Open letter to mayoral candidates and candidates for city council:
Social workers in Terrace get to see the effects of poverty every day. While
many of the programs they provide address the effects of that poverty, they
seldom have the capacity to address the roots of it. But government policy
can do that.
At their convention last year, the Union of BC municipalities passed a
resolution calling on the province to adopt a comprehensive poverty
reduction plan. (Several other provinces have developed such plans or are
working on them and they appear to be effective in reducing poverty and its
effects.) BC has had the highest rate of child poverty for years and is
doing nothing in a concerted way. As social workers, we support the
development of a comprehensive policy to reduce if not eliminate poverty in
BC.
As you can imagine, social groups have been actively working on this issue
for years, (http://bcpovertyreduction.ca). Among other initiatives, draft
plans calls for a living wage for all British Columbians, a strong
commitment to social housing and a plan to address our child care crisis by
creating a provincial system that is both accessible to all families and
capable of providing quality care for their children. As social workers, we
support these initiatives.
We ask that you do as well and we ask you to place Terrace in a leadership
position in the fight against poverty in British Columbia. Poverty does not
just concern the poor. Its costs affect us all. As explored in The Cost of
Poverty in BC, www.policyalternatives.ca/costofpovertybc
<http://www.policyalternatives.ca/costofpovertybc> , poverty costs the
government $2.2 billion a year or almost 6% of our provincial budget. The
social cost is even higher. In dollar terms it is estimated at up to $9.2
billion. That’s over $2 thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in
BC every year!
The irony of this tragedy is that poverty reduction would, in the end, cost
half of what poverty costs us now. If no British Columbian lived below the
poverty line, the savings to our health care and social service system, our
justice system and our educational system would more than pay for financial
supports we need to put in place to ensure that no British Columbian is
needlessly poor.
If elected, will you be active in pushing the provincial government to adopt
such a plan?
Robert Hart, President,
Northwest Branch, BC Association of Social Workers
Terrace, BC