Building the Movement for a Poverty Reduction Plan
Fall 2011: Movement Continues to Grow
Over 350 supporting organizations with a collective membership of over 300,000 people throughout the province have joined the call for a poverty reduction plan with legislated targets and timelines. This Fall, we also launched a youth initiative that has successfully engaged more youth in the poverty reduction movement and will continue to grow throughout 2012.
February 5th, 2009: Open Letter to BC Government Released
We released an open letter to BC’s political parties calling for a plan. The letter had at that time been endorsed by 200 organizations from around the province and the numbers continued to grow.
Fall 2008: BC Poverty Reduction Coalition Launched
With decades of calls to end poverty falling on deaf ears in the provincial government, a group of organizations began meeting to call for a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. They all agreed that the time is now: BC has the highest poverty rates; provincial cuts to social programs and stagnant income assistance rates are grinding the poor; and a poll revealed that 87% of British Columbians want both the prime minister and the premier to set concrete targets and timelines to reduce poverty.
Changing the Political Conversation about Poverty
May 2011: Federal All Candidates Forum in Surrey
We co-hosted a poverty-focused All Candidates Forum in Surrey. Federal candidates faced tough questions from the audience and the absence of one particular candidate made media headlines.
Spring 2011: Provincial Party Leadership Races
We grilled candidates from both Liberal and NDP leadership races to find out where they would land on poverty reduction. Christy Clark takes over as Premier and immediately promises to make poverty reduction one of her top priorities. Read the responses from the Liberals here and from the NDP here.
September 2010: UBCM Resolution on Poverty Reduction
Our campaign for a UBCM poverty reduction motion results in a win! With motions brought forward from White Rock, Nelson, Grand Forks, Parksville, Vancouver, and Victoria at the Union of BC Municipalities Convention, the UBCM delegates passed a resolution calling on the province to adopt a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. Resolution B51 highlights “the need to provide adequate and accessible income support for the non-employed, improve the earnings and working conditions of those in the low-wage workforce and improve food security for low-income individuals and families.”
March 2010: Our call makes it to the floor!
Vancouver-Hastings MLA Shane Simpson brings forward a motion that the BC government seriously consider a poverty reduction plan:
“It’s time for us in this province to move forward, to put a poverty reduction strategy in place, to join the six other provinces in this country that are moving ahead with poverty reduction strategies — provinces from across the political spectrum. It’s time that we had a comprehensive plan that deals with housing, with child care, with training and with income levels. It’s time we had a plan that set targets and timelines for this province to bring the rates of poverty in this province down from the embarrassing levels that we have, having more people in poverty per capita than anywhere in Canada. It’s embarrassing. It’s shocking.”
September 30, 2009: UBCM Resolution on Housing
A resolution to urge the provincial and federal governments to create a National Affording Housing Strategy was passed at this year’s convention of the Union of BC Municipalities. The resolution included a call for funding to support the long-term affordable housing needs of communities across BC. The resolution was submitted and endorsed by the City of Vancouver, Coquitlam, Surrey, Richmond Port Moody, and New Westminster.
May 2009: The Provincial Election
We ran a hard campaign while the candidates were battling it out. We met with politicians and policy-makers, organized a Lobby Your Candidate Day, and put the pressure on all parties to build poverty reduction into their platforms. In the end, though we didn’t get the kind of commitments we wanted, we were successful in making poverty reduction an election issue.
Raising Public Awareness
July 14, 2011: Launch of The Cost of Poverty
February 8, 2011: Launch of If the BC government were a basketball player
December 14, 2010: Public Forum with Richard Wilkinson on Income Inequity and the Community Response
We co-hosted a forum with Richard Wilkinson, the renowned UK academic and co-author of Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Groups in more than 20 communities around the province participated through video-conferencing. Bringing together people working on poverty reduction at the community level across the province, we caught up with updates from local initiatives reducing income inequality and its impacts, and expanded and strengthened our network.