of very low income confront daily - and what we do about them.
* heads-up about free stuff, discount deals, and other opportunities to save, maybe even make, money
Authors:
Chrystal Ocean describes herself as a Canadian social libertarian, homeless activist (at times in both senses), democratic reformer, atheist, founder of a group run by and for women in poverty, author of several blogs and a book. She is founder of WISE (Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially & Economically), a group for and led by women in poverty. WISE folded in late 2006 due to cuts and changes to Status of Women Canada grant eligibility criteria.
Daphne Moldowin describes herself as an energetic advocate for women's equality who actively encourages people to re-view their outlook on society's treatment of women.

Challenging the Commonplace
... and other irreverent activities
Chrystal Ocean's personal blog, includes hundreds of postings about poverty, mental health, homelessness and related issues going back to 2008.

Also from Chrystal Ocean:

Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: : Stories from the front (2005)
A reading of the book Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health
Compiled, with Introduction and Reports by Chrystal Ocean
The purpose of this site is to enable the hosting of 24 podcasts, covering the reading of the 2005 book Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the front. Each episode of this audio book tells a story, not only the stories of the 21 women, but also the larger story of their efforts to organize and the barriers which continue to thwart their efforts. The last page of the last report of the book reveals their hope and determination that it not signal the end, but the beginning of meaningful change - for them, for their families, and for their communities.
[Click the links in the left-hand margin to listen to the Introduction, the 21 women's testimonials and a summary of issues raised and recommendations to help deal with those issues.]

End Legislated Poverty (ELP)
"End Legislated Poverty (ELP) is a coalition of over 40 groups in BC, working together to educate and organize in order to make governments reduce and end poverty. ELP is part of a larger international movement fighting for the rights of people living in poverty."

- incl. links to : About ELP - News Releases - Welfare Time Limits - Long Haul/Flaw line - Current Campaigns - Resources for people in poverty in Greater Vancouver - Factoids about Poverty - Panhandling Rights - Welfare Cuts and Violence Against Women - Local Bylaws and Poverty - Links - Contact Us / Get Involved - Mental Patients Rights

Family Connections


Family Support Institute
The Family Support Institute is a province wide organization whose purpose is to support and strengthen families faced with the extraordinary circumstances that come with having a family member who has a disability

Family Services of Greater Vancouver
Strengthening People, Families and Community
Incl. Counselling, Education & Adoption Services - Parenting - Specialized Counselling - Youth - Diverse Communities - Sponsors - Events - Courses - In Focus

First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
The First Call Coalition is made up of over 80 provincial/regional partner organizations, contacts in numerous mobilized communities, and a network of community partners and individuals committed to the Four Keys to Success for Children and Youth.

First Call Coalition Provincial/Regional Partners
- incl. list of all 80+ coalition partners and links to their websites.

Recent First Call Publications:

Twenty Years Later - A Second Look (PDF - 15K, 2 pages)
January 11, 2010
This is the first in a series of monthly reports by First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition on child poverty in British Columbia. The series is a continuing call to the BC government to start getting serious about fighting child and family poverty. The provincial government has spent the last several years trying to explain away the poverty statistics.
The latest shots came on November 24 on the government web site:
[ http://www.gov.bc.ca/fortherecord/childpoverty/cp_poverty.html ]
None of the figures were incorrect, but they gave the misleading impression that BC is a leader in fighting poverty.
The technique is what statisticians call “cherry picking,” using selected figures that seem to reinforce the argument you’re trying to make...
Source:
First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
First Call is a cross-sectoral, non-partisan coalition of provincial and regional organizations, engaged communities and individuals whose aim is to raise public awareness and mobilize communities around the importance of public policy and social investments that support the well-being of children, youth and families. First Call grew out of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. When Canada ratified that Convention in 1991, its advocates gathered in a National Conference and agreed that it is time to give children a first call on our resources and on our advocacy efforts. The BC representatives were drawn from a variety of sectors: education, health, justice, social services, and others.

Related links:

British Columbia Report Card on Child and Family Poverty (PDF - 886K, 23 pages)
November 2009
- includes nine fact sheets that analyze various aspects of child poverty in BC. and Measures of Poverty (Appendix)
Source:
First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition

Campaign 2000
Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Campaign 2000 began in 1991 out of concern about the lack of government progress in addressing child poverty. Campaign 2000 is non-partisan in urging all Canadian elected officials to keep their promise to Canada's children.

Sign the petition for a
BC Poverty Reduction Plan
Source:
BC Poverty Reduction
We are a coalition that includes community and non-profit groups, faith groups, health organizations, First Nations and Aboriginal organizations, businesses, labour organizations, and social policy groups. We have come together around a campaign aimed at seeing the introduction of a bold and comprehensive poverty reduction plan from the government of British Columbia that would include legislated targets and timelines to significantly reduce poverty and homelessness.

British Columbia Report Card on Child and Family Poverty (PDF - 886K, 23 pages)
November 2009
The BC Child Poverty Report Card includes nine fact sheets that analyze various aspects of child poverty in BC.:
1. BC Had the Worst Record – Six Years in a Row
2. Child Poverty Over the Years
3. Child Poverty by Family Type
4. Persistence of Poverty
5. Child Poverty and Working Parents
6. Families with Children on Welfare
7. I ncomes of Families with Children
8. Child Poverty and the Importance of Government Help
9. What Needs to Happen
Melanie’s Story – The Human Face of Child Poverty
Appendix : Measures of Poverty
Source:
First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition

BC Child poverty rate still the worst in Canada:
when will the provincial government take action? (PDF - 79K, 2 pages)
News Release
November 24, 2009
For six years in a row, British Columbia has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada tied only with Manitoba in 2007. Figures released today by First Call, the BC partner in Campaign 2000, show BC at a rate of 18.8 percent of children living in poverty in 2007. The Canadian average in that same year was 15 percent.

Sign the petition for a
BC Poverty Reduction Plan
Source:
BC Poverty Reduction

Related link:

Campaign 2000

Child poverty got worse in B.C. under the Liberals
May 1, 2009
[ Author Adrienne Montani is the provincial coordinator of
First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition ]
No matter which way you slice it, child poverty in British Columbia has gotten worse under the two terms of Liberal government starting in 2001. The numbers tell the story. B.C.’s child poverty rate has been the highest rate of any province for five consecutive years. The most recent data, from 2006, puts it at 22 percent (before-tax measure), or 16 percent (after-tax measure). And these provincial numbers mask the even higher child poverty rates in various cities and towns and among especially vulnerable populations. Half of the children in families led by single mothers are poor. High poverty rates among aboriginal and new immigrant and refugee families push the numbers up.

2008 Child Poverty Report Card (PDF - 1.4MB, 19 pages)
November 2008
Ten factsheets analyzing various aspects of child poverty in BC.
* What is Child Poverty? * BC Had the Worst Record - Five Years in a Row * Child Poverty over the Years * Child Poverty by Family Type * Depth of Poverty by Family Type * Income of Families with Children * Child Poverty and Working Parents * Families with Children on Welfare * Child Poverty and the Importance of Government Help * What Needs to Happen

Related links From Campaign 2000:

Family Security in Insecure Times:
The Case for a Poverty Reduction Strategy for Canada -
2008 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada (PDF - 167K, 6 pages)
[ version française:
Rapport 2008 sur la pauvreté des enfants et des familles au Canada (PDF - 565K, 8pages) ]

Poverty Reduction a Strategic Move in Downturn--Campaign 2000 Released New Report Card
Press Release
21 November 2008
OTTAWA – The federal government would make a timely strategic move if it invested now to reduce stubborn poverty rates in Canada, says a new report by Campaign 2000. The 2008 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, available at www.campaign2000.ca, shows the nation’s child poverty rate is almost what it was in 1989 when Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty by the year 2000.

Provincial report cards
- includes links to the latest report and earlier years for : * British Columbia * Alberta * Saskatchewan * Manitoba * Ontario * New Brunswick * Nova Scotia

Campaign 2000
Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.

2007 Child Poverty Report Card (PDF file - 196K, 19 pages) November 2007 Source: First Call BC Related links: B.C.'s child poverty rate worst in Canada: report November 26, 2007 Source: CBC BC's Child Poverty Rate Tops Again Or is this headline just trying to manipulate you? By Rob Annandale November 26, 2007 "(...)To say a Vancouverite who earns $20,000 per year is living in poverty would indeed seem preposterous to many of the more than one billion people worldwide who survive on less than a dollar a day." Source: The Tyee <begin Leap of Logic rant:> EH? Comparing the incomes of someone living in Vancouver with someone in Africa or Asia? Reality check: It's the cost of living, Stupid. </end Leap of Logic rant.>

Other provincial report cards
Click on this link to access child poverty report cards for BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Related Links from Campaign 2000:

Canada’s Child Poverty Levels not Budging -
New report shows child poverty “entrenched” in Canada over 25 Years
Campaign 2000
23 November 2006
The rate of child and family poverty in Canada has been stalled at 17-18% over the past 5 years despite strong economic growth and low unemployment, according to a new report by Campaign 2000.

Oh Canada! Too Many Children in Poverty for Too Long [pdf, 6pp, 311KB]
2006 report card on child poverty in Canada

Earlier editions of the
report card on child poverty in Canada - reports in English and French going back to 2002
TIP: if you scroll to the bottom of the earlier editions page, you'll also find links to a 2002 report to the UN Special Session on Children entitled A report on a decade of child and family poverty in Canada and a November 2001 Campaign 2000 Bulletin entitled Family Security in Insecure Times: Tackling Canada's Social Deficit.

----------------------------

Related Link (national child poverty report):

New from Campaign 2000:

First Ministers told to take action to lower shameful poverty rates
News alert - Campaign 2000
Kelowna, BC, 23 Nov 05
"Activists took their annual child poverty report directly to the First Ministers meeting here today. The findings are discouraging. For almost 30 years the poverty rate has been stuck at one-in-six children. Whether families are mother-led, have two parents, are working full time or on social assistance the numbers are static. A particularly disturbing finding is that child poverty rates for Aboriginal, immigrant, and visible minority children are twice the national rate. Campaign 2000 National Coordinator Laurel Rothman, whose organization prepares the annual update, was joined by Peter Dinsdale of the National Association of Friendship Centres. They are clearly frustrated by misplaced government priorities and jurisdictional wrangling."

Complete report:

Decision Time for Canada: Let’s Make Poverty History
2005 Report Card on Child Poverty in Canada [pdf, 12pp, 500KB]

----------------------------

Fact Sheets on Child Poverty in British Columbia [pdf, 13pp, 202KB]
BC Campaign 2000, First Call BC
November 2004

Related Links: Child poverty: setting new goals November 24, 2004 CAROL GOAR "Giving up is not an option. But clinging to a faded dream is not a solution. So today, on the 15th anniversary of his parliamentary resolution to end child poverty by 2000, Ed Broadbent will set a new goal. He will challenge Canadians to reduce the child poverty rate to 5 per cent within 10 years. His new target lacks the tidy finality of the one he persuaded all MPs to endorse on Nov. 24, 1989, shortly before his retirement as leader of the New Democratic Party. It is less ambitious, less appealing.But Broadbent, who returned to active politics this year, believes it is realistic and achievable. He calls it 'a new agenda for a new time.' The child poverty rate currently stands at 15 per cent. It was 15.2 per cent when Broadbent issued his clarion call 15 years ago." Source: The Toronto Star Complete report: One million too many: Implementing solutions to child poverty in Canada 2004 report card on child poverty in Canada [pdf, 12pp, 186KB] November 24, 2004 Source: Provincial Child Poverty Report Cards: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia NOTE: click the link above to access current and historical poverty reports for all six provinces. Source: Campaign 2000

Fraser Institute - "Competitive Market Solutions for Public Policy Problems"
The Fraser Institute was founded in 1974 to redirect public attention to the role markets can play in providing for the economic and social well-being of Canadians.

NOTE: for more about the Fraser Institute, see the Canadian Social Research Links Social Research Organizations in Canada page.

BC Welfare Reform Receives a “B” : Province Leaps to Forefront of Intelligent Welfare Reform and Sets New Standard for Canadian Welfare The Fraser Institute October 21, 2002 "BC’s recently announced welfare reforms have catapulted it beyond any Canadian jurisdiction and into the realm of reform-minded US states such as Wisconsin, says a new report, Welfare Reform in British Columbia: A Report Card, released today by the Fraser Institute." Welfare Reform in British Columbia: A Report Card (PDF file - 208K, 30 pages) Source: Fraser Institute - "Competitive Market Solutions for Public Policy Problems" The Fraser Institute was founded in 1974 to redirect public attention to the role markets can play in providing for the economic and social well-being of Canadians. ----------------------------------- Wow - it's not often that the conservative Fraser Institute is on the same wavelength as the British Columbia social advocacy community, but there ya go, folks. Here's what authors Chris Schafer and Jason Clemens say about incentives to work: "The government should move to immediately re-instate earnings exemptions as they existed prior to the change. Furthermore, the government should consider enhancing the opportunities to “make work pay” by extending earnings exemptions further." "Hear, hear!" say the social advocates --- but then, the Fraser report also gives the BC government high marks for being the first Canadian jurisdiction to set a time limit to welfare eligibility regardless of personal circumstances or the economic situation --- definitely not a popular feature with those who work with and speak for the most disadvantaged in BC... ----------------------------------- Re. Wisconsin: Wisconsin Studies (W-2) - The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) of the University of Wisconsin has a section of its Welfare Reform website that includes links to over a dozen studies on the outcomes and impacts of welfare reform in Wisconsin. Pick one or two, read them and decide for yourself how successful Wisconsin's reforms have been... Source : Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) ---------------------------------- Caveat : "The welfare caseload composition of Canadian provincial welfare rolls and US state welfare rolls varies on a number of different levels. While female single- parent families comprise the bulk of US welfare caseloads, in Canada that figure is approximately 29 percent (CCSD, 1998). In addition, Canadian caseloads also consist of disabled persons, whereas in the US disabled persons fall under alternative support programs not categorized as “welfare.” - Footnote #4, page 25 [Fraser Institute report] There are indeed a number of differences between the current Canadian and American social safety nets - certainly enough that the Fraser Institute should have considered posting the disclaimer/caveat just a bit more prominently. For example... - poor single people and childless couples in the U.S. can't even apply for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and states decide individually whether or not to grant residual welfare to applicants without dependants - 35 percent of the total U.S. caseload is "child-only cases", i.e., kids outside the parental home (in Canada, the vast majority of these kids are covered by child protection) - Canadian welfare is broader than TANF plus the Food Stamp Program plus Medicaid... - and so on. Related Links (welfare in Canada and the U.S.): Seventh Annual Report to Congress December 2006 Source : Department of Health and Human Services Canadian equivalent to the 4th annual TANF report to Congress : None. There is no requirement within the framework of the Canada Health and Social Transfer for a report by government to Parliament on the administration of the welfare portion of the CHST (or any other portion, for that matter) by provincial and territorial governments. Pity... Other Canadian (national) welfare information resources: Canadian Social Research Links Key Government Welfare Links Page National Council of Welfare Canadian Council on Social Development Caledon Institute of Social Policy Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

The Georgia Straight (Vancouver weekly)

Sample content from The Georgia Straight:

Mothers under siege
By Charlie Smith
June 7, 2007
"Some say the B.C. government has violated the human rights of single moms with its punitive social policies. (...) thousands of single parents across the province struggle with trying to earn a decent income, finding daycare, and ensuring their kids get a good start in life. But new data from Statistics Canada show that whereas the incomes of Vancouver single fathers have increased in recent years, the incomes of single mothers are in decline. This has some women’s rights and antipoverty activists claiming that B.C. Liberal government policies discriminate against single mothers, who are among the poorest citizens of the province. In a curious twist, the premier and the attorney general were both raised by single mothers.

It's a bad time to be poor
By Carlito Pablo
May 31, 2007
On May 7, the Impact of the Olympics on Community Coalition released a report urging the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and its partners–the City of Vancouver and the British Columbia provincial government–to live up to their so-called Inner-City Inclusivity commitments. These include commitments to housing, environment, civil liberties, and transparency.

