Poverty – read all about it
Thursday, November 26, 2015 @ 3:45 AM
By Bill Phillips
A couple of items caught my attention this week. They are unrelated, but maybe they shouldn’t be.
The first was the much-publicized symposium in Smithers this week to deal with transportation issues along the Highway of Tears, Highway 16. The second was School District 57 trustee Tim Bennett bemoaning the dismal child poverty rate in Prince George (21 per cent, according to a report issued by the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.)
Granted the symposium was looking at transportation issues and not all the transportation issues involved with Highway 16 are linked to poverty. As we like to say in the journalism world; “all generalizations are false.”
Choosing to hitchhike along Highway 16 isn’t a good choice. However, for some, there is no other option. One of the most callous comments I’ve seen regarding the Highway of Tears issue was those who are hitchhiking should simply get a car “like everyone else.”
For those living at or below the poverty line, of about $21,000 per year, getting a car simply isn’t an option. And, unlike those who live in the city, taking the bus isn’t an option either. Thumbing a ride to get groceries is the norm, not the exception.
For scribes like me (long in the tooth and memory), we recall that it was the Gordon Campbell Liberals who moved British Columbia to the worst poverty rates in the country. The Christy Clark Liberals haven’t done much better.
Bennett said he was “sickened” by the poverty rates. We all should be.
The coalition report set the provincial poverty rate at 20.4 per cent, one in five children live in poverty. Prince George was slightly worse than the provincial average, clocking in a 21 per cent. When we look at single parent families, the numbers are much worse with 50.3 per cent of those living under the poverty line, compared to 13 per cent for those with both parents in the home.
Bennett convinced the school board to write a letter to Clark and the Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation calling on government to allocate resources to develop and implement a provincial strategy for reducing child and family poverty in B.C.
It’s a start. Sadly, this government equates poverty to unemployment.
Poverty isn’t reduced by simply creating employment opportunities. It’s not as simple as that. Employment plays a big part in addressing poverty, but to properly deal with poverty we have to address other issues as well. Many of those issues are systemic. Other specific issues can deal with mental health problems and/or addictions.
And, specific to Bennett’s role, dealing with poverty means education, education, education. The greatest tool we can give anyone in life must be delivered before they turn six years old … it’s the ability to read.
The ability to read is the first, and most important, tool children need. From there they can assemble the tools to build whatever they need in life. There are no guarantees, but the odds are immensely better.
About a decade ago, Gordon Campbell announced a grandiose plan to make British Columbia the most literate jurisdiction in North America. A very worthwhile goal. Where are we with that?
Bill Phillips is a freelance columnist living in Prince George. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. He can be reached at billphillips1@mac.com
Comments
“About a decade ago, Gordon Campbell announced a grandiose plan to make British Columbia the most literate jurisdiction in North America. A very worthwhile goal. Where are we with that?”
Where are we with that? Treading water since the Libs don’t care whatsoever about lifting the lot in life of anyone but their business pals. Clark’s own child goes to a private school for a very good reason, namely that she doesn’t want her precious spawn rubbing shoulders with the unwashed. This is not a government that will ever take concrete steps to help those less able to help themselves for one simple reason: their philosophy is that only those who are capable of helping themselves at the trough are worthy of taxpayer support.
Oh the irony that the poster child rolled out for the announcement in Vancouver was a 22 year old single mother of a two year old with $40,000.00 in outstanding student loans living on welfare.
A couple of obvious questions:
Did the education she received provide her with the tools and knowledge to obtain a decent job or was it a useless arts degree in navel gazing and english literature?
She said that after food and rent are paid she does not have money left over to “do” things. Welfare is there to provide the basic necessities and it sounds like it is doing just that.
Where is the toddlers dad?
Even though it is approaching the Xmas season I don’t think she can claim Immaculate Conception in the birth of her child and the deadbeat dad should be contributing to the cost of raising his kid. I don’t care if their names are Mary and Joseph we have DNA screening these days:)Too bad they didn’t have it back in the day.
If the kids father contributed as he should she could then afford both daycare and student loan repayments from a full time job, providing the child with a much better role model.
Sparrow – good points. I’d add.
1. Universities and colleges have no responsibility to disclose to student’s they have no chance in hell of getting a job with their chosen program.
2. While a bank requires a business plan showing how the loan will create revenue to repay the loan, student loans only require a desire to pursue education – not requirement to show had said education will lead to future employment and repayment of the loan.
3. As to education education education – you can’t fix stupid stupid stupid. Recidivism rates for drugs and alcohol even after treatment are high. Addicts know they are killing themselves, a fancy program of posters complete with seminars won’t help.
4. You want kids to eat – feed them directly. Want them to be clothed, cloth them directly. Their parents have amply demonstrated no ability to take care of their children properly, and in fact, groom them to become future dependents. If the foster system wasn’t so overwhelmed, a lot more of these poverty stricken children would be in care. And maybe that’s part of the cause of the increase, an unwillingness to take children from their homes – especially first nation, no suitable places to put them even if there was a willingness. Unfortunately the probable solution is orphanages, but the kids would just be subject to another form of abuse.
This is is a problem that can’t be blamed solely on government. It has to be blamed on people who should just pass on having children, but the Federal/Provincial tax system actually pays you to have them, so why wouldn’t you. Welfare recipients with children get some pretty good refundable tax credits and it doesn’t cut into their benefits.
“For those living at or below the poverty line, of about $21,000 per year, getting a car simply isn’t an option.”
Simply not true, a friend on disability owns and drives a car as well as having an annual bus pass – and disability pays way less than 21,000 per year. It is all about priorities and how you manage your money.
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