100 Mile House Free Press

Premier Gordon Campbell sat through his last session in the British Columbia legislature as premier on Feb. 21.

Earlier in the week, he sat down with Black Press legislative reporter Tom Fletcher to talk about his decade in B.C.’s top job and what he sees in the future….

We have an annual announcement now that B.C. is the worst province for child poverty. Do you accept that interpretation, and do you think enough has been done there?

Campbell: I don’t accept the interpretation, but I don’t think it’s relevant whether I accept it or not. I think there’s a feeling that it’s there.

I think anyone who really cares about this understands the low-income cutoff measurements people often refer to are not relevant. Even Statistics Canada says it’s not relevant.

But here’s what’s really important. There’s not one person in government who wants to have any children in poverty….

We’ve seen a 46 per cent reduction. We’re at the lowest level of child poverty we’ve had since 1980.

And that in no way suggests that the job is done. But I think everyone has to recognize we’re making progress, and the people who pretend you can just throw more money somewhere and it’s going to work, I think are incorrect. The people who say it’s all about putting a label there are incorrect.

We have had a strategy for dealing with child poverty, which is building a strong economy, creating jobs, targeting resources like rent supplement programs, Pharmacare programs, Medical Services Plan programs, and daycare programs to try to help people who are lower income, ….