Critics slam welfare bump
By Carlito Pablo
March 1, 2007
Finance Minister Carole Tay­lor claims that the new budget ensures that all British Columbians share in the benefits of the province's thriving economy. Not by any stretch, counters the director of UBC's school of social work and family studies. Prof. Graham Riches told the Georgia Straight that there is something fundamentally flawed in the way the B.C. Liberal government carved the budget. “It's not a policy of redistribution,” he said. “It will prove inadequate.” Riches noted that the rich and middle class received $1.5 billion in tax cuts so that, according to the government, they'll have more money “to meet their housing challenges and help them with the high cost of housing in B.C.”. This amount constitutes three-quarters of the four-year $2 billion package, which the Liberals trumpeted as a housing legacy.

Related link:

Budget 2007
Government of British Columbia
February 20, 2007

Income-assistance cuts examined
By rob mcmahon
October 19, 2006
"(...) The total province-wide income-assistance caseload (one case consists of a single person or a family) has dropped by 36 percent since 2001, when the ministry began implementing a range of policy changes, including introducing more stringent eligibility criteria for income-assistance applicants and measures that allowed easier removal of cases, scaling back on staff, closing offices, and cutting social-assistance programs. The Income Assistance Project, a qualitative five-year study conducted by researchers from UBC, SFU, and UNBC, is keeping tabs on the effects of this policy. Researchers are investigating how low-income, lone-mother families have been affected by the 2002 policy changes. Beginning in 2003, researchers worked with 22 single mothers in urban Vancouver and the rural Bulkley Valley. So far, they have found that these parents have been hit hard."

The Globe and Mail

Provincial welfare program under strain
Number of two-parent families collecting assistance up 77 per cent compared to April of last year
By Justine Hunter
June 2, 2009
Just days after B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell launched a national campaign to broaden Canada's employment insurance scheme, new statistics show his provincial welfare program is under growing strain. And families are bearing the brunt of the recession in B.C., the new provincial statistics on income assistance show.

B.C. Premier demands single EI standard
By Patrick Brethour
May 30, 2009
The federal government needs to overhaul a “clearly discriminatory” employment insurance system to help the swelling ranks of the jobless in Western Canada, says British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. The Premier is adding his voice to the chorus pressing the federal government to rewrite the rulebook for employment insurance, and to create a single national standard for how long Canadians need to work before becoming eligible for payments. “Canadians are Canadians, and they should be treated equally,” he told The Globe and Mail. Right now, there are dramatic discrepancies in the EI system, with those in areas of historically low unemployment having to work more than twice as long to qualify for payments as those in regions with the highest levels of joblessness. That means it's much more likely for laid-off workers in such low-unemployment areas to fall short of qualifying for EI, even though a similar worker in a more disadvantaged area would receive payments.

Ottawa and the provinces must extend a helping hand to workers
We need to eliminate regional discrepancies and co-operate to extend EI benefits
By Gordon Campbell (Premier of British Columbia)
May 29. 2009
With all of the discussion these days about employment insurance reforms, it is timely to consider affordable improvements that will assist families and unemployed individuals who are struggling to get through this global recession. First, we need to eliminate the regional discrepancies in eligibility rules that are particularly unfair to Western Canadians. (...) Second, we need to find an affordable way of extending EI benefits to help workers who have either recently exhausted their benefits or who are about to lose their EI income. This could be achieved through a new cost-sharing partnership between the federal and provincial governments that would redirect some provincial income assistance funding to help the federal government fund extended EI benefits. (...) Provincial governments can be part of the solution by offering to partner with the federal government in extending individuals' maximum EI benefits. Instead of making income assistance payments to those people, they could offer to transfer that funding to the federal government to help fund the cost of extended EI benefits. (...) The federal government and provinces should work in partnership to do the best we can for all of Canada's workers, regardless of where they live or are employed. They pay equivalent national taxes and all should receive equivalent national benefits. We must unite in providing Canadians more effective support as we move through these trying times.

Related links --- Go to the Employment Insurance Links page : http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ei.htm

Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society

Homelessness Research Virtual Library (University of British Columbia)
"The homelessness research virtual library was created in response to a call from stakeholders for easier access to homelessness research information. The Virtual Library website provides immediate access to past and current homelessness research from the province of British Columbia and the Yukon. The project is a partnership between the University of British Columbia, Human Resources Development Canada and Shelter Net BC."
- this site offers links to 80+ abstracts and full reports, mostly dealing with the BC situation, that you can search by : Author - Organization - Title - Location of Research - Publication Year - Subjects (Population) - Subjects (Keywords) - Subjects (Research Type) - List All Documents.
Source / Related Links:
University of British Columbia
Shelter Net BC

Hospital Employees' Union of British Columbia - "representing 46,000 front-line health care workers in hospitals, long-term care facilities and community agencies in British
Columbia, Canada. Affiliated with CUPE."

Ownership Matters: Lessons from Ontario's Long-Term Care Facilities
"On May 27, 2002 the Ontario Health Coalition released Ownership Matters: Lessons from Ontario's Long-Term Care Facilities. This is a report prepared for the Hospital Employees' Union of British Columbia by the OHC which examines the effect of the Ontario Tory government's privatization of Long Term Care on the quality of care and patients."
Complete report (25 printed pages)
Source: Ontario Health Coalition
Related Links:
Media Release
Ontario Health Coalition Report Paints Disturbing Picture of Ontario’s Privatized Long Term Care
Ontario Health Coalition
May 27, 2002
Source : DAWN DisAbled Women's Network - Ontario

Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP)
"HELP is a pioneering, interdisciplinary research partnership that is directing a world-leading contribution to new understandings and approaches to early child development. Directed by Dr. Clyde Hertzman, HELP is a network of faculty, researchers and graduate students from British Columbia's four major universities. HELP facilitates the creation of new knowledge, and helps apply this knowledge in the community by working directly with government and communities. HELP works in partnership with the BC Minister of State for Early Childhood Development. HELP is partially funded by MCFD and maintains a close liaison with other provincial government ministries."

- incl. links to the Vancouver Map Report - Early Development Instruments - View maps from the Vancouver Community Asset Mapping Project - LISTSERV (Sign up for our listserv and view archives) - BC Health Atlas (current provincial and Vancouver health maps) - References on child and population health - Dr. Clyde Hertzman's presentations and slides - other HELP publications.

Resources - "includes a variety of resources for researchers, government, community organizations, service providers, and parents".
- links to Publications (reports, other online articles and selected readings, Community Asset Mapping Project maps) - Reference Library (a searchable, electronic database with 8000+ articles on child health, human development, population health, and determinants of health - Journals (info about and access to the most common journals used by HELP researchers) - Community Resources ( provincial organizations and online resources in BC of interest to parents, service providers, and those working in the area of community development).

Satellite maps lead the way to healthier neighbourhoods:
$2.3 million SSHRC project analyzes impact of community resources on childhood development
May 6, 2003
"The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) is investing $2.3 million in a study that will examine the link between the location of neighbourhood resources and the health and school readiness of children. (...) The Consortium for Health, Intervention, Learning and Development (CHILD) Project—led by the University of British Columbia’s Hillel Goelman, associate director of the Human Early Learning Partnership—will examine the physical, intellectual and social development of young children in various neighbourhoods and map their growth and well-being in light of community resources."...more
Related Link:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

The Information Partnership
The Information Partnership provides innovative and practical solutions for private-, public-, and voluntary-sector organizations wanting to become more efficient and effective in the way they develop, deliver and evaluate their operations.

Information Services Vancouver
Information Services Vancouver (ISV) is British Columbia's largest provider of information and referral (I&R) services - a citizens' link to thousands of community, social, and government agencies across the province.

Red Book : Directory of Services for the Lower Mainland
This is the most comprehensive online guide to community, social, and government services available across the Lower Mainland. It is considered by many professionals working in the human services field to be the "Bible" of community resources. This is a detailed A-to-Z listing of over 4,000 community,social, and government agencies and programs, including e-mail and Web site addresses.
HINT: Click The Red Book Online (in the left margin of the page) to access the list via a search page.

 

Institute for Research on Public Policy

The Family Benefit Packages in Alberta and BC Do Not Measure Up (PDF file - 60K, 2 pages)
News Release
March 7, 2007
Author Paul Kershaw (University of British Columbia) examines overall family benefits packages in Alberta and BC for different types of families and then compares them with those of other industrialized countries. His findings show that Alberta and BC rank low by international standards in terms of their combined investment in family benefits. The study serves as a reminder that promoting gender equity, raising healthy children and supporting parents in the quest to balance work and family requires more than rhetoric, it requires real investment.

Summary (PDF file - 48K, 1 page)
Policy Brief (PDF file - 112 K, 2 pages)
Complete study (PDF file - 625K, 44 pages)

JobWaveBC
"JobWaveBC is brought to you by WCG International Consultants Ltd. - people who know BC’s job scene and what it takes to get those quality jobs…fast. Our successful jobs programs have now assisted over 11,000 British Columbians to find great jobs. (...) Based in Victoria, British Columbia. WCG International Consultants Ltd. delivers community and provincial employment programs, as well as progressive, internet-based solutions to employment and hiring, and proprietary technology business solutions."
- incl. links to information for job seekers and employers

The Law Centre

Law Courts Education Society of BC
The Law Courts Education Society is a non-profit organization providing educational programs and services about the justice system in Canada and British Columbia. Materials are designed to help the public understand how the justice system works and to help those people working within the system to better understand the justice-related issues that different people in the communities face.

BC Legal Services Society
The Legal Services Society (LSS) is the organization that provides legal aid in BC. Legal aid includes representation by a lawyer, legal advice, and legal information. The LSS gives priority to people with low incomes, but many of its services are available to all British Columbians.

Legal Aid Changes Planned for 2010 (PDF - 285K, 3 pages)
Media Release
November 3, 2009
VANCOUVER – The Legal Services Society, which oversees legal aid throughout the province, will be changing its operations in five communities next year. Effective April 1, 2010, the Society will replace its regional centres in Kamloops, Prince George, Kelowna, Surrey and Victoria with local agents and an expanded, province-wide call centre.

---------------------------
Earlier this year...
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Service and operational changes (PDF - 371K, 5 pages)
Feb. 25, 2009
The Legal Services Society (LSS or the society) will be changing some services and some of its operations this year. These changes are necessary because the society’s current government and non-government revenues are insufficient to cover the current demand for legal aid.
Source:
BC Legal Services Society

Livable Income For Everyone
Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE) is an organization started in British Columbia in 2003 to promote the implementation of universal guaranteed livable income in every country in the world.
- incl. links to: What - Why - How - News - Articles - Gallery - Tools - Letters - Links

Selected site content:

* What is a Guaranteed Livable Income?
* News - links to 90 articles, studies and reports
* Links - over 150 links to relevant sites

On Basic Income: Interview with Götz Werner
German Millionaire is super advocate for basic income
Posted in die tageszeitung / translated 12/09
Götz Werner, founder of major drugstore chain (1700 stores), is one of the most influential advocates of basic income in Germany. Werner is not only a super advocate for guaranteed income, he is also one of the top 500 richest people in Germany.

Why the United States should implement Basic Income
By Sam Alexander
October 2009
Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters (...) explicitly stratify society into classes, enforcing the obsolete notion that the man who doesn't do labor is a less valuable member of society. This is why Basic Income should be absolutely universal- even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates must be given automatic "welfare", for only then can the dole rise above its condescending, humiliating nature.

Economic Foundations and Environmental Progress
By Alexander Bishop
November 2009
(...) The more efficient and technologically advanced the culture, the fewer people they need working. The economy rewards technological stagnation in labour-saving devices and designed obsolescence. The economy suffers when we are healthier, greener, and consume less. The solution is a movement away from job dependant monetary circulation to a guaranteed livable income. This will allow positive change to occur without causing job losses leaving people unable to meet their basic needs.

[ other articles on the LIFE site - 60+ links ]

- Go to the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm

Metro Vancouver
Metro Vancouver comprises four separate corporate entities operating under one name;
it includes 22 member municipalities and one electoral area.

Homelessness
During the 1990's homelessness emerged as a major issue in communities across Canada. In Metro Vancouver, homelessness continues to be a complex and growing problem. The 2005 Homeless Count for Greater Vancouver showed that homelessness in the region doubled between 2002 and 2005. The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness (RSCH) formed and now includes over 40 members representing service providers, community-based organizations, business and all levels of government. The RSCH developed and oversees the implementation of the Regional Homelessness Plan for Greater Vancouver.

2008 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count
The 2008 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count took place during a 24-hour period on the night of Monday March 10th and the daytime of Tuesday, March 11th 2008. (...) The purpose of the 2008 Homeless Count is to produce an updated estimate of the street and sheltered homeless, a demographic profile of this population, and identify trends in relation to previous counts. This information is then used to aid in service planning and inform policy development. Initial results indicated a total of 2,592 individuals enumerated, representing a 19% increase from the 2005 count and a 137% increase from the 2002 count. The final results now confirm a total of 2,660 homeless people; a 22% increase from 2005. The final report data was released September 16th, 2008.

Results of the 2008 Metro Vancouver
Homeless Count (PDF - 1.1MB, 77 pages)
September 16, 2008

National Council of Welfare

Another Look at Welfare Reform (Autumn 1997)
- an in-depth analysis by the National Council of Welfare of changes in Canadian welfare programs in the 1990s.
The report focuses on the provincial and territorial reforms that preceded the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan and those that followed the implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer. 
Complete report online- large file (300K+) but well worth the wait for detailed information on welfare reforms in the 1990s in each Canadian jurisdiction, as well as a national overview of the broad issues of welfare reform and the setting for welfare reform in Canada

New Westminster

April 28, 2010
New Westminster BC Enacts Canada's First Living Wage Bylaw

For a collection of links to information about this progressive initiative in BC and the living wage movement in general,
go to the Living Wage Links section of the Canadian Social Research Links Minimum Income / Living Wage Links

 

Nodice Elections: British Columbia

Source:
Nodice Elections
Related Links:
- Go to the Political Parties and Elections Links in Canada (Provinces and Territories) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_prov_terr.htm

Red Tent 2010 - Housing is a Right
Red Tent is national campaign that invites the participation of all persons and organizations wishing to end homelessness in Canada. Our goal is to persuade the federal government to enact a funded National Housing Strategy that will end homelessness and ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for all persons living in Canada.

2010 Olympics Oppressometer
The “2010 Oppressometer” is an online tool developed to monitor civil liberties during the Olympic period. The site is a tongue-in-cheek take on the US Homeland Security threat levels, documenting civil liberty concerns in the months leading up to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The Oppressometer is a project of COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors. For forty years, COPE has been a democratic, community-based coalition of individuals and organizations.
Source:
Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE)

NOT the mainstream media:

* 2010 Olympic coverage from The Tyee

* 2010 Olympic coverage from The Georgia Strait

For more selected Olympic coverage, go to the
Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Poverty Olympics 2010 Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bc_olympics.htm

Peace, Earth and Justice News

British Columbians double-crossed over MSP contract with American corporation : B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union
vows to continue legal action to stop the government from handing over personal medical information to American-linked companies
November 4, 2004
"'British Columbians have been double-crossed,' said George Heyman, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU). 'The health services minister promised that a contract negotiated with Maximus corporation would ensure the privacy of British Columbians would not be compromised. Less than a week after the privacy commissioner confirmed in his report that the USA Patriot Act is a real threat to the privacy of British Columbians, the Campbell Liberals are rushing in to sign, seal and deliver a deal!'"

Related Govt. Links:

Government moves to improve the BC Medical Services Plan and Pharmacare services
November 4, 2004
"VICTORIA – The Province is moving to modernize and improve the administration of the Medical Service Plan and PharmaCare, Health Services Minister Colin Hansen said today."

