BC Needs a Poverty Reduction Plan with Legislated Targets and Timelines

AN OPEN LETTER TO POLITICAL PARTIES

It is time for British Columbia’s provincial government to launch a comprehensive poverty reduction plan — a detailed and accountable strategy with concrete and legislated targets and timelines to dramatically reduce homelessness and poverty in our province. Five Canadian provinces either have such plans or are in the process of developing them, but so far, not BC.

As we approach the May provincial election, we are calling on all BC political parties to commit that, if elected to government, they will implement a comprehensive poverty reduction plan.

By any measure, BC has the highest rate of poverty in Canada. BC has recorded the highest child poverty rate for five years running. Despite years of strong economic growth and record low unemployment, over half a million British Columbians — 13 per cent of the total population — live in poverty, and homelessness continues to rise. As we head into a global economic downturn, poverty risks getting worse unless action is taken.

We all pay for poverty. Study after study links poverty with poorer health, higher justice system costs, more demands on social and community services, more stress on family members, and diminished school success. Effective poverty reduction will require the efforts of all segments of society (all levels of government, the private sector, non-profits, and citizens generally), but the provincial government must take the lead.

The policies needed to make a dramatic difference are known, and other jurisdictions that are setting clear targets and timelines are getting results. A comprehensive approach needs to boost the incomes of those living in poverty, but also build the social infrastructure, public services and assets that are vital to providing a path out of poverty.

We, the undersigned, urge all provincial political parties to pledge to adopt and legislate poverty reduction targets and timelines, and commit to implementing a comprehensive action plan.

We recommend the following targets and timelines:

Targets and Timelines

• Using Statistics Canada’s low-income cut off after tax (LICO-AT), reduce BC’s poverty rate from 13 per cent to 9 per cent in four years, and to 3 per cent in ten years (meaning, effectively, a one third reduction within the mandate of the next government, and a 75 per cent reduction within a decade).

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• Ensure the poverty rate (using the LICO-AT) for children, lone-mother households, single senior women, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, and recent immigrants likewise declines by 30 per cent in four years, and by 75 per cent in ten years, in recognition that poverty is concentrated in these populations.

• Within two years, ensure that every British Columbian has an income that reaches at least 75 per cent of the poverty line (using the LICO-AT).

• Within two years, ensure no one has to sleep outside, and end all homelessness within eight years (ensuring all homeless people have good quality, appropriate housing).

In order to achieve these targets, we call upon political parties to commit, prior to the May election, to specific policy measures and concrete actions in each of the following policy action areas. Special attention should be focused on the needs of those most likely to be living in poverty (single mother households, single senior women, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities and mental illness, and recent immigrants and refugees).

Policy Action Areas

1. Provide adequate and accessible income support for the non-employed. 2. Improve the earnings and working conditions of those in the low-wage workforce. 3. Improve food security for low-income individuals and families. 4. Address homelessness and adopt a comprehensive affordable housing and supportive housing plan. 5. Provide universal publicly-funded child care. 6. Enhanced support for training and education for low-income people. 7. Enhance community mental health and home support services, and expand integrated approaches to prevention and health promotion services.

There is nothing inevitable about poverty and homelessness in a society as wealthy as ours. If we commit to a bold plan, a dramatic reduction in poverty and homelessness within a few short years is a perfectly achievable goal.

SIGNED BY organizations and community leaders from across the province, including faith leaders, health organizations, doctors, businesses, First Nations and Aboriginal groups, labour unions, immigrant and refugee organizations, community service agencies, municipal councils, women’s groups, and many more.

