Earlier this week, senior economist Iglika Ivanova examined this year’s BC budget ahead of its release to the public, and broke it down into 11 points in a post on Policy Note. Some notable takeaways include the fact that disability benefits are only rising by $77 a month after a nine-year freeze; B.C. remains the only province … Read more
In one of his early moves as the new prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has demonstrated that he, and the Canadian government, is committed to coming up with a national poverty reduction strategy. Earlier this month, he addressed an official mandate letter to Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, instructing him to make the … Read more
The City of Port Coquitlam finance committee voted unanimously in favour of becoming a living wage employer last week. They join other cities in the Lower Mainland like New Westminster and Vancouver to offer their direct staff and contractors fair compensation — calculated by the Living Wage for Families Campaign to be $20.68 per hour in … Read more
First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition has just released their 2015 Child Poverty BC Report Card, a comprehensive annual document that analyzes data on child and family poverty in the province. Since starting the project in 1994, the statistic of one in every five children in B.C. are poor remains. Read the full report here.
Food Banks Canada, a national charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity, recently released their 2015 HungerCount report. The document presents the results from an annual study on hunger and food bank use across the country, as well as makes recommendations for positive change. A few key stats pulled from the report: … Read more
This holiday season, help impoverished Canadians by going one step further than just donating money or non-perishable food items. Join the #RethinkGiving campaign, organized by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, and ask the government for a longterm poverty reduction plan. There are a few ways you can get involved, from sending an email to the premier to disseminating … Read more
The fourth annual Welfare Food Challenge, which explores the connections between poverty, climate change, food security and welfare, wrapped up yesterday. People taking part in the six-day event from Nov. 3 to Nov. 9 were required to eat only what they could buy with $21. Learn more about the participants and this year’s challenge.