Backgrounders (3) from the Ministry of Health Services:

Improving MSP and Pharmacare Services
Improving Privacy and Confidentiality
Maximus BC / Alternative Service Delivery

Related External Link:

MAXIMUS - "Helping Government Serve the People"

MAXIMUS Canada Signs $268 Million US Health Benefit Operations Contract with British Columbia
November 5, 2004
Press Release
"The Province of British Columbia Ministry of Health Services has finalized a $268 million (US)/$324 million (Canadian) fixed-price contract with MAXIMUS Canada, a subsidiary of MAXIMUS, Inc., to provide health benefit operations administrative services. (...) The term of the contract is 10 years. In addition, there is one, five-year renewal option the client may choose to exercise."

Pivot Legal Society
Pivot Legal Society is a non-profit legal advocacy organization located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pivot's mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.

Pivot releases report on Vancouver’s low-income housing crisis
News Release, Vancouver, B.C.
September 21, 2006
Vancouver’s homelessness crisis is about to get a lot worse unless immediate action is taken, according to Pivot Legal Society’s new report, Cracks in the Foundation: Solving the Housing Crisis in Canada’s Poorest Neighbourhood. “If we continue to lose low-cost housing in the Downtown Eastside at the current rate, we can expect to be coping with at least three times the number of people living on Vancouver’s streets by the time the world arrives for the 2010 Olympics,” states lead report author and lawyer David Eby.

Cracks in the Foundation:
Solving the Housing Crisis in Canada’s Poorest Neighbourhood
September 2006
Complete report (PDF file - 4MB, 92 pages)
Executive summary (HTML)

MEDIA: press kit for Cracks in the Foundation (PDF file - 669K, 12 pages)

Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) - British Columbia
Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) is a non-profit organization, established in 1989 by and for families committed to future planning and securing a good life for their relative with a disability. (...) Our goal is twofold: to ensure a safe and secure future for your relative with a disability and, in the process, to provide you and your loved ones with peace of mind. In pursuit of this goal we're inspired by a simple but powerful vision: the vision of a good life for all people with disabilities and their families.
- incl. links to:
* About PLAN * Plan for a Good Life * Get Involved * Resources * Public Policy * Photos & Stories

PLAN Affiliates
- contact and (where available) website URL for organizations in BC, Alberta, Sakatchewan, Ontario and Quebec as well as Seattle (Washington) that are affiliated with PLAN.

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Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP*)
The Registered Disability Savings Plan is a savings plan designed specifically for people with disabilities in Canada. The first of its kind in the world, this new tax-deferred savings vehicle will assist families in planning for the long - term financial security of their relatives with disabilities.
- incl. links to * What is it? * How do I qualify * Where do I get it?
[ Registered Disability Savings Plan Blog- "...everything you wanted to know about the RDSP" ]
* (PLAN is the non-profit organization that proposed, researched, and campaigned for the RDSP.
PLAN created and maintains the RDSP website and the RDSP Blog.

Disability Savings Plan: Policy Milieu and Model Development (PDF - 209K, 39 pages)
October 2005
By Richard Shillington

Disability Savings Plan: Contribution Estimates and Policy Issues (PDF - 444K, 40 pages)
October2005
By Keith Horner

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New Ingredients for the Fiscal Pie
December 2003
By Sherri Torjman
"...argues the need for exploring possible methods of expanding the ‘fiscal pie.’ It explores one possible model put forward by PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network), a group of parents of children with severe disabilities. The group proposes a combination of private savings and public spending to help develop caring communities. (...) The proposal represents one idea in a range of possible savings and investment mechanisms to expand the fiscal pie – a direction which we should be debating seriously as a nation."
Complete report (PDF file - 19K, 3 pages)
Source:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy

PovNet
PovNet is an online resource for advocates, people on welfare, and community groups and individuals involved in anti-poverty work. It provides up-to-date information about resources in British Columbia and Canada. PovNet links to current anti-poverty issues and also provides links to other anti-poverty organizations and resources in Canada and internationally. PovNet is a clearinghouse of information necessary to address issues of anti-poverty. Regulations and laws can change so quickly it is difficult to know if the information you are using is up-to-date. PovNet strives to keep advocates and those who may be experiencing difficulty with the social service system informed.
[ Source : About PovNet ]

News - Anti-poverty & poverty related news stories, current events, reports & press releases.

Regional - View news, resources government info & links sorted by territory or province.

Online Resources - Links to manuals, publications, guides, help sheets, databases & other resources.

Applications and Forms - Links & info to help with applying for welfare, disability, pension, student loans, unemployment, social housing, immigration & refugee status, etc.

Find an Advocate - Looking for help? Try searching our directory for an advocate near you. (includes all provinces and territories)

Issues Page - links to information on a wide range of subjects, including the following :
* Aboriginal/First Nations * Art/Culture * Blogs * Children & Youth * Consumer/Debt * Disability * Education * Family * Foodbanks & Food * Government Policy * Health * Homelessness * Housing * Human Rights * Immigrants & Refugees * Legal Aid * Legal Research * LGBTQ * Media * Mental Health * Organizing * Panhandling * People of Colour * Poorbashing * Poverty Research * Prisoners' Rights * Seniors/Elders * Technology * Tenants' Rights * Unemployment * Utilities * Violence * Welfare * Women * Worker's Rights

Links - Links to government websites, policies, acts, regulations & many other useful websites organized by issue (same as above) and by location (links to provincial/territorial resources, U.S. and other international links)

PovNet's Links to Anti-Poverty/Poverty Blogs - links to over three dozen blogs from BC, from Toronto, from Fredericton, from Montreal, etc.

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Selected PovNet site content:

Poverty and protest: the media focus on the Vancouver Olympics
February 9, 2010
As media from around the country and around the world focus on Vancouver and the Winter Olympics, they are publishing stories about poverty, homelessness and protest. PovNet has prepared a collection of links to some of the stories published over the last few days.
[Click the link above to access all of the articles below.]
* Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | The Guardian
* In the Shadow of the Olympics | The New York Times
* Give A Home to Us Not The Olympics, Say Protesters | The New York Times
* Vancouver's 'Poverty Olympics' Protest Millions Spent On Winter Games | The Huffington Post
* Vancouver's poor protest against Olympic largesse | ABC News
* Estimates of Olympic protests increase as Vancouver Games approach | CP
* Activists stage 'Poverty Olympics' in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside | The Vancouver Sun
* Stop civil obedience: Fight the Games | The Vancouver Sun
* The Vancouver Olympic Blues | Dave Zirin
* Protesters target Olympic torch run | CBC
* End poverty. It's not a game: The Poverty Olympics | Rabble
* When Snow Melts: Vancouver’s Olympic Crackdown | The Nation
* Vancouver Olympic blues | RussianToday (video)
* Vancouver Tries To Polish 'Skid Road' For Olympics | NPR (radio)

 

A timeline of cuts to BC legal aid
January 25, 2010
Timeline and backgrounder on the cuts to legal aid in BC culled from various press releases and news articles.

Related link:

Access to Justice
- campaign to restore funding to legal aid in BC and to stop the cutbacks to the Legal Services Society
- incl. links to press releases, news, petitions and more

 

Research Report - Ministry of Human Resources Exit Survey Results * (PDF file - 48K, 7 pages) Ministry of Human Resources October 11, 2002 * January 9/09 Update - The link to this report is dead, but I'm leaving it in because of the relevant content. Try copying the title into a Google.ca search box ****************************************** - this is the first in a series of quarterly reports on the activities and experiences of people who have left income assistance. - "[t]he information comes from interviews of 1,833 individuals who received income assistance in September 2001, and who did not return to income assistance (IA) before the sampling date in April 2002. The survey found that almost 97% of the cases left IA to either work, attend school, for other income, or because of a change in family or financial status. More than 50% left income assistance for work, while 35% left to attend school or training." Survey Questions (PDF file - 65K, 16 pages) Editorial Comment: The number of completed surveys (1,833) represents just under 33% of the total "cohort" (the group of people who left IA after September 2001 and hadn't returned by April 2002), which was 5,578. The report says that the main reason others (over 2,200 people) didn't participate was because their contact numbers were found to be "Not In Service", showing "that many people move when they leave income assistance." Studies of welfare reforms since the mid-nineties in Alberta by the Canada West Foundation and by the municipal governments of Ottawa and Toronto in Ontario have shown that when they leave social assistance during welfare reforms, many people simply cannot afford a telephone... I don't know exit surveys very much, but I'm not inclined to assume that the survey results apply to the entire cohort, because the 66% who didn't reply would have been those (in my humble opinion) who would be least likely to be in a job, in school or in a training program. Lies, damn lies, and surveys...

Pro Bono Net BC - "Linking Lawyers with communities for the public good"
"Pro Bono Law of BC built this site to support pro bono work by BC lawyers and to make legal services as accessible as possible.
Pro Bono Law of BC is a non-profit society formed in 2002 with funding from the Law Foundation of BC to promote, coordinate and facilitate the delivery of pro bono legal services in BC."
["Pro bono comes from the Latin term, pro bono publico, for the good of the public. Our definition of pro bono: “Free legal services for persons of limited means or not-for-profit organizations"]
Source:
Law Foundation of British Columbia
"The Law Foundation of B.C. is a non-profit foundation created by legislation to receive and distribute the interest on clients' funds held in lawyers' pooled trust accounts maintained in financial institutions."

Related Link:
Pro Bono Net - U.S.
"The mission of Pro Bono Net is simple. First, use information technology to increase the amount and quality of legal services provided to low-income individuals and communities by the public interest/pro bono lawyers. Second, create a virtual community of public interest lawyers that bridges private, legal services, and academic sectors of the profession and that serves as a model for similar networks in other legal communities."

Progressive Economics blog

Take Two: BC Budget 2009 September Update
By Marc Lee
September 1, 2009
The September BC Budget is a new look at a budget most have come to see as a fake. February’s budget was not passed through the legislature due to the May election, and up to E-Day the government maintained the fiction that it had a small-ish deficit of just under half a billion dollars. Since that time, the government has moved out of denial about the recession and revealed that it could not in fact meet its deficit target, accompanied by loud noises about expenditure cuts through the summer.
Source:
Progressive Economics blog
NOTE: for links to the September 2009 BC Budget Update and analysis of those measures,
go to the 2009 Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm

Quickscribe Services - law library service (BC) ($)
"Quickscribe is a Victoria-based, family owned business offering clients access to provincial legislation both in hard copy and online formats. We've been in business since 1984 and offer a more affordable alternative to the subscription based Queens Printer legislation service. Our online service is fully searchable, printable and includes and email notification service that alerts clients to recent amendments.
See also QP LegalEze (Queen's Printer - $) - from the BC Legislative Assembly
See also Legislation : Statutes - Regulations - Orders-in-Council - B.C. Regulations Bulletins - Order in Council and Ministerial Order Resumes - Act/Ministry Responsibilities

Raise the Rates
In 2002, the BC government introduced new welfare policies that significantly reduced income assistance and increased the barriers to getting assistance. These changes have led to suffering and hardship for those in need. Please join us in pressing the provincial government to reduce poverty by improving the welfare system and raising the minimum wage. The campaign focuses on four principal areas: Welfare Rates | Barriers to Welfare | Employment | Minimum Wage. Follow the above link for more info on each of these issues.

October 27, 2006
Time to raise welfare rates
SFU economist Jon Kesselman makes the links between rising homelessness and BC’s abysmal welfare rates in this commentary from the Vancouver Sun:
"A whole $6! Every day! Imagine that you wake up each morning with six dollars burning a hole in your pocket. Let’s see: How might you spend your money? Maybe contemplate breakfast, a midday meal and supper at nightfall? (...) Welfare benefits for employable single persons in B.C. are $185 per month (the daily $6) plus a $325 monthly housing allowance, for a grand total of $510. These figures have been unchanged since 1994 despite a rise in living costs of nearly 30 per cent; the benefits are just one-third of what Statistics Canada computes as the low-income cutoff. So should we be surprised to find B.C.’s city streets and lanes looking increasingly like scenes from a Dickens novel? (...) A campaign endorsed by many community groups, called “Raise the Rates” (www.raisetherates.org), may help to heighten public awareness."
Posted October 27 by:
Marc Lee
Relentlessly Progressive Economics
"Commentary on Canadian economics and public policy"

Resist.ca is a project of the Resist! Collective
"The Resist! Collective is a group of Vancouver-based activists working to provide communications and technical services, information and education to the greater activist community. The Resist! Collective (Resist!) and resist.ca project grew out of the old Vancouver TAO collective.

Save Low Income Housing Coalition - Vancouver
The Save Low Income Coalition is working to preserve and increase low-income housing units in the Greater Vancouver Area and to raise the rates of shelter allowance for income assistance recipients. Active coalition members include non-profit, staffed as well as volunteer-based community groups. Many of us are advocates and some of us are residents localized in the Downtown Eastside area.

Self Advocate Net
Sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resources, this great site from Abbotsford in BC's Fraser Valley is an excellent example of how well partnerships between government, the private sector and the NGO sector can nurture and support communities that might otherwise be marginalized.
"SelfAdvocateNet.com is a strong voice for people with intellectual disabilities during the good times and the difficult times. We like to let people know what is possible if they speak up and stand up for their rights. We want to share the positive experiences through other peoples' stories and learn from their situations. But we also want to let people know about the important issues that are coming up that we need to face so that we will be safe in our communities and treated with respect."
- incl. links to About Us - FAQ - Music - Movies - Health and Wellness - Dear Jill - Democracy Wall - Photos - Our Stories- Groups - News - Links - Guestbook - Maps - Useful Tools - Barb's Tidbits - James' Ideas - Site map
Links to 150+ sites of interest
News - 50+ links to relevant news and background information on health care and disability issues in British Columbia

Seniors Housing Information Program
"The Seniors Housing Information Program is a non-profit organization which provides information on housing and services for seniors living in or wishing to live in the Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia."

Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The Plight of Seniors and Homelessness (PDF file - 308K, 117 pages)
A report on homelessness and the risk of homelessness among seniors and vulnerable adults in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia
September 2003
Henry C. Hightower, Jill Hightower, M.J. (Greta) Smith
Published by

Housing Directory - supportive housing for seniors in the Lower Mainland of BC - 1200+ listings

Single Mothers Support Network
The Single Mothers Support Network is a volunteer-driven non-profit organization supporting low-income single mothers and fathers. Supports provided to low-income single-parent families include: Individual Self-care with registered practitioners (Acupuncture - Aromatherapy Massage - Counseling - Herbology - Reiki - Yoga Therapy) - Workshops (e.g.,art therapy, life skills, and non-violent communication) - Community building (potlucks, telephone tree, stuff for free and sale, help wanted, bartering, tool library, babysitting co-ops)
- incl. links to Services (see the list of supports above) - Events - Resources - Links - Newsletter - Background - and much more...

Smithers Interior News

No time like now to raise B.C.’s minimum wage
December 16, 2009
In times of such financial uncertainty very few people are asking for raises. Among those people are Canada’s lowest paid workers – those making under $10 an hour. Since November 2001, the Campbell government has frozen the $8 minimum and the “loophole” training wage of $6 was introduced in 2002. British Columbia holds the record for the lowest minimum wage, lowest training wage and the longest time since the minimum wage has been updated.

Related link from the
Labour Program, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada:

Current And Forthcoming Minimum Hourly Wage Rates For Adult Workers in Canada
(this is the best resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels)

Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC) of British Columbia
The Social Planning and Research Council of BC is a non-partisan, charitable organization operating in BC since 1966. We work together with communities on Accessibility, Community Development Education, Income Security, and Community Social Planning.

Income Security Projects at SPARC BC

SPARC Resources & Publications

Sample SPARC reports:

Precarious & Vulnerable: Lone Mothers on Income Assistance (PDF - 235K, 31 pages)
December 9, 2008
By Penny Gurstein and Michael Goldberg
The British Columbia government introduced sweeping changes to its income assistance program in 2002. Although the changes made life more difficult for everyone on income assistance, lone mothers and their children were particularly hard hit. This report explores the impact that these changes have had on lone mothers with young children.