List of signatories — now totalling 200, with more added daily — on the following pages

bcpovertyreduction.ca BC Needs a Poverty Reduction Plan with Legislated Targets and Timelines

AN OPEN LETTER TO BRITISH COLUMBIA POLITICAL PARTIES

Signatories as of February 3, 2009

Aboriginal Neighbours BC Civil Liberties Association BC Retired Teachers’ Association – Jim Abram, Director, Area C, BC Coalition for Health Vancouver Branch Strathcona Regional District Promotion (Duncan) and Former President of the BC Soccer Association Union of BC Municipalities BC Coalition of People with Disabilities BC Teachers’ Federation ACCESS (Aboriginal Community Career and Employment BC Community Nutritionists’ Britannia Community Services Society) Council (BCCNC) Services Centre Board

ASPECT (Association of Service BC Federation of Foster BC Community Economic Providers for Employability Parent Associations Development Network and Career Training) BC Federation of Labour Canadian Cancer Society, Association of Neighbourhood BC & Yukon Division BC Federation of Retired Houses of Greater Vancouver Union Members (BC FORUM) Canadian Centre for Community Renewal Atira Women’s BC Government and Service Resource Society Employees’ Union Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Aboriginal Child BC Government Retired Care Society Employees Association, Canadian Mental Health New Westminster and BC ACORN (Association of Association – BC Division District Branch Community Organizations Canadian Mental Health for Reform Now – BC) BC Health Coalition Association (Richmond BC-Alberta Social Economy BC Healthy Child Clubhouse-Pathways) Research Alliance Development Alliance Carnegie Community BC Asset Building Collaborative BC Healthy Living Alliance Action Project

BC Association for BC Lung Association Castlegar and District Community Living Community Services Society BC Nurses’ Union BC Association of Castlegar and District Social Workers BC Persons With AIDS Society Health Watch

bcpovertyreduction.ca Open Letter to British Columbia Political Parties Signatories as of February 3, 2009 bcpovertyreduction.ca Page 2 of 4

Castlegar United Church Community Social Planning Fernie City Council Council of Greater Victoria Central Coast Teachers’ (Community Council) First Call BC Child and Association Youth Advocacy Coalition Council of Senior Citizens Centre for Native Policy of BC (COSCO) First Christian Reformed and Research Church of Vancouver Creston Valley Teachers’ Centre for Population Health Association First United Church Mission Promotion Research, UBC Delta Teachers’ Association 411 Seniors Centre Changing the Face of Poverty Charlotte Diamond, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House City in Focus children’s entertainer Gallery Gachet Coalition of Child Care Dietitians of Canada, BC Region Advocates of BC DisAbled Women’s Action Global Alliance Against Network (DAWN) Canada Traffic in Women – Canada Coalition of Progressive (GAATW-Canada) Electors (COPE) Division of Prison Health and Education, UBC Grandview Woodlands Coastal Community Advisory Area Council Committee (Vancouver Doug Donaldson, Municipal Coastal Health) Councillor, Village of Hazelton Grandview Woodlands Drug and Alcohol Coalition CoDevelopment Canada Duncan City Council Greater Trail Community Columbia Institute Eagle Valley Community Skills Centre Support Society (Sicamous) Commercial Drive Greater Victoria Citizens’ Business Society EMBERS (Eastside Movement Counselling Centre for Business and Economic Communications, Energy Renewal Society) Growing Together Child and Paperworkers Union and Parent Society Ending Violence of Canada, Local 464 Association of BC Mike Harcourt Communications, Energy Faith and Society Committee Health Officers’ Council of BC and Paperworkers Union of of the BC Synod, Evangelical Canada, Western Region Lutheran Church in Canada Health Sciences Association of BC Communicopia Faith in Action (Victoria) Heart and Stroke Foundation Community Advocates Faith Lutheran Church of BC & Yukon for Little Mountain (Powell River) Clyde Hertzman Community Connections Federation of BC Youth Society of Southeast BC in Care Networks Hospital Employees’ Union Open Letter to British Columbia Political Parties Signatories as of February 3, 2009 bcpovertyreduction.ca Page 3 of 4

Interfaith Summer Institute Michael McKnight, CEO, United Overseers Canada for Justice, Peace and Way of the Lower Mainland (Latin Amercan immigrant Social Movements collective in BC & Canada) John Millar, Executive Director, Island J.A.D.E. Society Population and Public PACE (Prostitution Health Program, Provincial Alternatives, Counselling Jewish Family Service Agency Health Services Authority & Education) Society

