BC Budget 2025 Leaves People in Poverty Behind
To achieve public safety for whole communities, we need to see a commitment to investing in the services that people require.
Published on March 10, 2025
Written by Sacia Burton, BC Budget correspondent for BC Poverty Reduction Coalition
“Poverty” is mentioned only once in BC’s 2025 Budget. Once again, the provincial government has failed to account for poverty reduction as a strategy for overall community well-being. Instead, this government has chosen to place significant emphasis on punitive measures and legal interventions in the name of community safety.
The tone of “defending British Columbians” and being “united as a strong province” nods to a significant external threat—specifically, tariffs from the United States. Budget 2025 is presented in a combative tone, ready to tackle uncertainty and instability with tightening straps and efficiency-seeking measures for the betterment of life in our province. Colour me unconvinced. When has austerity led to public prosperity? Cuts to public support and social services create conditions for poverty, crime, hunger, precarity, and homelessness.
Who does the government intend to keep safe, and from what? We cannot police our way out of inequity in BC, and “cracking down” on people experiencing poverty without funding the services they need to change their circumstances will only insulate and isolate neighbours from one another. A budget truly focused on justice would prioritize investment in social determinants of health, such as housing and income security, rather than thinly veiled scapegoating of people in poverty in the name of “community safety”. Budget 2025 shows that the policy path towards eliminating poverty in our province is, for now, the road less taken.
Economic Security
In the wake of trade tensions, life is quite likely going to become more expensive for many people in BC. Those most economically vulnerable in our province will face the brunt of rising costs of goods, just as they did during supply-chain disruptions and market fluctuations throughout the pandemic. Despite explicit concern about GDP and its impacts on the economy, this budget is notably not people-focused. Little, if any, mention is made of racialized workers, people with disabilities, sex workers, students in poverty, lone-parent families, or people experiencing gender-based violence. Despite advocacy from both nonprofit and business communities, people who receive social and disability assistance were once again neglected in this budget as well.
Although BC’s 2024 Poverty Reduction Plan consultation process received substantial submissions about the need to index the assistance rates to inflation, remove employment income clawbacks, and end the discriminatory spousal cap, these programs have not changed. Assistance rates have held below the poverty line since the program’s introduction in 1966, forcing people into decades of insurmountable legislated poverty. Without indexing the social assistance rates to inflation or providing a flat increase in the rates, the gulf between people’s purchasing power and the cost of their essential goods will continue to widen.
Budget 2025 projections include a modest increase in overall program funding for assistance programs, which indicates that more people are expected to access these programs in the coming years. This uptick in projected need should raise an alarm. An overall rise in social assistance usage suggests that people remain entrenched in these programs while still more people continue to reach a point of critical financial need. If we hope to address, prevent, and eliminate the deepest levels of poverty in our province, significant (and economically viable) investment is needed. According to estimates from the BC Green Party in 2024, raising assistance rates in BC to the poverty line would cost approximately $1.87 billion in the first year, with a single person requiring an increase of around $917 per month to reach the poverty line. Budget 2025’s contingency of $4 billion dollars a year would still have more than half its reserve in place if this plan were implemented fully.
Climate Justice
The climate crisis and extreme weather mitigation are also not a major component of this budget, but projects that deepen our climate debt to future generations are front and centre. It is doubly disappointing to see extractive industry projects being fast-tracked (and a short-changing of the environmental review processes) alongside tax breaks for new mineral projects. Progressive corporate taxation for current and new projects could ensure that the province is better equipped to support those in our community who will continue to bear the brunt of the rising costs of goods and the pressures of climate change. A shift to investing further in clean energy and away from extractive industry would ensure both economic and climate stability. The staggering $ 20 billion allocated to fast-tracking fossil fuel industry projects could easily end poverty in our province and generate huge strides toward housing and healthcare for all.
Universal Basic Services
Education & Childcare
In this “maintenance” budget, very little new funding was allocated for improving or expanding the quality of BC’s social services. Despite being eight years into a ten-year agreement to implement province-wide $10/day childcare programs, no new funding was announced for expanding childcare services. Early Childcare Educators of BC notes that while some families have “won the child care lottery” with access to $10-a-Day programs, others are stuck paying high fees or are desperate on waiting lists.
Funding for public K-12 schools are similarly seeing modest increases where bold, strategic investment has been called for. Students and educators in post-secondary will feel a squeeze with Budget 2025, with the BCFS noting that students want to see public funding levels returned to 75% of operating costs, noting the fallout from federal international student regulations will hit hard for institutions across the province. Beyond stifled institutional funding presented in this year’s budget, a lack of investment in housing, food security, and transit systems continues to hinder seamless access to education.