Source:
SPARC BC
The Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC) of BC is a non-partisan, charitable organization operating in BC since 1966. We work together with communities on Accessibility, Community Development Education, Income Security, and Community Social Planning.

Municipality Votes Papers 2008 (PDF - 234K, 11 pages)
October 14, 2008
This publication is intended to help you engage with local candidates in the municipal election on November 15, 2008. It’s all about social issues that impact your community; questions that matter to you; and the role that the municipal governments can choose to take in addressing them.
- covers the following topics:
* Local Democracy * Affordable Housing * Inclusion & Accessibility * Diversity in Civic Engagement * Transportation * Municipal Governments & Community Social Planning

Still Left behind : A Comparison of
Living Costs and Income Assistance in British Columbia (PDF file - 676K, 63 pages)
By Jill Atkey and Rebecca Siggner
February 2008
A comparison of Living Costs and Employment Assistance Rates in British Columbia. Report findings indicate that families and individuals receiving income assistance from the province of B.C. are not able to meet their minimal monthly living costs.

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Left Behind: A Comparison of Living Costs and Employment and Assistance Rates in BC (PDF file - 593K, 36 pages)
December 2005
"The primary finding of this report is that it is harder for income assistance recipients to make ends meet in 2005 than it was three years ago following cuts to welfare benefit rates in 2002. Few material changes have been made to welfare policy since the last edition of this report in 2002, in which we described the significant reforms to welfare in BC made that year. However, in the intervening years, inflation has continued to erode the meagre incomes available to people receiving social assistance in BC. The already inadequate benefit levels have remained static in spite of increasing costs, particularly for shelter, heating, and transportation."

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Reports provide wake-up call on future of Canada’s cities Media Release March 23, 2005 "‘Social inclusion’ reports were released today in five cities -- Saint John, Toronto, Burlington, Edmonton and Vancouver. They are the work of Inclusive Cities Canada, a unique, participatory research initiative that uses a social inclusion framework to build people-friendly cities, promote good urban governance and develop strategies for supporting urban diversity. The federally-funded initiative set up Civic Panels made of community and municipal leaders to conduct social inclusion ‘audits’. Over 1,000 participants contributed to the findings. The research examined important dimensions of social inclusion, such as how cities respond to diversity, levels of civic engagement, living conditions, opportunities for human development and community services." Download the report for Vancouver/North Vancouver: * Preliminary Findings (975K, 25 pages) The Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC) works with communities to build a just and healthy society for all. Founded in 1966, SPARC is a non-partisan organization whose members and directors are drawn from throughout British Columbia. SPARC BC is guided by the values of social justice, integrity, learning and inclusion and as such we conduct research, consulting, public education, and advocacy on issues of accessibility, income security, and community development. Source: Inclusive Cities Canada "Inclusive Cities Canada: A Cross-Canada Civic Initiative is a unique partnership of community leaders and elected municipal politicians working collaboratively to enhance social inclusion across Canada. The goals of Inclusive Cities Canada (ICC) are to strengthen the capacity of cities to create and sustain inclusive communities for the mutual benefit of all people, and to ensure that community voices of diversity are recognized as core Canadian ones." Related Link: Federation of Canadian Municipalities [Inclusive Cities Canada works in collaboration with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities] The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is a national organization of 1000 plus cities in Canada. Comprised of locally elected politicians, FCM endeavours to support local governments through conferences, research and information and acts as a lobby for the interests of cities with the Federal Government. Over the past 15 years besides issues of local infrastructure, FCM has advocated for a better quality of life in our local communities. To achieve our goals, FCM liaises and works with numerous other Canadian groups and organizations. - Go to the Municipalities Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/municipal.htm

Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC)

Final evaluation report of the
Case Coordination Project in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
February 2009
SRDC released its final evaluation report of the Case Coordination Project (CCP) in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area with high rates of poverty, substance abuse, poor housing, and unemployment. The project was designed to determine whether a comprehensive model delivering one-to-one support to long-term unemployed residents of the Downtown Eastside could help them return to employment and self-sufficiency. Components of the project and methods of delivery had to be flexible to meet the changing needs of participants. The final report presents the findings of the CPP, with details on participants’ employment, their outcomes from receiving Income Assistance, and their experiences with the project. The report also draws conclusions relating to project implementation and administration, as well as policy implications for similar projects.
Source:
Learning What Works (February 2009)
- the latest issue of SRDC's newsletter

Complete report:

The Downtown Eastside Case Coordination Project:
Moving Hard-to-Employ Individuals from Welfare to Opportunity (PDF - 840K, 65 pages)
By Barbara Dobson Susanna Gurr
July 2008

NOTE: the February 2009 issue of Learning What Works
also includes articles (and links to related reports) about:
* The B.C. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Early Implementation Report: Addressing academic barriers to PSE (AVID that aims to increase post-secondary enrolment among Grade 8 students with a B to C average).
* Community Employment Innovation Project (CEIP): A viable alternative for vulnerable communities and the unemployed
* Data from the Community Employment Innovation Project is available to interested researchers
* The Child Care Pilot Project is extended (testing a preschool daycare service designed to help children master the French language)
* SRDC to evaluate initiatives of the BC Healthy Living Alliance

All SRDC Publications - by theme
All SRDC Publications - alphabetical

Source:
Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC)

.

StrategicThoughts.com
This is the personal website of David Schreck - political pundit, former MLA and former Special Advisor to the (NDP) Premier, among other accomplishments.

Links - collection of ~100 links to (mostly BC) online resources covering a wide range of topics, with a special focus on health economics, health unions, politics and advocacy.

Some samples of David Schreck's articles:

March 2, 2010
Budget 2010
Premier Campbell and his government took a major dive in public opinion polls when British Columbians learned in July about the HST, not mentioned during the election, and about the true size of the deficit, misrepresented during the election. Is there any reason to think the Campbell government is more credible now than it was during last year's election? Evidence from the March 2nd budget suggests they've learned nothing.
Source:
Strategic Thoughts - website of David Schreck
[ more budget 2010 information and analysis] - a separate page of this website ]

February 2, 2010
Income Assistance Caseloads Up - Yet Again
The latest welfare statistics are more bad news for the Campbell government, and for those who hope for mercy in the March 3rd budget. Relative to December 2008, the caseload in December 2009 increased by 45.4% for those categorized as "expected to work", and by 15.6% for all recipients of assistance. That's not the half of it since relative to December 2006 the "expected to work" caseload was was up 118%, and the total caseload was up 27%. This is bad news for the 130,341 income assistance "cases" and bad news for the provincial budget. (...) In his story in The Tyee about cutbacks to the income assistance appeal process [see the link below], Andrew MacLeod may have hit on why the government feels confident that disability caseloads won't takeoff. MacLeod noted that while the annual report on the appeal process was released in December, it escaped notice in the media. Income assistance caseload statistics are reported monthly, but unlike monthly estimates of employment and unemployment from Statistics Canada, these reliable administrative data are usually ignored by the media.

The latest BC welfare statistics
- December 2009 data, posted January 29, 2010

Related link:

Complaints of Unfairness Shoot up from Welfare, Disability Recipients
Independent government tribunal had budget cut as appeals rose 46 per cent
By Andrew MacLeod
February 1, 2010
The Employment and Assistance Appeals Tribunal is an independent government body that listens and rules when people feel they've been treated unfairly by the ministries that administer disability assistance, welfare and childcare subsidies. Last year the number of appeals to the tribunal jumped by 46 per cent. At the same time the office dealt with a 17 per cent budget cut by shrinking the size of panels that hear appeals and by using a computer program to train new tribunal members. The details are included in the tribunal's 2008-2009 annual report (PDF file - 1.9MB, 32 pages)
Source:
TheTyee.ca
"...your independent alternative daily
newspaper reaching every corner of B.C. and beyond"

Lies, damn lies and government websites:
David Schreck is an independent watchdog of the British Columbia government.
In the article below, he "reviews" the new BC Government Home Page by systematically debunking several of the self-congratulatory factoids (found in the section entitled For the Record: Facts on Current B.C. Issues) from the govt. site.

BC Government's Revised Website - A Commentary by David Schreck
December 15, 2009
"(...) British Columbians have learned the hard way after the last election that the B.C. Liberals suffer an enormous credibility gap. Whether it is their claims about the HST, promises about the deficit, commitments to protect health and education or simply statistical facts about child poverty and employment, you have to check the facts for yourself because you can't believe what the government tells you, updated website or not."
- includes half a dozen links to authoritative sources of data that contradict or correct statements found in the For the Record page, notably with respect to the government's claims about poverty reduction and job creation.

Related link:

Government of British Columbia Home Page

September 1, 2009
Budget Deficit and Deceit
The Campbell government plans to balance its budget by 2013-2014. That plan calls for tabling a budget in February 2013, holding an election in May 2013 and having a new replacement budget in September 2013. It looks like the B.C. Liberals think voters will fall for the 2009 trick again and again. Between now and the next election, all of the budgets that will be tested by audited financial statements, Public Accounts, will show deficits, beginning with a deficit of $2.8 billion this year. You won't find it in the government's budget highlights, but Finance Minister Colin Hansen's September budget update announced an 18% increase in MSP premiums. BC has set several Canadian records: the highest child poverty, the lowest minimum wage and the only province to use regressive premiums to fund health care.
Source:
Strategic Thoughts.com
---
NOTE: for links to the September 2009 BC Budget Update and analysis of those measures,
go to the 2009 Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm
---

More bad news for welfare
May 30, 2009
BC's latest welfare "statistics" were released mid-afternoon on Friday, May 29th [see the link below]. The "temporary assistance - expected to work" caseload increased 52.9% between April 2008 and April 2009. The total caseload increased by 14.4%, year over year. "Expected to work - two parent families" increased by 77.1%. Not only is the welfare caseload increasing, but the rate of increase is increasing! When the August 2008 data were released on the eve of the Vancouver by-elections, five months before the latest budget, the data showed an increase in "temporary assistance - expected to work" of "only" 20.2% and in the total welfare caseload of "only" 5.5%
[ incl. links to three related resources ]

---
Related links:

New BC welfare numbers show continued climb
By Andrew MacLeod
May 29, 2009
VICTORIA – The British Columbia welfare caseload continued to rise in April, according to government figures released today. The total number of cases grew by 0.7 percent since March. The number in the expected to work category receiving temporary assistance was 54 percent higher in April than it was in June 2008. The total number of clients, including those on disability assistance, was 161,780 in April. That's still significantly lower than the 244,821 in 2001 when the then new B.C. Liberal Party took office and tightened eligibility requirements. In 1995 there were 367,387 clients on the welfare caseload.
[ incl. links to three related resources ]
Source:
The Tyee

April 2009 welfare stats:
BC Employment and Assistance Cases by Program - April 2009 (PDF - 81K, 6 pages)
Posted May 29, 2009
Source:
Ministry of Housing and Social Services
[ links to current and earlier welfare statistics ]
---

Welfare in BC Up 49.8% - Revealed Post Election
May 15, 2009
The first crumb of what will likely be a lot more previously hidden bad news came out three days after the election when the Ministry of Housing and Social Services released welfare statistics (see "Related links" below) that should have been released by the end of April. The statistics for March 2009 show that for the category of "temporary assistance expected to work" the caseload increased by 49.8% between March 2008 and March 2009. The total welfare caseload is up 13.6% relative to a year earlier, and stands at the highest level since 2002. The welfare caseload has not only been increasing, but the increase has been accelerating. That was taking place in 2008 when Premier Campbell was still claiming that BC would duck the worst of the recession. It was worst yet during the election campaign when Premier Campbell was saying "Keep BC Strong". Thousands of British Columbians aren't looking at "keeping" BC strong, they just desperately want to regain their own strength.

---
Related link:

BC Employment and Assistance Cases by Program - March 2009 (PDF - 80K, 6 pages)
Source:
Ministry of Housing and Social Services
---

BC in Recession?
January 10, 2009
Governments frequently release bad news around quitting time on Friday afternoons. The Campbell government did that trick one better when it released welfare statistics (PDF - 82K, 6 pages) late on the afternoon of New Year's Eve. Those statistics showed the number of cases classified as "temporary assistance expected to work" up 24.3% in November 2008 relative to November 2007. The increase was startling but only the latest jump in a trend that started in July when the "expected to work" caseload increased by 16.3% relative to July 2007. The total welfare (BC Employment and Assistance) caseload, including disabled, increased by 7.2% between November 2007 and November 2008. Welfare statistics aren't the only indicator of an economic downturn in British Columbia. Statistics Canada reported that the number of British Columbians receiving regular employment insurance benefits in October 2008 (the latest data) increased by 18.2% relative to October 2007. That increase was only exceeded in Ontario where the increase was 18.4%. Alberta was third amongst the provinces with an 8.2% increase, far behind Ontario and BC. [ more... ]

Stagnant Wages
February 23, 2008
The February 2008 edition of Statistics Canada's Perspectives on Labour and Income contains an article titled "Earnings in the last decade". It analyses average hourly earnings between 1997 and 2007. The results are not what the Campbell government usually spins. The Statistics Canada study found that in constant 2002 dollars the national increase in real wages was 6% over the decade, but it was only 3% in BC. What is more shocking is the study's finding that the average real wage of managers in BC increased by 15% over the decade while the real wages of other workers showed virtually no change.

Jan/Feb '08 articles from StrategicThoughts.com - PLUS a link to earlier articles at the bottom of the page

BC Welfare Caseload Up
February 5, 2008
The Campbell government continues to suffer from the excesses of its first term. Time will tell whether the bungled sale of BC Rail, details of which are unfolding in the courts, will inflict damage before the May 2009 election. It still has not escaped the consequences of cutting the Ministry of Children and Family Development as if it were any other government department, and this week it is being reminded of its 2001 decision to cut the Mental Health Advocate. For a surprise on the list of memories, who would have thought that under the hard-hearted Campbell government the welfare caseload would increase?

-----
Related links from the BC Ministry of Employment and Assistance:

Latest Employment and Assistance statistics- December 2007
Updated January 29, 2008
- incl. * Number of Cases by Program and Family Type * Number of Clients by Program and Family Type * Number of Cases by Region

BC Employment and Assistance Statistics
- links to earlier statistics
-----

A Lot for Those over $100,000 Income, Little for Welfare
February 23
"The 2007 Budget did not increase the support portion of the income assistance rates for most clients. Based on the Ministry's caseload statistics for December 2006, over 55,000 cases classified as disabled will receive no increase in their support allowance; they are part of the 62,638 cases who will receive no increase in support payments. The Campbell government deserves a little credit for increasing the support allowance for single employable clients, and for adjusting rates for children, but no one should think that all clients are receiving an increase - 40% receive no increase in shelter allowances and 64% receive no increase in support allowances."

Welfare Rates Paid with Caseload Cuts
February 22

Welfare Rate Increase
February 20

Budget 2007-08: Those that Got Get!
February 20, 2007
"BC Budget 2007 flaunts the statutory requirement for reporting major capital costs, and it repeats the pattern of the Campbell government for looking after those who least need it."

NOTE: for more BC Budget 2007 info, go to the British Columbia Government Links page of this site.

A Lot for Those over $100,000 Income, Little for Welfare
February 23, 2007
"The 2007 Budget did not increase the support portion of the income assistance rates for most clients. Based on the Ministry's caseload statistics for December 2006, over 55,000 cases classified as disabled will receive no increase in their support allowance; they are part of the 62,638 cases who will receive no increase in support payments. The Campbell government deserves a little credit for increasing the support allowance for single employable clients, and for adjusting rates for children, but no one should think that all clients are receiving an increase - 40% receive no increase in shelter allowances and 64% receive no increase in support allowances."

Welfare Rates Paid with Caseload Cuts
February 22, 2007

Welfare Rate Increase
February 20, 2007

Budget 2007-08: Those that Got Get!
February 20, 2007
"BC Budget 2007 flaunts the statutory requirement for reporting major capital costs, and it repeats the pattern of the Campbell government for looking after those who least need it."