Julia and Ed Levy, Mission Teachers’ Union Pacific Community ILLAHIE Foundation Resources Society Barry K. Morris (Rev.), for Justice and Peace Unit of the Longhouse Council Pacific Northwest Labour the (Anglican) Diocese of Native Ministry History Association of New Westminster MOSAIC (Multilingual Parent Support Justicia for Migrant Workers BC Orientation Service Association Services Society for Immigrant Communities) KAIROS BC-Yukon (Canadian Parksville Qualicum KAIROS Ecumenical Justice Initiatives) Mount Seymour United Church PEDAL (Pedal Energy Debora Munoz, City Councillor, KAIROS Prince George Development Alternatives) City of Prince George Kamloops and District Pivot Legal Society Nelson Area Society for Health Elizabeth Fry Society Port Alberni City Council Nelson, BC Diocesan Kingcrest International Development & Peace Powell River City Council Neighbours Committee Prince George Diocesan Kitimat District Teachers’ Network for East Council for the Canadian Association Vancouver Community Catholic Organization of Organizations (NEVCO) Development and Peace Joy Kogawa, novelist and poet North Okanagan Child Prince George District Murry Krause, City Care Society Teachers’ Association Councillor, Prince George North Okanagan Early Progressive Intercultural Learning Disabilities Childhood Development Community Services Association of BC (LDABC) Coalition (PICS) Society Lutheran Urban Northern Society for Public Health Association of BC Mission Society Domestic Peace Quest Food Exchange Donna Macdonald, Oceanside Coalition For Strong Councillor, City of Nelson Communities (Parksville) Raise the Rates Coalition

Gabor Maté, M.D., author Okanagan Skaha Surinderpal S. Rathor, Deputy and health practitioner Teachers’ Union Mayor, City of Williams Lake Open Letter to British Columbia Political Parties Signatories as of February 3, 2009 bcpovertyreduction.ca Page 4 of 4

Angela Reid, Councillor, Streams of Justice United Way of the City of Kelowna Thompson Nicola Cariboo Sunshine Coast Community Revelstoke Social Services Society Urban Coalition (Vancouver) Development Committee David Suzuki Vancity Credit Union Revelstoke Women’s Shelter Sylvan United Church Vancouver Association for Revelstoke City Council Survivors of Torture (VAST) Terrace Anti-Poverty Richmond Community Group Society Vancouver Island Human Health Advisory Committee Rights Coalition The Advocacy Centre (Nelson) (Vancouver Coastal Health) Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Richmond Family Place Society The Church of St. John the Divine Group (VIPIRG) Richmond Women’s The Sisters of St. Ann (Victoria) Vancouver Rape Relief Resource Centre and Women’s Shelter Tides Canada Foundation SOS (Settlement Vancouver South Presbytery of Orientation Services) Touchstone Family Association the United Church of Canada Salsbury Community Society Toxic Free Canada Vancouver-Burrard Presbytery of the United Church of Canada Lynne Sinclair, City TRAC Tenant Resource Councillor, White Rock Vibrant Abbotsford and Advisory Centre Skeena Diversity Society Vibrant Surrey Trail Society for the Prevention Social Planning and of Cruelty to Seniors (SPCS) Victoria City Council Research Council of BC Union of BC Indian Chiefs Victoria Diocesan Joel Solomon, President Council of the Canadian United Way of Campbell River and CEO of Renewal, Catholic Organization for Development and Peace Executive Director of United Way of Castlegar Endswell Foundation West Kootenay Labour Council United Way of Greater Victoria South Vancouver Wilson Heights United Church Neighbourhood House United Way of North Okanagan Columbia Shuswap WISH Drop-In Centre Society St. James Anglican Church Social Gospel United Way of Powell Women Elders in Coordinating Group River and District Action (WE*ACT)

St. Rita’s Roman Catholic United Way of the Central and Ellen Woodsworth, Church, Castlegar Similkameen Vancouver City Councillor

Sto:lo Tribal Council United Way of the Fraser Valley YWCA Vancouver