Report card on child poverty proves misplaced gov’t priorities
BCGEU
Nov 21, 2008

The Campbell Liberals won't be getting any gold medals like the ones they're handing out to construction workers, for their failure to reduce child poverty, the president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) said today.

"It's a shame that the government would waste money on gold medals engraved with the Premier's name, while over 180,000 B.C. children are living in poverty," said Darryl Walker, BCGEU president, responding to a report card on child poverty released today.

"For five years running, B.C. has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada. And yet, the Liberals think nothing of handing out huge wage increases to deputy ministers and running up $500 million cost overruns on megaprojects like the convention centre. Most British Columbians would say that they've got their priorities backwards."

The BC Child Poverty Report Card released today by First Call, a non-partisan coalition committed to the well-being of children and youth, is an annual look at child poverty rates in BC. The latest report card says that in 2006, B.C. had the highest child poverty rate in Canada for the fifth year in a row with an estimated 181,000 poor children living in BC.

BC's Children and Youth Representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, also echoed concerns about the findings of the report card and called on both the Liberals and New Democrats to work together for poor children. Turpel-Lafond says she's also very concerned the situation for aboriginal children in BC is getting worse.

Walker called on the B.C. government to use the opportunity of a sitting legislature to take immediate action.

"The recommendations of the report card - an increased minimum wage, a raise in welfare rates and more affordable social housing - are straightforward and simple solutions to an increasingly bleak future for BC children," said Walker.

"Our members who work on the front lines of providing services to families and children in need know all too well the debilitating and long-term impacts of poverty on children. The legislature is currently sitting - now is the time for the government to take action."