October 28, 2006
Four Month or More Delay in Welfare Shelter
- includes a link to the Speech by Premier Campbell to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (October 27) where he vowed that he would increase the welfare shelter allowance; also includes links to other related resources, i.e., info about the new Rental Assistance Program for low-income families (excluding families receiving welfare) plus links to the current welfare shelter allowance levels and caseload statistics.

Lower Health Costs by Helping the Hungry
October 12, 2006
According to the Dietitians of Canada, about 10% of Canadians "lack the funds to purchase sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active healthy life." BC's Provincial Health Officer elaborated on hungry British Columbians in his latest annual report. In the highlights of his report, he stressed that: "Factors affecting the ability to afford nutritious food in BC include higher costs of a basic "market basket" of items, higher housing costs, inadequate social assistance rates, increased levels of homelessness, and a minimum wage level that can result in even full-time workers in some BC communities falling below the federal low-income cut-off." By raising both income assistance rates and the minimum wage, the Campbell government might lower health care costs and stimulate the economy.

Related Link:

Food, Health and Well-Being in British Columbia:
Provincial Health Officer's Annual Report for 2005: (PDF file - 4.6MB, 166 pages)
October 2006
Source:
British Columbia Office of the Provincial Health Officer
[Related News Release - October 4]

Campbell's New Era Fails Women
March 1, 2004
"Gordon Campbell seems to have a major disconnect with women; perhaps that is why a pamphlet has appeared on the government caucus website under the heading "A New Era for Women". It misrepresents what government has done in terms of communities, health services, child care and self-sufficiency (code language for kicking people off welfare). The word "equality" does not appear in the pamphlet."
Source:
Strategic Thoughts.com

NOTE: All 37 Women's Centres across the province of British Columbia saw their provincial funding cut by 100% on March 31, 2004.

Related Links:

Campbell's New Era Fails Women
March 1, 2004
Source:
StrategicThoughts.com

---------------------------------------------------

Arrogant Response to the Auditor General's Disability Report
February 25, 2004
"In a report released February 24th, the Auditor General criticized the disability review conducted by the Ministry of Human Resources, but the Ministry's response denied important conclusions of the Auditor's report."
Source:
Strategic Thoughts.com

NOTE: for more links to info about the Auditor General's report, see to the Canadian Social Research Links BC Government Links page

2004 Budget Highlights
"Endlessly repeating that the budget is balanced won't make it so"
February 17, 2004
"The government published its version of budget highlights but it overlooked many important facts. In an attempt to correct those deficiencies, here is a citizen's version of highlights from the 2004-05 budget."
* Provincial debt is $39.452 billion, $5.617 billion (16.6%) higher than it was when the BC Liberals took office.
* Revenue from income tax is projected to be $5.005 billion, $971 million lower than before the tax cuts.
* Revenue from corporate taxes is $506 million lower than before the tax cuts.
* The budget for the Ministry of Children and Family Development is $1.382 billion, $171 million lower than 2000-01 and a cut of $70 million from last year.
* The budget for Human Resources is $1.301 billion, a further cut of $117 million from last year.
* 14 Ministries are slated for budget cuts totaling $803 million.
* The forecast allowance, set at $750 million when the Liberals presented their first budget, was reduced to just $100 million - not much room for error, but errors won't be revealed until after the next election.
* $124 million was added to the bottom line by changing the method of accounting (fully including schools, universities, colleges and health authorities).
* Despite claims about more money for education, that money doesn't appear until 2006.
* People with valuable homes get a break with an increase in the threshold for clawing back the homeowner grant from $525,000 to $585,000.
* All of the income tax cuts for most middle and low income taxpayers have been clawed back with increases in regressive taxes and fees.

More Cuts to Welfare
February 18, 2004
"Just days after the government appeared to back down on its plan to kick thousands off welfare by being the first province in Canada to impose arbitrary time limits; it looks like balancing the budget will be at the cost of the poor."

CCPA helps Campbell with Unrealistic Proposals
February 12, 2004
"On Thursday, during the last question period for the first week of the new legislative sitting, Speaker Claude Richmond once again encouraged disrespect for BC's legislature by allowing government backbenchers to run out the clock asking questions about a paper published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). When Opposition House Leader Joy MacPhail was finally recognized, Richmond announced that the time for question period had expired. The CCPA did not help the New Democrats with its paper titled "BC Solutions Budget 2004: Getting Ready for 2010". The 29 page document is as valid as any other external comment on the upcoming BC budget, but it contains unrealistic and politically unacceptable taxation proposals."

Government Backs Down over Heartless Policy but won't release numbers
February 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."
Related Links - see the Canadian Social Research Links BC Welfare Time Limits page

Trouble for Campbell with 40 Unhappy MLAs
January 27, 2004
"A cabinet shuffle in an atmosphere of crisis, two weeks prior to the legislature opening with the Speech from the Throne, is bad news for Premier Campbell."

Related Links: Premier Announces New Cabinet January 26, 2004 Office of the Premier "VICTORIA – Premier Gordon Campbell today announced changes to the Cabinet, including the addition of six new members, a renewed focus on economic development and several new Minister of State portfolios to advance key priorities in the government’s agenda." Executive Council (new list of ministers) January 26, 2004 The new Minister of Human Resources is the Hon. Stan Hagen. The new Minister of Children and Family Development is Deputy Premier Christy Clark. Source: Office of the Premier

2003 in Review
December 15, 2003
"In December it is the custom to look back and review the year. 2003 was a bizarre year in BC politics. It had bookends of Premier Campbell's mug shot being displayed for all to see following his night in a US jail at one end, and at the other end chaos in BC Ferries..."

Making the Disabled Beg
April 25, 2003
"Why is the Campbell government turning to charities to assist people with disabilities overcome barriers to employment? Human Resources Minister Murry Coell used the April staged cabinet meeting to announce a $20 million endowment to the Vancouver Foundation, the income from which will fund annual grants. (...) Coell's approach may have more to do with political networking than it does with helping people with disabilities."

$20 Million Helps People with Disabilities Access Jobs News Release April 23, 2003 "Government is establishing a $20-million endowment fund with Vancouver Foundation to help British Columbians with disabilities find and keep jobs, Human Resources Minister Murray Coell announced today.(...) The Minister’s Council on Employment for Persons with Disabilities will provide advice to the Vancouver Foundation on the disbursement of funds." Source : Ministry of Human Resources Backgrounder Related Links: Vancouver Foundation Minister's Council on Employment for Persons with Disabilities

---

After Welfare - Contrasting Studies (British Columbia) March 27, 2003 "Statistics Canada has released a study on people who leave welfare that contrasts with the story spun by BC's Minister of Human Resources, Murray Coell. "Life After Welfare: The Economic Well Being of Welfare Leavers in Canada during the 1990s" by Marc Frenette and Garnett Picot provides some fascinating contrasts with Coell's characterization of the 90s and with what are passing as welfare exit surveys in his ministry." Related Link: Life after welfare : 1994 to 1999 March 26, 2003 "Family incomes rose for the majority of people who stopped receiving welfare benefits during the 1990s. However, for about one out of every three individuals, family income declined significantly, according to a first-ever national study of the economic outcome for people who left welfare rolls." The link above takes you to a summary of the report. Complete report: Life After Welfare: The Economic Well Being of Welfare Leavers in Canada during the 1990s (PDF file - 332K, 32 pages) Source : The Daily [Statistics Canada]

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Exit Surveys of "Welfare Leavers" January 6, 2003 Related Link: Leaving Welfare for Work Triples Income Feb. 26, 2003 "British Columbians leaving income assistance for work are almost tripling their income, according to the Ministry of Human Resources’ third exit survey of 1,512 former clients who have been off assistance for six months. “This survey continues the trend that sees the majority of clients moving into sustainable jobs, earning solid wages and becoming self-reliant,” said Human Resources Minister Murray Coell. “This is precisely the goal of B.C. Employment and Assistance: to assist people to move away from dependence and take control of their lives.” Source : Ministry of Children and Family Development

Closure Ends Year One - Expect a Terrible Year Two
May 15, 2002
"One year is down and three are yet to go before the May 17, 2005, election. In his first year, Premier Gordon Campbell has demonstrated an outrageous abuse of power. With 77 of 79 seats in the legislature, his House Leader has threatened to use closure to cut off debate and pass some of his most controversial bills by May 30th."

Campbell: A Robin Hood in Reverse
May 14, 2002
"Looking back a year is something usually reserved for the week before New Years, but this week we have the occasion of the first anniversary of Gordon Campbell's historic election sweep. Who would have thought that the mild mannered politician who promised to do a better job with social programs while slashing taxes would make Ontario's Mike Harris look like a leftie?"

Gag Warning Accompanies Welfare Legislation
April 15, 2002
"Two weeks of relative inactivity for the Campbell government came to an end Monday with the introduction of five new bills to the Legislature. (...) Two of the bills introduced on April 15th dealt with changes to BC's welfare system. Those changes are so extreme that four hours before the legislation was introduced the Ministry of Human Resources took the unusual step of sending an email to all staff warning them about their duties as public employees."

 

The Toronto Star

Kudos to the Toronto-Dominion Bank and other Canadian financial
institutions that are offering a range of financial services to low-income Canadians!
BOO to Moneymart-style predatory lending practices!

TD takes poor into account : Direct Deposit Initiative
keeps social assistance cheques out of hands of pricey payday lenders
By Rita Trichur
January 5, 2010
Toronto-Dominion Bank is using an innovative pilot program that specifically targets low-income earners as new clients – a financial intervention of sorts to prevent those folks from cashing their social assistance cheques at costly payday lenders. Canada's second-largest bank has set up kiosks in some government offices in British Columbia to reach out to these vulnerable consumers and snag them as customers just as they receive their welfare cheques. In some cases, civil servants are now simply referring clients to the closest TD branch.
Source:
Toronto Star

TheTyee.ca
"...your independent alternative daily newspaper reaching every corner of B.C. and beyond"

Selected recent content from The Tyee:

Green Homes, Out of the Box
April 2010
Shipping containers revolutionized the global economy, making trade possible on a scale never before seen. Now, these big steel boxes hold the potential to revolutionize urban living and design. In this series, The Tyee reports on how these containers are being refashioned into affordable, green buildings in Europe and Asia and examines how they could be used to solve North America's housing problems as well.
Three-part series:
[Click the link above toaccess the individual articles.]
* Green and Affordable Homes, Out of the Box - 12 Apr 2010
* Is this Canada's Most Affordable Green Home? - 13 April 2010
* Homeless Housing For Less - 14 April 2010
Source:
The Tyee

Downtown Eastside info centre a "whitewash" say residents
By Colleen Kimmett February 1, 2010
(...) Wendy Pederson of the Carnegie Community Action Project called the centre a "whitewash."
"We're offended that BC Housing is trying to manage the messaging of homelessness and poverty and the Downtown Eastside. They say that homelessness is about addiction and mental illness; it's not true," Pederson said. "We have a housing supply problem. We don't have low-income housing in this city. We have an income problem. We need to raise welfare."
Source:
The Tyee

Related links: ‘Downtown Eastside Connect’ Opens at Woodward's February 1st, 2010 VANCOUVER – British Columbians, media and visitors to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games can learn about the partnerships and investments improving the quality of life for people in the Downtown Eastside at an information centre opened today by Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “The Province subsidizes over 7,000 social and supportive housing units annually and is protecting another 1,280 affordable apartments in this Vancouver neighbourhood,” said Coleman. “The Connect centre shows how these investments have made a positive difference both socially and economically for Downtown Eastside residents because of the strong partnerships between the Province, City of Vancouver, non-profit groups and the private sector.” The centre, Downtown Eastside Connect at Woodward’s, features a wide range of information available in a variety of formats, showcasing innovative housing, social and economic development programs. The centre will assist international media to produce stories about the neighbourhood by connecting them with non-profit organizations that create positive changes in the community. Source: BC Housing The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver so the DTES can remain a low income friendly community. Also from The Tyee: Sun, Province to Promote Governments' Homeless Message CanWest newspapers co-sponsor government-run public relations centre in Downtown Eastside during Olympics By Sean Holman, 27 Jan 2010 Vancouver's two major newspapers are sponsoring a government-run centre that will tell international media covering the 2010 Winter Olympics about how the province is dealing with homelessness issues in the city's troubled Downtown Eastside. Media observers say The Vancouver Sun and The Province should investigate the veracity of the information that will be presented by the centre, not sponsor it. But The Province's editor-in-chief has said that sponsorship deal would only create a conflict of interest if it had been arranged by the paper's newsroom -- which it wasn't.

BC law to deny welfare to some; wording too loose says NDP
By Andrew MacLeod
October 19, 2009
British Columbia housing and social development minister Rich Coleman today introduced legislation that he says will prevent people with outstanding warrants for serious crimes from receiving welfare. But New Democratic Party critic Shane Simpson says the legislation will also affect people who have committed only minor crimes. “The minister has issued a press release that says one thing and a piece of legislation that says something very different,” said Simpson. “They have a blank cheque on who they can capture with this and that's inappropriate.”
Source:
The Tyee

The proposed legislation:

Bill 14 — 2009
Housing and Social Development
Statutes Amendment Act, 2009
First Reading copy
October 19, 2009

The news release from the
Ministry responsible for welfare:

Outstanding warrants to be ineligible for social assistance
News Release
October 19, 2009
VICTORIA – The provincial government will restrict access to income assistance and disability assistance for people with outstanding indictable arrest warrants in B.C. and other provinces, as well as arrest warrants under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada). Indictable offences are the most serious types of offences and include a wide range of crimes such as assault, breaking and entering, drug trafficking, murder, assault with a weapon, and assault causing bodily harm.
Source:
Ministry of Housing and Social Development

Related links:

B.C. to deny welfare to alleged criminals
October 19, 2009
.B.C. Social Development Minister Rich Coleman plans to cut off welfare and disability payments to people with outstanding arrest warrants. Critics are raising concerns about a new bill introduced by the B.C. government that would deny social assistance or disability benefits to anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant. The provincial minister for housing and social development, Rich Coleman, said the bill is aimed mainly at people from other provinces who move to B.C., although it applies to anyone with an outstanding warrant for an indictable offence anywhere in the country.
Source:
CBC

Welfare rules won't apply to other benefits;
People who get low-income tax credits will not have to submit to criminal record checks
By Justine Hunter
October 20, 2009
While British Columbia seeks to deny welfare benefits to people who are wanted by police, it does not apply the same standards to people collecting provincial tax credits. The province does, however, deny inmates of federal prisons from receiving low-income tax credits, and is currently seeking to expand that exclusion to include prisoners in provincial jails. The province offers numerous tax credits to low-income earners, including sales tax and climate-action rebates. A government official said yesterday there are no plans to require a criminal background check to screen for outstanding warrants in those cases.
Source:
Globe and Mail

Bill urges criminal checks for welfare seekers
First-of-its-kind law to weed out those with warrants
for serious crimes based on a principle of ‘punishment,' civil liberties group says
By Justine Hunter
October 19, 2009
British Columbians seeking welfare and disability benefits will be denied assistance unless they agree to a criminal background check, under proposed new legislation tabled yesterday. Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman told reporters that the law, expected to be in effect early in 2010, is meant to ensure the province is not paying benefits to people who are wanted by police in other jurisdictions for serious crimes.

Source:
Globe and Mail

---

Record Deficit a Big Surprise, Say BC Liberals
During May's election Hansen glimpsed red ink, but lacked a 'crystal ball'.
By Andrew MacLeod
British Columbia Finance Minister Colin Hansen is projecting a record deficit of $2.8 billion, according to a budget update he presented today. It's a figure five times larger than the $495 million projected in February and insisted upon by Premier Gordon Campbell during the election campaign.
Source:
TheTyee.ca

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BC's Bizarre Fiscal Plan
The government seems to be jamming its feet on both the brake pedal and accelerator.
September 1, 2009
By Will McMartin
"(...)The Campbell government clearly understands that fiscal and economic stimulus is a good and necessary thing during the current economic downturn. And, yet, the BC Liberals also appear to have a perverse obsession about cutting government spending — no matter the cost to British Columbia's 'general interest'."
Source:
TheTyee.ca

NOTE: for links to the September 2009 BC Budget Update and analysis of those measures,
go to the 2009 Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm

---

June 19, 2009
Death Lurks in an Empty Cupboard
In Canada's poorest neighbourhood, bad diets hasten illness and death.
By Amy Juschka
June 19, 2009
[Editor's note: This is the second of two features on food security in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Yesterday we visited the nutrition-conscious chef of the Carnegie Kitchen.]

