Council backs plan to reduce poverty
Parksville Oceanside Star
Jun 10 2010
By: Brian Wilford

Parksville council has signed on to a province-wide initiative to create a BC Poverty Reduction Plan.

A motion presented by Coun. Sue Powell Monday says the province's poverty rate remains among the highest in Canada, with significant impact and at great cost.

It asks the Union of BC Municipalities to urge the province to create a plan which aims to:

- Reduce BC's poverty rate by 30% within four years, and by 75% within 10 years, with particular emphasis on reducing poverty among children, lone-mother households, single senior women, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities and mental illness, and recent immigrants and refugees;

- Within two years, ensure that every British Columbian has an income that reaches at least 75% of the poverty line;

- Adopt an affordable housing and supportive housing plan and, within two years, ensure no one has to sleep outside, and end all homelessness within eight years, ensuring homeless people have quality, appropriate housing;

- Provide adequate and accessible income support for the non-employed;

- Improve the earnings and working conditions of those in the low-wage workforce;

- Improve food security for low-income individuals and families;

- Provide universal publicly funded child care;….

It praises the BC government for taking some measures, such as universal access to all-day kindergarten, and urges it to take the lead in doing more.

"We owe it to our children," Powell told council.

Coun. Marc Lefebvre said it's a national problem: "The bigger the city, the bigger the problem -- and it's not getting any better."

He said municipalities need to sit down with federal and provincial representatives and say, "Look, this is not our problem and, if it is, we need more funding."