WHEREAS poverty and its effects is something that each local government is faced with: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the importance of a poverty reduction plan be communicated to the leaders of all political parties in British Columbia highlighting 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.
Ministry of Social Development The Government of British Columbia takes the problem of poverty, especially child poverty, very seriously. British Columbia offers some of the most comprehensive supports for low-income individuals and their families in Canada. These supports include subsidized housing, child care subsidies, employment programs, dental and optical care for children and programs for vulnerable seniors. Some highlights are: - Increased income assistance rates in 2007 by up to 20. Employable singles now receive 100 more per month 610 per month, currently the third highest rate in Canada. - Shelter rates were increased 50 and are now the second highest in Canada for employable singles, while rates for families with children are up between 97 and 200 a month. Single parents now have the second-highest shelter payments in Canada. - Since 2001, housing and support programs spending has totaled 2 billion. This year alone the provincial allocation is over 562 million, more than four times what was spent in 2001. - Introduced the Rental Assistance Program RAP in 2006 and significantly enhanced it in 2008. - RAP currently provides direct rent assistance to more than 8,800 low-income working families, paying up to 765 per month 9,180 a year. - The Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters SAFER program has also been improved and expanded, with more than 15,750 seniors households thats 3,600 more households than 2001 receiving a monthly rental subsidy of up 679.50. - The Healthy Kids Program now provides 1,400 per child every two years for additional dental and eye care on top of MSP Premium Assistance. - Worked with the federal government to design a new made-in-BC Working Income Tax Benefit for low-income working individuals and families that pays up to 1,150 per year to a single person or 2,011 per year to a family including the BC Earned Income Benefit, plus an additional 515 per year for persons with a disability. - In January 2010, MSP premiums were eliminated or reduced for about 180,000 low-income families and individuals. The 2,000 increase in the Medical Service Plan premium exemption thresholds means, for example, that a family of four with an income of less than 31,000 now pays no MSP premium. - Increased the basic personal income tax credit to 11,000 from 9,373, effective January 2010. Provincial income taxes have now been eliminated for 325,000 low-income British Columbians since 2001. BC has the lowest provincial income taxes for the first two tax brackets.