Why, in a country as wealthy as Canada, are people going hungry? When Dr. Graham Riches first looked into the issue of "food insecurity" in the early 1980s, he was interested in that question. Nearly three decades later, Riches, emeritus professor of social work at the University of British Columbia, is still trying to find the answer. This much hasn't changed: For millions of low-income Canadians, finding -- and affording -- nutritious food is a daily battle. And more and more, charities are expected to meet the need.
Source:
TheTyee.ca

Campbell's Claim that Jobs Lifted Many out of Poverty Proves a Myth
Delayed government report shows no real gains
By Andrew MacLeod
April 27, 2009
Jobs are Premier Gordon Campbell's answer to poverty. That position was repeated during the April 23 leaders' debate on CKNW radio when he responded to a caller's question about mandating poverty reduction targets by saying, "A job is, by far, the best social program you can have." Since taking office in 2001, B.C. Liberals have insisted they were creating jobs and people are better off. They pointed to a rapidly declining welfare caseload as an example of that success. And yet, the NDP and others point out even when B.C.'s economy was strong, the provincial poverty rate stayed high and the child poverty rate, at 21.9 per cent according to the most recent report, led the country for five years. Now a new report posted to the Housing and Social Development Ministry's website following pressure from The Tyee shows Campbell and his welfare ministers have been wrong on why the welfare caseload was shrinking and that major changes the Liberals made to the system did nothing to improve people's incomes.

Source:
TheTyee.ca
"...your independent alternative daily newspaper reaching every corner of B.C. and beyond"

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Province refused to release report on welfare leavers
By Andrew MacLeod
April 24, 2009 (09:30 am)
The British Columbia government has suppressed a report on what happens to people who leave the province's welfare system, but now is promising to release it today.
(...) The province has insisted that the rapidly declining welfare caseload has been the result of more people finding employment. Other research, including a landmark study (PDF - 599K, 8 pages) by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives researchers, and past Tyee coverage, suggests tightening eligibility rules in 2002 played a large role in the decline. A recent report by provincial Ombudsman Kim Carter, Last Resort (PDF - 2.2MB, 132 pages) , noted, “The ministry lacks evidence to support its conclusion that the reduction in the income assistance caseload is a result of people leaving assistance for employment.”
NOTE: The above article was posted in the morning on April 24 and the Ministry posted its report (below) at 2pm (the timestamp on the PDF file).
The Tyee will quite likely have a followup article early in the coming week; check the Tyee home page for updates.
Source:
The Tyee

Related link from the
Ministry of Housing and Social Development:

Income Levels of BC Employment and Assistance (BCEA) Clients after They Leave Income Assistance (PDF - 279K, 16 pages)
2009 (PDF file dated April 24/09, 2pm)
The analysis in this report uses tax data from Statistics Canada to examine the income of clients that left assistance and never returned. It is a followup to a previous report, Outcome of those Leaving Assistance, which found that over 80 percent of employable clients who left assistance had employment income.
Specific findings of the report:
· Median total family income of clients, defined as aftertax aftertransfer income including employment income, is higher after clients leave income assistance and increases over time.
· Clients who left income assistance have income significantly higher, in some cases two to three times higher, than they would have receiving income assistance for the entire year.
· Most of the increase is attributable to increases in employment income.
· More...
Source:
Ministry of Housing and Social Development (HSD)
[ Ministry reports ]

Related link from HSD:

Outcomes of Those Leaving Assistance (PDF - 61K, 6 pages)
February 2007
"(...) Since 2002, 88.2% of Expected to Work (ETW) clients who have left assistance and have not returned as of 2005 have employment income, are attending education or have other income in the year following their exit from IA."

BC Deficit Budget Cuts Spending, Offers Little Stimulus
Health and education safe but other ministries trimmed, including environment, housing, aboriginal affairs.
By Andrew MacLeod
Published: February 18, 2009

This Budget Is Toxic Fudge:
BC's government is in denial about the economic realities we face.
By Will McMartin
February 18, 2009
In a province where phoney-baloney budgets and fiscal manipulation are as common as rain, BC Liberal Finance Minister Colin Hansen's 2009/10 plan is as misleading and deceptive as any we've ever seen. The global economy, as every British Columbian over the age of three knows by now, has collapsed. Job losses are rising at an ever-increasing rate; retail sales and housing starts have plunged and commodity prices tanked; and many of the world's largest financial institutions have imploded. Federal governments of every ideological stripe, as well as U.S. states and Canadian provinces, have or are wracking up gigantic fiscal shortfalls.

Balanced Budget Bozos:
BC politicians keep passing, then changing, laws against deficit spending. Are we nuts?
February 4, 2009

More BC Budget 2009 information (budget papers, analysis, etc.):
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm#bc
(from the Canadian Social Research Links Budgets 2009-2010 Links page)

----------------------------------

A Home for All
The Tyee's solutions-oriented series on affordable housing for working people.
For too many British Columbians, having a job or even a two-income family is no longer enough to guarantee a basic, comfortable place to live -- in fact, the average Metro Vancouver earner can afford only half a home. In a market that isn't delivering a variety of cost-effective housing, Tyee investigative editor Monte Paulsen reports on how different approaches to finance, government policy and design could whittle the costs down to manageable proportions. And we invite experts to weigh in with their own opinion pieces.The challenge to the ongoing economic and cultural vibrancy of B.C. is critical. The conversation about overcoming that challenge starts here.

In this series:

Fixing the Crazy Cost of Housing
10 Feb 2009
Ordinary people in BC can no longer afford ordinary homes. First in a series searching for solutions.

Affordable Housing: Five Myths
12 Feb 2009
Betting on 'market correction'? Home prices would have to plunge 55 per cent to fit average family income.

Homes that Cost Less than Rental
17 Feb 2009
How a Toronto developer creates 'cost-effective' condos sold to families making as low as $32,000.

No Money Down Mortgages Still a Good Idea? This One Works
24 Feb 2009
Helping renters buy homes, leave social housing, makes space for others.

[ more articles on affordable housing in The Tyee ]

BC Jobs Firm a Bust for Ontario
Private contractor did no better than public effort it replaced
By Andrew MacLeod
October 30, 2008
If British Columbia's government wants to know how well its jobs program is working, new numbers from Ontario might fuel the urge. Ontario's government tried a private job placement service offered by a B.C. company, but an independent review found it worked no better than the ministry's own programs and did not save the government money. The report raises questions about whether the company's programs work any better in B.C. than they do in Ontario, and whether the B.C. government is looking closely enough to know. "There were no incremental reductions in [Income Assistance] that could be attributed to JobsNow," says the report on the Ontario pilot program produced by Ottawa management consulting firm Goss Gilroy Inc. and dated Oct. 10, 2008. "JobsNow was not more effective than regular Ontario Works programming."

Related link:

Evaluation of the JobsNow Pilot:
Final Report (PDF - 972K, 38 pages)
October 10, 2008
Prepared for:
Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services
Prepared by:
Goss Gilroy Inc. Management Consultants (Ottawa)

Job Training: Taxpayers Taken for $24 Bus Ride
FOIs reveal billing for services not provided.
How private contracts inflated cost of welfare-to-work programs.
By Andrew MacLeod
September 4, 2008
At least one company that helps people on welfare find jobs was billing the government for services it never provided, billed more than once when it did provide services and charged an administration fee of as much as $18 to distribute a $6.40 bus ticket. The details are included in audits of the contractors providing the B.C. Employment Program and were obtained by The Tyee through a freedom of information request. In most cases, the names of the companies and identifying information were removed from the audits prior to their release. The companies delivering the program are WCG International Consultants Ltd., GT Hiring Solutions (2005) Inc. and the B.C. Society of Training for Health and Employment Opportunities. In August the provincial government cancelled an $8 million contract with WCG to provide services in the Interior, and awarded it to GT Hiring.

Liberals to JobWave: You're Fired
$8 million job training contract cancelled; work goes to B.C. competitor.
August 29, 2008
The company that pioneered private job placement services in B.C. for people receiving welfare has lost an $8 million government contract in the province's Interior. A message sent on Aug. 8 by ASPECT-B.C.'s Community Based Trainers to its members working in the sector said the Ministry of Housing and Social Development had cancelled the Interior region contract with WCG International Consultants Ltd., which runs the JobWave program. The company continues to provide B.C. Employment Program services in other regions of the province.
(...)
WCG won a contract in 2005 to provide a pilot project, JobsNow, in Ontario. The pilot ended over a year ago and has not been renewed. The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services prepared an evaluation of the project but has not released it. Originally scheduled for a fall 2007 release, the ministry's website now says it will be released in summer 2008.

Welfare Hike Would Make BC 'Magnet' for Poor: Minister
Welfare Minister Claude Richmond rejects call for 50 per cent raise.
By Andrew MacLeod
May 5, 2008
A think tank's proposal to raise welfare rates by 50 per cent is "unreasonable" and would cause British Columbia to become a "welfare magnet" for people from other provinces, says Employment and Income Assistance Minister Claude Richmond.

A Welfare 'Savings' Boomerang - May 1, 2008
Campbell's cuts ended up costing BC taxpayers billions, studies suggest.

Up to 15,500 Homeless: Report
Tally of BC homeless by health profs far higher than housing minister's.
By Andrew MacLeod
January 31, 2008
The number of homeless people in British Columbia may be triple the estimate Housing Minister Rich Coleman provided to The Tyee last week, according to a new report by health professors at UBC, SFU and the University of Calgary. In B.C. there may be as many as 15,500 adults with severe addictions or mental illness who are homeless, says the 149-page report, Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia. The report is dated October, 2007, and was released to The Tyee on Jan. 30, 2008.

Related links:

Housing and Support for Adults with
Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia (701K, 149 pages)
October 2007
Source:
Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction (CARMHA)
CARMHA is a research centre within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.

Homeless, Housing Stats Disputed
Minister Coleman's figures are 'bogus' says NDP critic.
By Andrew MacLeod
January 24, 2008

Facebook Used by Officials to Spy on Welfare Clients - January 22, 2008
BC officers cruise social sites for fraud evidence.

No New Homes in Premier's Homelessness Plan
Coleman challenges cities to "step up."
By Monte Paulsen
October 12, 2007

'Welfare to Work' Didn't Work
BC Libs sat on own report showing no real gains.
By Bruce Wallace
November 12, 2007
The B.C. government claims to be doing a great job of moving people off welfare into better lives. But its own welfare ministry, the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, compiled a report in February 2007, titled Outcomes of Those Leaving Assistance, that summarizes new research contradicting the government's claims of success. And the government waited eight months to release that report, until a reporter surfaced its existence just last month.
[HINT: scroll to the bottom of the article for links to two related articles and a series on welfare, all from 2004 and 2005.]

Related links:

Outcomes of those Leaving Assistance (PDF file - 64K, 6 pages)
February 2007 (posted on the Ministry website October/07)
"Since the introduction of British Columbia Employment and Assistance (BCEA) in April 2002, the employable income assistance (IA) caseload has declined by 53,850 cases or 70 percent. What makes this decline even more significant is that it followed a 47 percent decline in the employable caseload over the preceding six years, following the introduction of BC Benefits in January 1996."
Source:
Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance

Wages (BC)
August-October 2007
A laugh–till–you–cry account of one man's remarkable working life or attempt at a lack thereof.
This eccentric, irreverent, and witty chronicle is vintage John Armstrong, excerpted in 14 chapters in The Tyee.

See especially:

Wages: Working Around Welfare (Chapter 5)
September 4, 2007
"(...) Downtown Eastside ... was the low point on the cultural map, and those unfit for hard-working, tax-paying, product-buying society rolled downhill until they got there and then bumped to a halt."

How Big Is Taylor's Heart?
Share that $4.1 billion surplus with poor kids.
By Steve Kerstetter
July 23, 2007
"(...) Taylor and the rest of the BC Liberals have promised a golden future for B.C., a future that will make the province the best place to live in Canada. But that goal will never be reached as long as a significant portion of the population is cut off from the mainstream of community life by virtue of their very low incomes."
TIP: there are links to three related articles at the bottom of the Taylor article.

--------------------------
Steve Kerstetter is a member of the co-ordinating committee of First Call, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.
He is also former Director of the National Council of Welfare.
--------------------------

Related links:

BC Progress Board Releases Discussion Paper on Social Condition News Release December 15, 2006 On December 15, 2006, the BC Progress Board released a discussion paper on social condition in British Columbia. The paper, entitled "The Social Condition in British Columbia", examines the causes and costs of low income in British Columbia and provides eight suggestions for provincial and federal government consideration. The report was prepared for the Progress Board by Dr. Keith Banting, C.M., Queen's Research Chair in Public Policy at Queen's University. "(...) three policy imperatives that flow from federal and provincial income support programs over the past decade: * Work should pay. * Educational equality should be a key priority. * Those who cannot be expected to work should be well supported." Executive Summary (PDF file - 292K, 3 pages) Complete report (PDF file - 2.3MB, 54 pages) December 2006 Source: BC Progress Board "In July 2001, the Premier formed the BC Progress Board, an independent Panel of eighteen eminent British Columbians from a variety of backgrounds from around the province. The Board is tasked with benchmarking BC over time and relative to other jurisdictions, and with providing strategic advice to the Premier on measures to improve provincial economic performance and the well-being of British Columbians." [ More about the BC Progress Board ]

Budget 2007: Cracked Foundation?
Critics take crowbars to 'Building a Housing Legacy'
By David Beers
February 21, 2007
In a $3.2 billion surplus year, the Campbell government cut financial assistance to college students and is asking us to wait until next year to find out what it will pay to achieve the radical cuts to greenhouse emissions promised in last week's throne speech. But everyone making up to $100,000 got a 10 per cent tax cut. And corporations saw another $100 million lopped off their taxes, too.

[BC Finance Minister] Taylor's Do It Ourselves Budget:
Unveiling 2007 numbers
After tax cuts, it's far less than meets the eye.
By Will McMartin
February 21, 2007

Also from The Tyee:

Costco Rules, Wal-Mart Drools
Bucking a big-box myth, a student finds remarkable variations in how two giants do business
By Angela Wilson
February 20, 2007
Big-box business has a bad name. As one-stop shopping becomes the new retail model, specialty stores can no longer compete with multi-national corporations. With employee and growth policies that are fiercely criticized by activist groups, corporations like Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire are setting industry standards. However, emerging from the dismal landscape of the retail industry is an established and innovative competitor. Hidden behind skyrocketing stacks of bulk merchandise in warehouses across North America, Costco Corporation has been softly trying to introduce new industry standards since 1983.
[HINT: scroll to the bottom of the article to the readers' comments section for some interesting views by readers of The Tyee. ]

Is Child Poverty Up or Down?
The Tyee has an interesting article, Child Poverty is Down. No, it's Up, about two reports issued in the last couple months about child poverty. One report issued by the Fraser Institute claims that less than six per cent of Canadian children live in poverty; the other report issued by Campaign 2000 said the poverty rate for Canadian children was more than three times that, over 17 per cent. The Fraser Institute and Campaign 2000 define poverty very differently. The Fraser Institute includes the cost of only subsistence levels of food, clothing, housing and a few other necessities, while Campaign 2000 uses Stats Canada low income cutoffs below which families would find themselves living in "straitened circumstances."
Found in: PovNet

Seven Solutions to Homelessness
Each is working somewhere else, and will save money and lives here
January, 9 2007
Idea One: Trade Fairs for the Homeless
Idea Two: Raise the Welfare Rates
Idea Three: Train Young Workers
Idea Four: Spread the Love Around
Idea Five: Buy a Few Hotels
Idea Six: Give Addicts Time to Heal
Idea Seven: Bring Governments Together
- includes links to six more related articles that appeared in the Tyee during 2006 (scroll down to the bottom of the "Seven Solutions" article)

How BC Trimmed 107,000 People from Welfare Rolls
Some got jobs. Red tape, death likely knocked out far more.
By Andrew MacLeod
August 18, 2005
"It was almost like Dave Nash was trying to prove Premier Gordon Campbell wrong. Nash, an affable Victoria activist, was a long-term welfare recipient who was expected to work. But he didn't leave welfare for a job. In October, 2003, Nash died at the age of 55. Campbell and a succession of human resources ministers under him during the BC Liberals’ first mandate - Murray Coell, Stan Hagen and Susan Brice - have bragged that the rapidly shrinking welfare caseload is a result of a booming economy and people moving off welfare and into jobs. But as it turns out, Nash wasn't the only person to leave the welfare rolls via the morgue. The month he died, he was just one of 161 people who went out that way, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Between June 2002 and January 2005, a period of 32 months, 6,065 people on welfare died."

