Welfare Minister welcomes chance to change deficiencies in the system 2006.

I was pleased to note your stated motivation and willingness to change any deficiencies in the policies of the Ministry of Employment and Assistance to ensure clients are well served.

It was very encouraging to hear that you take concerns about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens, seriously..

And while you were pleased to acknowledge my positive comments regarding some of the improvements in services to income assistance recipients over the past year, I am hopeful that you will contemplate the serious deficiencies that still exist and welcome the chance to change them.

The biggest and most long running problem is that the rates paid to people who are entitled to regular income assistance have not been raised in years, and do not facilitate the purchase of nutritious food, appropriate clothing, transportation, quality child care, adequate health, dental and optical care, decent housing, and participation in community life. Also, money that is earned by those on regular income assistance is clawed back so there is no incentive to pay off some bills, get on their feet, and more importantly, help ensure that they and their children get the proper nutritious food they need to be healthy.

Have you ever tried living on $610 a month with rent in our community averaging $450, and higher in larger centres? People are faced with a difficult choice. A roof over your head or food on the table, assuming they have a table. Some people have to skip meals in order to buy medicine.Children go to school hungry and without proper clothing. Few people in our community can afford their rent with the $375 allocated to them for shelter allowance. This means they have to spend their support money on their shelter. It is even worse in the larger centres, hence the increase in the homeless population.
I suspect that the significant rate of child poverty in British Columbia, which at 23.9% or almost one in four children, has contributed to the serious problem of child obesity, as the cheapest foods are also the most fattening. Lack of access to fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meats, healthy living conditions and limited resources to participate in organized sports, leaves many children of families on income assistance neglected and unhealthy. These low rates also make it impossible for many people to look for work given they cannot afford decent clothing, transportation and other costs.

The measure of a society is how it treats its most unfortunate members. We should do all that is in our power to enhance their lives and the lives of their children. This benefits everyone. You can do everything possible to get them off social assistance and into long term, productive employment, by all means, but you must also commit to poverty reduction rather than just caseload reduction, and that starts with an adequate income assistance rate structure.

You assured us that many of the changes recommended by the Ombudsman were underway long before the investigation began. This certainly indicates you may be a step ahead of those in the anti poverty community and are, as we speak, well underway in applying some of the government's surplus to raising the income assistance rates. We wait with bated breath.....