No medals for Gordon Campbell on child poverty: The government spends millions on feel-good ads, while thousands of homeless walk the streets.
November 25, 2008
Straight Goods
by Bill Tieleman

How is it possible that the "best place on Earth" is also the worst province in Canada for child poverty five years in a row?

How is it possible that Premier Gordon Campbell can give out thousands of gold medals with his own name arrogantly stamped across the face to construction workers on multimillion-dollar provincial projects while one in five children lives in deprivation?

And how is it possible that a government spends millions on feel-good television ads about how wonderful this province is, while thousands of homeless walk the streets?

… On Friday, two stories made the news — contradictory stories that deserved to be connected.

The first, a devastating report that found BC's child poverty rate is 21.9 percent, the highest rate in Canada for the fifth year in a row.

The second, a provincial program uncovered by the New Democratic Party opposition where more than 2,000 gold medals worth about $15 each and inscribed, "Presented by Premier Gordon Campbell" are being given to construction workers on infrastructure projects.

The child poverty report from First Call, Campaign 2000 and the Social Planning and Research Council showed that in 2006, the most recent year with statistics available, there were an estimated 181,000 poor children in BC

That's more than the combined total populations of Nanaimo, Prince George and Cranbrook.

And BC is the only province with a higher child poverty rate in 2006 than in 1997, even though federal and provincial child benefits have increased…