Libs' Welfare-to-Jobs Program a Bust, Reveals Delayed Report
Loses $13 million, high failure rate and neediest not served.
By Andrew MacLeod
August 11, 2005
One of the main arguments in favour of privately-run welfare-to-work programs like JobWave and Destinations has been that they don't really cost the taxpayer anything, since they are paid for out of what we save by moving people off of welfare. But an 11-month-old report prepared for the provincial government, quietly added to the province's website this week, shows that people in the programs do only marginally better in their job hunts than people who aren't in the programs. The government won't start saving money because of the programs for six or seven years, if ever."

Related Links from the
Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance
(formerly the Ministry of Human Resources):

Evaluation of the Job Placement (JP) Program and Training for Jobs (TFJ) Program Pilot
Posted to the government website in August 2005
- includes a link to the summary of the evaluation, dated September 9, 2004 along with an evaluation update, dated July 6, 2005.
"These documents, along with other research on programming in other jurisdictions and feedback from staff, clients and service providers, are being used to determine which elements of JP and TFJ work well and what areas need improvement. Current employment programs will be refined in a way that best suits client needs and capabilities, and addresses changes in the nature and characteristics of the income assistance caseload."

Summary Report (PDF file - 141K, 35 pages)
September 2004
"It is unlikely that the Ministry’s savings in BCEA payments will exceed the cost of the program for some time. In this respect, actual performance falls well below some of the more optimistic expectations for the program. However, actual performance of JP reflects the inherent difficulty in designing an employment program that would pay for itself. The difficulty is one of designing a process for identifying, in advance, the individuals who would benefit from the program and, thereby, not investing resources in persons who are unlikely to benefit." [Excerpt, p.26]

Update to the Summary Report (PDF file - 91K, 19 pages)
July 2005

Welfare's New Era: Survival of the Fittest - July 2004 The Tyee, a British Columbia based, online media site presented a four part series by Andrew MacLeod on the BC Government's 'New Era' welfare policies. Part One: Welfare's New Era: Survival of the Fittest Part Two: Where Did All the Welfare Cases Go? Part Three: Welfare Reform's Public-Private Partnerships Part Four: Shut Out at the Entrance Source: TheTyee Highly recommended - excellent source of info on welfare reforms of the Campbell government in BC since 2001!

 

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the third periodic report of Canada : United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (June 10, 1998)  - British Columbia Government Response to the U.N. List of Issues (November 1998)

Union of B.C. Municipalities

From the University of British Columbia Library :

Origins of Social Work in Vancouver and at U.B.C.
By Beverley Scott, UBC Social Work Librarian
- short (8 pages if printed) overview of social work on Canada's West Coast, with links to further detailed information
Source:
Subject Resources for Social Work
- includes almost 100 links to articles, associations, societies, lists and newsgroups, websites, reference tools, current awareness, newspaper sources, and more...
Source:
University of British Columbia Library

Also from the UBC Library:

B.C. Government's Core Services Cuts
Links to government and NGO websites with more information on the BC Government cuts and what they mean to children, people with disabilities and other groups whose supports are decreasing or disappearing; as well as reaction from public service unions.

Subject Resources for Political Science/International Relations

University of Victoria

Studies in Policy and Practice
"SPP is an innovative interdisciplinary MA graduate program of critical studies for professionals and non-professionals involved in activism,human services, and community work. The program provides graduates with a strong grounding in critical analysis for developing practice-based careers and pursuing advanced degrees in interdisciplinary studies and other disciplines."

Publications
- links to reports going back to May 2001 on a wide range of issues including: housing, the two-year welfare time limit in BC, women, disability, the Canada Pension Plan Disability Program, ananalysis of .C.'s Employment and Assistance (welfare) Acts, and much more...
[TIP: click "Past Publications" in the right-hand margin of the Publications page for previous years' reports.]

Some sample reports from SPP:

Housing Thousands of Women (focus on British Columbia)
By the Women's Housing Action Team (University of Victoria)
"On December 1, 2005, the Women's Housing Action Team and the University of Victoria released a major report, Housing Thousands of Women. There are two parts to the report: (1) Original research on housing experiences and requirements of older women, aboriginal, immigrant, and women living with disability, and (2) Policy implications for housing women, in particularly a graphic "Women's Housing Wheel" on the requirements for housing according to the realities and experiences of women."
Complete report:
Housing Thousands of Women: An edited collection
of the works of the Women’s Housing Action Team (PDF file - 1.3MB, 129 pages)
December 2005

Source:
Studies in Policy and Practice Program (SPP) at the University of Victoria
Quality of Life CHALLENGE - "Demonstrating Care and Respect for Each Other, Our Community and the Environment"
The Quality of Life CHALLENGE is a comprehensive community initiative in British Columbia's capital region that brings people together to create solutions in the areas of housing, sustainable incomes, and community connections.

Envisioning the Future of Welfare Reform [in British Columbia] (PDF file - 17K, 2 pages)
Marge Reitsma-Street and Bruce Wallace
Special to Times Colonist, Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Housing Realities and Requirements for Women Living with Disabilities
in the Capital Region of British Columbia (PDF file - 24K, 9 pages)
by Pam Alcorn, Heather Gropp, Joanne Neubauer, and Marge Reitsma-Street
January 2004
Women’s Housing Action Team, Victoria BC
"Over 21,000 women lived in low income households in the Victoria Capital Region and spent 30% of their income on shelter according to the authors of the report, “Housing Policy Options for Women Living in Urban Poverty: An Action Research Project in Three Canadian Cities”2 published in 2001. There is, however, little information on the housing situations or perceptions of women themselves who are living with disabilities. A research study by the Women’s Housing Action Teamwas conducted in 2003 to help redress this gap. This short report offers a commentary on the magnitude of concerns and a summary of housing realities and requirements identified by a diverse group of women living with visible and invisible physical disabilities in the Capital Regional District of British Columbia."

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, November 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 ]

A New Era of Welfare:
Analysis of the B.C.’s Employment and Assistance Acts (PDF file - 219K, 11 pages)
Heather J. Michael and Dr. Marge Reitsma-Street
August 19, 2002
- In-depth analysis of the provisions of the new welfare legislation tabled in the Legislature, including the seven major changes resulting from the proposed BC Employment and Assistance Act :
1. Drastic new restrictions on eligibility.
2. Significant elimination of benefits.
3. Significant cuts in welfare benefits.
4. Significant increase in the use of for-profit firms determining eligibility and enforcing cuts and restrictions.
5. Significant increase in monitoring daily behaviors of workers and applicants.
6. Significant increase in punishments.
7. Drastic reductions in accessible, public, fair negotiating procedures regarding eligibility and benefits.
Source : Studies in Policy and Practice Program at the University of Victoria

Also by Dr. Reitsma-Street :

Nothing left to give : Cuts to jobs and services are strangling volunteerism, just when we need it the most
"Last year was the International Year of the Volunteer, acknowledging important contributions people make to their communities. This year, cuts to jobs, services and freedoms in the public and private sectors threaten the very conditions fostering those contributions."
Source : UVic Ring("University of Victoria's community newspaper") - February 7, 2002 issue
- Go to the UVIC Ring website (you can read back issues of the Ring from 1995 to date...)
[University of Victoria]

----------------------------------------------------------
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From the
University of Victoria Department of Geography:

Recent supplements to
The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness:

The original report:

The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness (2007)
The BC Atlas of Wellness was created in partnership with the University of Victoria Geography Department, and it uses the ActNow BC initiative (2005) as a framework to present its findings. It consists of more than 270 maps and supporting tables that provide data related to approximately 120 wellness-related indicators for B.C. communities, where positive and negative indicators are offset against each other to give an overall wellness score.

What's new?

Supplements to The BC Atlas of Wellness,
(organized in reverse chronological order)
based on data from the Canadian Community Health Survey:

* The Geography of Wellness and Well-being Across BC (2010)
This Supplement examines geographic patterns of wellness and wellbeing among the province's 16 Health Service Delivery Areas.

* The Geography of Wellness and Well-being Across Canada (2009)
This Supplement examines geographic patterns of wellness and wellbeing among Canadian provinces and territories, and it examines differences between genders and among differing age cohorts at the national and individual provincial and territorial levels.

* The Seniors Supplement (2008)
This supplement focuses on seniors’ wellness, and it provided maps of 39 separate indicators at the 16 Health Service Delivery Areas level for the province based on the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey.

Critical Synthesis of Wellness Literature (PDF - 412K, 45 pages)
By Gord Miller and Leslie T. Foster
May 2009

********************************

Related links:

ActNow BC initiative (BC Govt.)
ActNow BC was introduced in early 2005 to encourage British Columbians to make healthy lifestyle choices to improve their quality of life, reduce the incidence of preventable chronic disease, and reduce the burden on the health care system. ActNow BC is an integrated, government-wide approach that engages the contributions of partners in other levels of government (e.g., municipalities), non-government organizations, schools, communities, and the private sector to develop and deliver programs and services to assist individuals to quit or never start smoking, to be more physically active, eat healthier foods, achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and make healthy choices in pregnancy.

---

From BC Stats:

An interactive version of the Canadian Community Health Survey
(2005, 2007 and 2008) wellness indicators and socio-economic census variables (2006):

* Mapping and Geography

* Atlas of Wellness

---

From the
Vancouver Sun:

Wellness atlas looks into what makes a healthy life in B.C.
By Craig McInnes
January 10, 2008
(...) Now geographers at the University of Victoria have published an atlas of the province that looks at more than 100 indicators they relate to wellness. The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness by Leslie Foster, a former senior public servant with the provincial government and an adjunct professor at UVic, Peter Keller, the dean of social sciences, and a baker's dozen of other contributors includes obvious topics such as smoking, healthy eating and exercise. But it also includes dozens of other factors that speak to a more sophisticated definition of what goes into supporting a healthy life. They look at family structure, employment rates, the availability of emotional support, graduation rates and whether students feel safe at school.They look at access to playing fields, whether babies are breast fed, weight, the ephemeral question of whether people are satisfied with their lives and even hours of sunshine..."

---

From the
Atlas of Canada (Govt. of Canada):

Health
List of Topics:
* Health Behaviours * Non-medical Determinants of Health * Health Resources * Rural Health * Health Services Utilization * Health Status

Urban Institute (U.S.)

Finding Out What Happens to Former Clients - U.S.
Publication Date: July 22, 2003
"To measure lasting effects of nonprofit programs, clients must be tracked after they leave services. Information on status at some point later--perhaps three, six, nine, or 12 months--is needed to measure outcomes, to assess program results, and to identify needed improvements. Drawing from lessons learned by community-based nonprofits, the guide offers practical advice on how to collect these data efficiently, successfully, and at reasonable cost. Primarily geared to meet the needs of nonprofit managers and professional social service staff, it offers step-by-step procedures, model materials (including planning tools and feedback forms), and suggestions for keeping costs low."
Table of Contents (HTML) - incl. full text of preface, acknowledgments and Introduction only
Complete report (PDF file - 252K, 43 pages)
Order Online (to obtain a paper copy)

The Changing City Vancouver in 1978 and 2003 It's not social policy, but this collection of seven (times two) breathtaking panoramic photos of Vancouver in 1978 and 2003 is very impressive, and definitely worth sharing. Clicking on one of the links opens a page with a photo of a particular section of the False Creek area in 1978; this photo slowly transforms into the same scene in 2003. Be sure to move the scroll bar at the bottom of the browser to the right as the photo changes to see the entire scene. If you use Netscape, this effect doesn't work, so you'll have to click "Rollover" and click on each of the two dates to see both photos. [You'll see what I mean when you try it.] Excellent photographic evidence of the transformation of Vancouver in the last 25 years... Source: City of Vancouver website

Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) - University of Victoria
"The Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, education, advocacy, and action in the public interest."
- incl. links to : What's New | About VIPIRG | Publications | Action Groups | Alternative Resource Library | Research Internship Program | Contact VIPIRG | Links & Tools | Become a Member

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The Rise and Fall of Welfare Time Limits in BC (PDF - 294K, 37 pages)
June 2008
By Bruce Wallace and Tim Richards
The Rise and Fall of Welfare Time Limits in BC documents the fascinating story behind the first attempt in Canadian history by a government to introduce welfare time limits. Under this policy, recipients who had been on assistance two years would be cut off of benefits for the ensuing three years. This report documents the dynamics of the opposition to time-limited welfare which led the government to capitulate on this element of its welfare reforms. In addition to the public record, it draws extensively on over 1,000 pages of internal government materials obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Excerpt:
"...it is profoundly important that the welfare time limits policy failed. It is important for the individuals who faced homelessness and hunger as a consequence of welfare time limits, important as an affirmation of basic societal values, and important to demonstrate to other provincial governments that time-limited welfare is not politically viable. We hope that the results of this “social experiment” in BC will help ensure that other provinces do not attempt to adopt similarly destructive policies."

See also:

* Opinion Editorial
Stopping the Clock: A Time Limit on Welfare (PDF - 50K, 2 pages)

* For more information see:
Campaign Against Time Limited Welfare - includes dozens of links to more detailed info

Resisting Two Year Limits on Welfare in British Columbia (PDF file - 69k, 9 pages)
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." (from article)
Excerpt from:
Canadian Review of Social Policy (CRSP) Vol 53 Spring/Summer 2004

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Related links - see the BC Welfare Time Limits Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bc_welfare_time_limits.htm

Vancouver Community Network

Citizen’s Handbook : A Guide to Building Community
By Charles Dobson & Vancouver’s Citizen Committee
Updated Oct. 2003
"For grass-roots community building and development"
- includes 90+ links to info organized as follows: Community Organizing - Community Building Activities - Full Text Articles - The Citizen's Library - Short Case Studies - Links - Vancouver Information

The Vancouver Province

Welfare payments to be loaded on to debit cards for 20,000
February 01, 2008
The B.C. government plans to issue direct-debit cards to more than 20,000 welfare recipients who don't have a bank account. Each month, Victoria will load the welfare payments on to the debit cards, which can be used at any ATM or commercial outlet. (...) The direct-deposit program started in 2006 and has about 60,000 clients out of a possible 80,000.