Food security
Notably missing from this budget was the $1,000 grocery rebate that was set to go to all households in March 2025. The BC government reneged on this $2 billion dollar platform point in February, citing uncertainty amidst moving-target tariff scenarios. While handing out indiscriminate rebates can offer a satisfying bump to many people’s bank accounts, this was not strategic policy-making in the first place if the goal is to bolster overall food security for people in BC. However, with this rebate off the table, talk of food security has turned cold.
In response to the BC government’s encouragement for people to buy locally made and produced food, it is worth considering who has the resources (both time and money) to do so. People in food deserts, those on limited or fixed incomes, and people with limited mobility face overlapping barriers to choosing local, regional, or Canadian products. Although “buy BC” is a protective slogan that encourages local spending, this government has not introduced any innovations that would ensure people with limited resources can make this choice. In fact, the Ministry of Agriculture & food is facing a $86 million cut in Budget 2025. While food costs are touted as one of the points where people in BC have been hit hardest, and often one of the first places where households make budgetary adjustments, Budget 2025 offers little in the way of strategic relief.
Healthcare
While many provinces have faced cuts to public health spending, we’re heartened to see a 4.5% increase in funding for the BC health care system. However, the allocation of these resources will not necessarily improve overall patient access. Answering the calls for investment in community health centres would be a significant step towards health equity for poorer regions and neighbourhoods across BC.
In a time of economic instability, our healthcare system is always the first to see the effects in waiting rooms and urgent care. We’re still waiting on systemic investments that will keep low-income people in BC healthy, especially in an aging population who will require preventative and proactive care.
Housing
A notable win comes in the form of a modest increase to the Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters (SAFER) and Rental Assistance Programs (RAP). The increased income caps are a welcome announcement, as well as the news that the average assistance rate from these programs will rise (from $261 to $337 for SAFER recipients, and from $400 to $700 for RAP recipients). We encourage the BC government to maintain momentum with this strategic investment in housing access support. The cost of housing continues to far outpace the amount of assistance available, and though welcome, these increased rates still fall short of ensuring people can afford housing in many parts of the province.
The increased support to the Homeless Encampment Action Response Team (HEART) and the Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing (HEARTH) programs, meant to “clear out encampments”, is incomplete without tandem investment in below-market housing stock for people to end up in. If the government continues to prioritize punitive action for people experiencing homelessness, and does not adequately fund wrap-around service provision, circumstances are unlikely to improve for people displaced from encampments. It’s encouraging to see investment in these programs, but follow-through is needed in housing policy to match this progress. It is critical that homelessness is treated as a failing of our social systems rather than a threat to be expunged.
Transit & transportation
A solution for Translink’s projected $600 million/ year shortfall was notably absent in Budget 2025. No new money has been allocated to cover this gap, which threatens to cut up to 50% of bus and 30% of rail service. Given the substantial investment needed to maintain service levels in the Lower Mainland’s public transit operations, this is an omission that transit users in the Lower Mainland cannot afford.
Other promises left out of Budget 2025 include: a plan to offer seniors free transit during off-peak hours and action to bring HandyDart into the public service despite pressure from both riders and drivers. These concurrent gaps in transit funding and policy change will hit BC seniors hardest, while also limiting mobility options for people with physical disabilities who rely on HandyDart.
The confirmed $110 per driver ICBC rebate is a small relief to those who use (or are forced to rely on) a private vehicle to get around. The rebate amounts to less than the cost of two tanks of gas for the average vehicle, but sets the province back $410 million dollars. This trend towards compensating private transportation options at the expense of those who rely on public transit does not serve the collective interest of ensuring that everyone in our province can get around safely, affordably, and in a dignified manner.
Equity
Budget 2025 offers modest investments in reconciliation and language revitalization, alongside Indigenous-led treatment, recovery, and aftercare services, including $45 million over three years to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. Overall, the amounts invested in cultural services and revitalization do not match the urgency of the calls to action that the province committed to under the UNDRIP action plan. In a budget that prioritizes carceral treatment for people experiencing poverty, limited investment in cross-sectoral reconciliation work is likely to keep many First Nations community members entrenched in cycles of poverty. Enacting UNDRIP in BC would mean committing resources, including land, funds, and other needed supports, to Indigenous peoples in BC while respecting treaty and self-governance rights.
Conclusion
Increasing policing doesn’t keep people in poverty safer. To achieve public safety for whole communities, we need to see a commitment to investing in the services that people require, including accessible and affordable public transportation and below-market-rate housing.
People in BC need dignified and accessible ways to get around. We need affordable, below-market-price homes, rent freezes, and vacancy control to curb landlord incentives to pursue tenant turnover. We need affordable options for local food in every community.
A rising tide lifts all boats, but Budget 2025 is a ripple where we had hoped to see waves. Though it is valuable (and duly recognized) that social and health programs haven’t faced significant cuts in Budget 2025, the investments needed to keep people healthy, safe, fed, and cared for aren’t present in this budget to meet the moment we are in.
