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The BC Liberal government is back on the defensive over support for children, after a critical report from the legislature's new independent child advocate and the latest of a series of surveys showing child poverty in BC remains the worst in Canada.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the Saskatchewan judge appointed as BC's Representative for Children and Youth in the wake of a scathing assessment of budget cuts and reorganization of child welfare programs by retired judge Ted Hughes last year, says she's disappointed in the government's progress in implementing Hughes' recommendations.
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The previous day, Employment and Income Assistance Minister Claude Richmond was on the hotseat over Statistics Canada figures that showed BC continued to lead the country in child poverty for the fourth straight year. First Call, a child advocacy group, said 21 per cent of BC children lived in poverty, compared to a national average of 17 per cent.
Richmond said the report uses figures from 2005, and welfare and shelter allowance payments have been increased since then. He emphasized that the availability of jobs is the best help poor people can have.
"We have the lowest income taxes in Canada for anyone on a low income," Richmond told the legislature. "Anyone earning less than $16,000 a year pays no provincial income tax. We've eliminated Medical Services Plan premiums for thousands of British Columbians, and since 2001 over 111,000 people have been taken off the welfare rolls and put back to work."
NDP economic development critic Jenny Kwan said the annual welfare income of a single parent with a child is $16,282 a year, which is more than $10,000 below the poverty line.
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- reprinted from the Cariboo Press