Related link:

January 31, 2008
Province invests $200,000 in Direct Deposit initiative
News Release
VICTORIA – The Province is offering an incentive package that consists of a knapsack, warm socks, a toque and a pair of gloves to encourage income assistance clients to sign up for direct deposit, announced Claude Richmond, Minister of Employment and Income Assistance.
Source:
Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance

<...and, if the writers of This Hour has 22 Minutes were writing the next line of the above news release, it would read : "Minister Richmond is pleased to report that the initial response to the direct deposit incentive has been quite positive among those Income assistance clients who would prefer to not freeze their feet, head and hands this winter.">

Vancouver Public Library

Vancouver Status of Women
Our Vision: Freedom and self-determination for all through responsible, socially just, healthy and joyful communities both locally and globally.
- incl. links to : About VSW - Publications - Projects - Donations & Memberships - Volun teer Links - Staff Contact

Vancouver Sun

Selected site content:

Going for gold on minimum wages
By Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Iglika Ivanova
January 20, 2010
As we prepare to cheer for our athletes during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games, it's worth remembering the fields in which B.C. isn't going for the gold. Ensuring that work is a guaranteed way out of poverty, for example. It's a little-known fact, but "the best place on Earth" is now home of the lowest minimum wages in Canada. Our minimum wage has been frozen at $8 per hour (and an embarrassingly low $6 for the first 500 hours of work) since 2001, and there is little indication that this is about to change any time soon.

[ more Vancouver Sun articles on the minimum wage ]

How does that compare
with other Canadian jurisdictions?

Current And Forthcoming Minimum Hourly Wage Rates For Adult Workers in Canada
(this is the BEST resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels by province/territory)

Minimum Hourly Wages for Canadian Adult Workers since 1965
This information is presented in five files - one for each decade.
The link above takes you to the latest decade (2005 to 2014);
click the date links at the top of the page for pages for earlier decades.

NOTE: Several other jurisdictions have either recently increased their minimum wage level or will be doing so in the coming months.
Highlights:
* Newfoundland and Labrador increased its minimum wage from $9.00 to $9.50 as of January 1.
* Nova Scotia will increase its minimum wage twice this year - in April and October. The current level is $8.60, increasing to $9.65 as of October.
* Ontario's minimum wage, currently $9.50, will increase to $10.25 at the end of March.
* Since 2007, Yukon increases its minimum wage each April to match increase in the Consumer Price Index for the City of Whitehorse.
For more information, see Minimum Hourly Wages, 2005-2014 (this is the same link as above)

Source:
Minimum Wage Database
[ Employment Standards Legislation in Canada ]
[ Labour Program, Human Resources and Social Development Canada ]

- Go to the Minimum Wage /Living Wage Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/minwage.htm

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B.C. increases budget for welfare, kindergarten and forest fires
By Rebecca teBrake
September 1, 2009
The provincial government will spend more on welfare, kindergarten and forest fires despite announcing $3.4 billion in spending cuts. Tuesday’s budget update was a sombre affair for the most part, with Finance Minister Colin Hansen announcing a $2.8-billion deficit and $3.4 billion in budget cuts over the next three years. But the province will increase spending to the tune of $1.1 billion in priority areas including welfare, emergency homeless shelters, prosecutions, forest fires, municipal infrastructure, treaties, tourism and kindergarten.
NOTE: for links to the September 2009 BC Budget Update and analysis of those measures,
go to the 2009 Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm

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Children of Poverty: 14 years later
April 11, 2008
Fourteen years ago, reporter Larry Pynn co-authored a 12-page special report in the Vancouver Sun about poverty in Vancouver and in British Columbia. In this new series, Pynn revisits two of the children whose circumstances he had profiled 14 years earlier, Ayla and Kandice (links to separate articles). This special report also includes perspectives on teen parents and youth issues in Terrace, along with the two following items that I wanted to flag in particular:

Full 12-page section Children of Poverty from May 7, 1994 (PDF - 17.5 MB)
- well worth the download time --- 12 pages of valuable historical information on poverty and government programs in BC in 1994!

Opposing signs on downtown eastside:
Booming economic activity of construction towers
over a community of the homeless, the mentally ill and the addicted
By Larry Pynn
April 11, 2008
Fewer poor people but deeper poverty, say BC social advocacy champions Jean Swanson and Michael Goldberg.
[Scroll to the bottom of the article for the B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition's ten-step plan to alleviate child poverty in BC]

Related link:

First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
First Call is a coalition of individuals and organizations whose purpose is to create greater understanding of and advocacy for legislation, policy, and practice to ensure that all children and youth have the opportunities and resources required to achieve their full potential and to participate in the challenges of creating a better society.

Speaking of Michael Goldberg...

Brief to the Senate on Urban Child Poverty (2008) (PDF - 187K, 14 pages)
In February 2008, First Call Chair Michael Goldberg presented to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on the topic of urban child poverty. This briefing is an overview of topics including measuring poverty; child poverty rates; and the interaction between market income, social security benefits, taxation and statutory deductions, and income tested social programs.

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B.C.'s welfare state must still tackle snags
Don Cayo
October 20, 2007

Vancouver Youth Outreach Team (City of Vancouver)
The Youth Outreach Team is made up of youth, hired on as city staff to move forward the Civic Youth Strategy, the City of Vancouver's 1995 policy commitment to supporting youth and involving them in decision making. Hiring youth as staff in 2003 was a new step for the municipality. With youth staffs dedicated to improving youth involvement in the municipality, the City can now tap into their expertise and connections in the community to move forward the four
goals of the Civic Youth Strategy:
- Ensure that youth have "A PLACE" in the City
- Ensure a strong youth VOICE in decision-making
- Promote youth AS A RESOURCE to the City
- Strengthen the SUPPORT BASE for youth in the City

The Youth Outreach Team is a model of youth engagement for the Civic Youth Strategy. The primary role of the Team is to increase the meaningful participation of youth in municipal decision making by:
* Providing expertise to City staff around youth engagement to programs and projects that have a mandate to engage citizens including youth
* Acting as a bridge between City staff, youth (ages 13-24) and youth organizations
* Functioning as "guides" for youth to access the municipal system
* Convening youth and City staff to address issues or working on projects of mutual interest

Victoria Status of Women Action Group

Why Women Would Gain from a Guaranteed Livable Income
March 2003
by Cindy L'Hirondelle

Victoria Times Colonist

Selected recent content:

Campbell turns back on kids
June 27, 2009
What is Premier Gordon Campbell thinking? The province, according to Statistics Canada, has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for the past six years. The problems are increasing as more people lose their jobs. Yet Campbell has refused to meet with the Representative for Children and Youth to discuss ways of improving the lives of poor children.Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond asked for a joint meeting with Campbell and NDP Leader Carole James. The situation is urgent, she said, and should be above partisan politics. The leaders should co-operate on plans to make things better for children at a tough time. James said yes. Campbell refused even a meeting.
Source:
Victoria Times Colonist

Campbell sees bleak welfare trap --- will he act?
By Paul Willcocks,
June 5, 2009
Premier Gordon Campbell has discovered that the province's low welfare rates are hurting people and communities. A bit late, in terms of the poverty problem, but still welcome. Or it would be, if there was a clearer sense that the government is prepared to do something about it. (...) It's important to head off a flood of out-of-work people falling on to welfare, he said. The federal government should reach a deal with B.C. The province will chip in what it would have spent on welfare for each person; the federal government should add money to that and keep them on employment insurance for up to two years. Why? Campbell made the case in an op-ed column in the Globe and Mail [see the G&M link below]. "Income assistance is clearly the last social safety net into which any worker wants to fall," he wrote. "Not only are the monthly benefits often less than those payable under EI, but those who are forced to go on welfare risk entering a cycle of dependency that is tough on families, communities and our economy."
Source:
Victoria Times Colonist

Contracting social services a risky bet
Huge U.S. firm taking over back-to-work programs for the disabled
By Jody Paterson
September 21, 2007
For better or worse, the bulk of B.C.'s back-to-work programs for people with disabilities are now under the control of a large, aggressive American corporation. The ink is barely dry on the Aug. 3 agreement that saw the sale of the local company that has run the programs up until now -- WCG International -- to Arizona's Providence Service Corp. So it's much too soon to speculate whether clients will notice any difference, or to assume that it's automatically a bad thing when one more big U.S. company takes over yet another aspect of B.C.'s human services. But man, I get cold shivers down my spine when I think about how easily British Columbians are giving this stuff up, all of it without a whisper of public debate. Providence in particular is a heavy-duty acquisitor of government social-service contracts, and delighted to be gaining its first foothold in Canada.

Related links:

WCG International
--- Tucson-based Providence Service Corp. expands to Canada (August 3, 2007 - small one-page PDF file) [Excerpt: "The $9.8 million purchase is expected to produce $25 million in revenue for Providence..."]

Providence Service Corporation - "Human services without walls"
--- Workforce Development Services

From The Tyee:

Libs' Welfare-to-Jobs Program a Bust, Reveals Delayed Report
Loses $13 million, high failure rate and neediest not served.
August 11, 2005

Welfare Reform's Public-Private Partnerships
July 13, 2004
The Fraser Institute says they're a huge advance in social policy. Critics say work placement companies are growing rich but doing little.

Special note to my fellow Ontarians who might read this:

The Province of Ontario also has a contract with WCG International (JobsNow, see below). So where's that one going, one wonders...
This is disconcerting to me, because the bottom line in the corporate sector is generally profit margin first, client's best interest second - and often a distant second. As noted in the above Times Colonist article, for companies like Providence there's a financial interest in maintaining poverty and suffering and that's just not right. Simply put, governments that outsource human services to the private sector are shirking their responsibilities to their most disadvantaged citizens. Period.

From the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services:

JobsNow
The Ontario government launched JobsNow in April 2005. It’s an innovative pilot project to help people currently on Ontario Works find and keep sustainable jobs. The program is a partnership between the province, WCG International and municipal social services in six municipal areas: Hamilton, Ottawa, Windsor, Nipissing, Peel and Durham.

October 24, 2005
Ontario Works Clients Get JobsNow

Wellbeing thru Inclusion Socially and Economically (WISE)
"WISE began in the summer of 2003, as one woman's vision. In exasperation with a system that seemed to have no heart, "Chris" wrote her story of painful marginalization. With the urging of friends, the story came to the attention of an understanding Programs Officer at Status of Women Canada. Together, they convinced Chris to write a proposal for a project on women's poverty, and once accepted, the rest, as they say, is history. WISE is now a grassroots BC-registered nonprofit society whose mission is to organize, represent, act on behalf of, and join together with persons in British Columbia whose lives are negatively affected by policies of exclusion."

'Invisible Women' Tell Their Stories
November 13, 2004
Vancouver Sun - by Stephen Hume
"A unique project in the Cowichan Valley
aims to empower them and end their sense of isolation"

"WISE recently released its Phase 1 report on a project whose focus was exploring the links between policy, poverty and health. The project had the twofold purpose of collecting stories from women living in the Cowichan Valley whose incomes are below Canada’s poverty line and providing a vehicle for these women to raise their concerns and offer recommendations for constructive change. The Phase 1 report detailed the dominant issues in the stories. Among its findings: The #1 effect of the women’s poverty was an alarming deterioration of their emotional wellbeing or mental health. The report is accessible from our website: http://www.wise-bc.org/PDF/repPhase1.pdf

Now WISE has collected the 21 stories into a book Policies of Exclusion, Poverty and Health: Stories from the Front, which also includes the Phase 1 and Phase 2 (storytellers’ recommendations) reports. Because two thirds of the Phase 2 report has our women in poverty talking to other women in poverty about what to do to “mobilize, galvanize, and politicize,” we urge organizations who have contact with women in poverty to get a copy of the book to share with them.

The book has gone to press and will be available for shipping by mid-December. Proceeds will go directly to the storyteller group to help them act on the second stage of their recommendations.

For further information and online ordering, please see http://www.wise-bc.org/CVProject/book.html or give us a call at 250-748-8093."

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Policies of Exclusion, Poverty and Health : Stories from the Front
Project Report : Phase 1 - The Issues (PDF file - 498K, 23 pages)
October 2004
"This report outlines the findings from 21 stories which were collected during Phase I of WISE's project "Policies of Exclusion, Poverty and Health: Stories from the Front." Its companion report, Phase II - The Recommendations, will be available shortly. There were three criteria for eligibility: i) the participant must be female, ii) her household income must fall below the Low Income Cut Offs (2003) and iii) she must live in the Cowichan Valley, a geographical region on Vancouver Island that encompasses small urban and rural communities."
- details the issues (predictors, and the primary and secondary conditions and effects) that feature dominantly in participants' stories.

Wellesley Institute

BC auditor confirms that province's homeless programs "not successful"
March 6, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
John Doyle, the British Columbia auditor, has just released a sobering review of homelessness programs that concludes that the provincial government “has not been successful in reducing homelessness. Clear goals and objectives for homelessness and adequate accountability for results remain outstanding. Government also lacks adequate information about the homeless and about the services already available to them — this hampers effective decision making. Finally, government has not yet established appropriate indicators of success to improve public accountability for results.” The auditor’s report echoes many of the themes raised by the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing in the final report on his fact-finding mission to Canada (See the links immediately below), which will be tabled at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. The auditor calls for a much more thorough and pragmatic plan to end homelessness in British Columbia, and notes that many other jurisdictions have already adopted solid plans.
Wellesley Institute Blog
[ Wellesley Institute ]

Westcoast Indie News (blog)
Independent media, information and community events from a more diverse social justice perspective.

West Coast LEAF (Legal Education and Action Fund)
"West Coast LEAF was founded in 1985 at the same time as National LEAF, by a group of women who wished to create an organization to carry on the work of the national Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in British Columbia. Both organizations were strategically started when the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force, in order to change historical patterns of systemic discrimination against women. West Coast LEAF is the largest branch of National LEAF outside of Ontario. In addition, West Coast LEAF is an incorporated non-profit society in British Columbia and a federally registered charity."

Women's Rights and Freedoms: 20 Years (In) Equality - Conference
April 28, 2005 - May 1, 2005
Vancouver, BC
National conference hosted by the West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (West Coast LEAF) and the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL). The Conference will be bilingual and will strive towards accessibility. The focus of the Conference will be the 20th anniversary of the equality requirements (Section 15) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 15, which is part of the supreme law of Canada, prohibits discrimination by Government on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, and other grounds. The Conference will include discussions on how the Charter affects women and our rights. The Conference is expected to provide information on the law and discrimination, as well as a unique opportunity to meet, strategize and share information with activists, community workers, lawyers, and others from across the country about what actions we can take to advance women's rights.

Related Links:

West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund
National Association of Women and the Law

Legal Aid and Family Law: Women’s Access to Justice
Affidavit Campaign 2003
Coordinated by West Coast LEAF (British Columbia)
"As part of our efforts to restore legal aid in B.C, West Coast LEAF will launch an Affidavit Campaign this summer to collect convincing evidence from across the province that reflects the true impacts of the cuts to legal aid programs on women and others most affected. The majority of those affected include women, single mothers, and people with disabilities. Our goal is to make a case for the restoration of the services through law reform efforts or via test case litigation."
Source : West Coast LEAF (Legal Education and Action Fund)
[The LEAF site includes info organized under the following topics : About Us - Educational Programs - Issues - In The Courts - Law Reform - Fundraising - Resources - Contact]

Women's Economic Justice Project
("In July 2005 the Women's Livable Income Working Group (c/o SWAG) began an 18 month project funded by Status of Women Canada to examine how women would benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income.")
[ Status of Women Action Group ]

Women’s Economic Justice Project:
An Examination of How Women Would Benefit from a
Guaranteed Livable Income (British Columbia)
April 2006 Revised June 2006
"The report documents discussions that formed a sort of grassroots women's think tank to examine the benefits, particularly to women, of a Guaranteed Livable Income. The project intended to look beyond current, and almost universally dominant, proposed solutions to poverty -- economic growth, jobs, daycare and welfare."

Complete report:

HTML version - table of contents with links to the individual sections of the report
PDF version (465K, 72 pages)

 

Working TV
"working TV is a labour television program broadcast weekly on community access television in the province of British Columbia, Canada. (...) We are primarily a labour show, focusing on union issues. This derives from our original mandate: to counter the marginalization and censorship of labour by mainstream television broadcasters, with labour positive programming produced by working people, for working people."

WORKink British Columbia "The Virtual Employment Resource Centre"
Career and Employment Resources for Persons with Disabilities 
- Links to a wide range of information for people with disabilities and those who support them. 
Source:
Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work