Is everyone in good hands?

We are all "in pretty good hands" with Gordon Campbell and the Liberals, says some, citing our balanced budget and the most open and transparent government accounting process possible.

What is not so open and transparent, at least to those who choose to turn their heads and close their eyes, is that British Columbia, under the Liberals, has the highest child poverty rate of any province in Canada, over 6% above the national rate for the second year in a row, the highest ever reported in B.C. since Stats Can started publishing poverty data on an annual basis in 1980.

The estimated number of poor children in B.C. in 2003 was 201,000. That is almost one in four children whose parents skip meals so they can eat, who sleep on dirty beds of blankets, towels and sleeping bags in the family van that has become their home, whose asthma is made worse by the moldy and damp housing that is the only type affordable, who go to school hungry, tired, cold, embarrassed, lonely, sad, hurt, picked on and depressed.

That is as many kids as the entire population of Burnaby or the entire populations of Nanaimo, Kelowna and Cranbrook combined.

A decade can make a difference. Welfare incomes for families with children were 18% lower in 2004 than in 1994, with a total income between $11,000.00 and $19,000.00 below the poverty line.

We now have an emerging social class called the working poor. People who do an honest days' work for barely a living wage. People who work at poverty level wages and need at least two full time jobs to be able to maintain a safe home and basic nutrition.They spend everything and save nothing, have miniscule bank accounts or none at all.
In a province that the writer finds refreshing, due to the public debate over how we are going to manage our budget surpluses, these children remain invisible to us. We may live in the same neighborhoods, play at the same parks,attend the same schools and churches, but be unaware of each other’s struggles or are too busy judging their parents to care. We are all a step away from being poor. A divorce, a job loss, an injury, a disability. One in every four of our children, too many vulnerable children, are growing up with lost opportunities.
While our budget may be balanced, it was done so on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. What has been mismanaged and what remains in a huge deficit is the consideration of the future of our children in B.C. They are the most valuable resource and our best hope for the future. The next decade can make a difference, but our government and those who praise it must have the will to do so.