BC has the highest poverty rate in Canada and no plan to tackle it directly.

Join others calling for a poverty reduction plan, including over 350 organizations with a collective membership of over 300,000 people throughout the province. Together we can make a difference!

MLA Shane Simpson has introduced a private member’s Bill proposing a BC Poverty Reduction Act. If adopted, it would see the government develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy within one year, including legislated targets and timelines to reduce the breadth and depth of poverty in our province. After you join the call above, you can send an email directly to the Premier urging her to support it.

BC is one of the last provinces left without a poverty reduction plan.

All but 3 provinces in Canada either have poverty reduction plans or are in the process of adopting them, and many are already seeing success. They’re saving money and lives by tackling the issue of poverty head-on. In many places, it was community pressure that convinced the government to take action, and then unanimous government support that provided the commitment to make a big difference in people’s lives.

Paying for the negative effects of poverty costs much more than dealing with it directly.

Poverty is not just a hardship for those who experience it. It is costly to us as a province. Our government tells us they can’t afford poverty reduction policies like investing in new social housing, increasing welfare, or providing universal access to child care. But they fail to consider the large amount of resources that we spend, year after year, paying for the consequences of poverty.

On October 18, 2010 the Government of Nunavut announced the launch of a Nunavut-wide “public engagement process” that is to culminate in the territory’s first anti-poverty strategy.

The process, which began November 1, 2010, is expected to take a year and will be supported by a leadership team made up of representatives from government, Inuit organizations, non-profit organizations and the business community. The process is to engage each of Nunavut’s 25 communities and will involve three stages: a community dialogue in every community; regional roundtables; and, a final poverty summit in Iqaluit. The result will be the preparation and implementation of a poverty reduction strategy for Nunavut.

In response to calls from a growing number of social organizations in February 2010 the government passed a motion to develop a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy for the Northwest Territories. The government plans to produce a discussion paper and consult with residents on an anti-poverty strategy.

As part of this process, the No Place for Poverty Anti-Poverty workshop in October 2010 in Yellowknife brought together more than 80 social justice advocates, political leaders and people living in poverty to offer broad, community-based input to guide the design of a Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Strategy. They have called on government, business, communities and non-government organizations to work in partnership from the community level to create a strategy based in legislation, to ensure long-term effort and accountability.

For updates on the development of the Northwest Territories Anti-poverty Strategy and to learn more about the No Place for Poverty Anti-Poverty workshop visit the Alternatives North website

The strategy is currently in the process of development. The Department of Health and Social Services is leading the work on the strategy, collaborating with partner departments and non-government organizations to create a strategy that will provide evidence-based research and measured social indicators on which to base decisions within government.

The Department of Health and Social Services established the Office of Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction to guide the development, implementation and on- going management of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy. You can view updates and progress on the Yukon Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Strategy at www.abetteryukon.ca.

On November 12, 2010 in its Speech from the Throne, the Government of Prince Edward Island announced its intent to address poverty, stating that “My government recognizes the need to put priority on addressing the needs of those Islanders facing the greatest challenges” and that “Early in the new year, my government will release a Poverty Reduction discussion paper that will begin the process, in consultation with Islanders, of examining further options to improve the well-being of Islanders who are vulnerable and in need.”

The plan is still in development.