B.C. poverty reduction plan could reduce costs, advocates argue
As Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar completes his 31 days of living on the monthly welfare rate of $610, advocates are calling for a plan that they argue would cost less than half of what is currently spent on poverty.
“Poverty’s costing our province between $8 and $9 billion a year— that’s a conservative estimate,” said Seth Klein, B.C. director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), at a press conference in the Downtown Eastside today (January 30).
“The cost of actually fully implementing a bold, comprehensive poverty reduction plan is less than half of that.”
Klein said according to the organization’s calculation, the cost of addressing the “poverty gap” in the province, or the number of people living below the poverty line, is about $2.4 billion a year.
“By what logic, in a society as wealthy as ours, with an annual gross domestic product of over $200 billion a year, says we can’t close a poverty gap of 2.4?” asked Klein.
According to the CCPA’s calculation, annual costs of poverty in B.C. include $1.2 billion in health care, $745 million in crime costs, and an estimated $6.2 billion in lost productivity.
In contrast, researchers with the organization estimate that the cost of a poverty reduction plan, including measures such as raising welfare rates by 50 percent, building new social housing, and implementing a universal, publicly-funded childcare program, would be about $3 to $4 billion.
Bill Hopwood, an organizer with the Raise the Rates coalition, the group behind the one-month welfare challenge, noted that half a million people in B.C. live in poverty.
“That’s roughly one in nine people in British Columbia, and if you then think of their families and their friends and their colleagues, and then if you think that a lot of people in B.C. are one or two paycheques away from poverty…it isn’t a minority issue,” he said. “It affects most people directly or indirectly in British Columbia.”
After completing the latter half of the one-month welfare challenge in an SRO building in the Downtown Eastside, Brar will return to his home in Surrey on Tuesday (January 31). He has been living on a budget of $610, the monthly income assistance rate for a single employable person.
The MLA described everything he has experienced during the challenge as shocking and eye-opening.
“I take with me the most profound, powerful, heartbreaking stories of people struggling in poverty, and I take that home, and I take that with me forever,” he said.
Brar argued that the province “cannot afford not to do something” and said he plans to take a proposal for a poverty reduction strategy to his NDP colleagues in Victoria.
“I will try my best to work with the caucus to build that comprehensive poverty reduction plan with clear targets and timelines,” he said. “We need to start that process now.”
Comments
6 Comments
Arthur Vandelay
Jan 31, 2012 at 7:03am
Ah yes, another plan with huge guaranteed real dollar costs matched with completely theoretical savings. What could possibly go wrong?
GOT
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:02am
I'm curious about the 'estimated $6.2 billion in lost productivity.'
Assuming that people are impoverished because they don't or can't work, and/or are trying to survive on minimum wage, how does this translate into 'lost productivity'? How does Mr. Klein suggest that these people become more 'productive'? By cutting them off welfare and forcing them to work? OK maybe for those who are employable, although minimum wage is barely a step above poverty. Workfare? Please feel free to elaborate, Mr. Klein.
NoLeftNutter
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:42am
Seth makes a living by pulling these phantom numbers out of his ass. What's hard to understand is who pays him for this BS and how can they afford to waste the money on his salary.
Dianne G
Jan 31, 2012 at 1:59pm
I totally agree with MLA Brar that the province “cannot afford not to do something” and I know many people who want to see a proposal for a poverty reduction strategy which includes concrete steps, timelines, targets and allocated public spending to go hand in hand with NEW public policy.
It is impossible to stay healthy, afford decent housing, feed a family and live on existing welfare/disability rates and/or minimum wages as they are.
Shocking and an eye opener plus and a shame that we all share because it doesn't have to be this way!
Lloyd Sereda
Feb 1, 2012 at 5:19pm
The "disbelief" and appeals to reject a plan as "theoretical" when the demonstration is clearly practical sound familiar, like "ethical oil" and the need to import foreign workers because Canadians "won't" work. Why not toss in the efficacy of mega jails and the benefit cost analysis demonstrating the "impossibility" of medicare a couple of generations after the fact? The HarperTrolls cannot be satisfied with with the label of "incredible"; so, they are going after "incredibly misanthropic -Y- theory bogots".
Ekō
Feb 1, 2012 at 7:02pm
Even if there was no "lost productivity" caused by poverty, the suffering experienced from poverty is reason enough to take action. I fully support the practical and achieveable steps proposed by Raise the Rates and CCPA, whether or not such steps result in an overall economic boost. It is criminal that we as a society have tolerated such terrible disparities for so long.
But since you asked GOT how poverty translates into lost productivity, I can tell you that when I lived on welfare 20 years ago (at rates very close to today's rates) I was completely drained both physically and mentally each day by having insufficient nutritious food, always worrying about how to stretch money till the end of the month, and the physical strain of standing in long lineups for services/food and walking long distances because I didn't have enough for bus fare (often with shoes that were worn through in the soles).
Although it was hard I had a lot of family support, relatively good physical health, and lived in relatively safe housing. If you are struggling with mental or physical illness, don't have a family to turn to, are living in dangerous housing, are dealing with hungry kids, or any of the many other things that exponentially compound the stress, how likely is it that you would have the energy to be actively involved in your community?
I would encourage anyone who doesn't understand what this article is talking about to try what MLA Brar did -- try living for one month on only the amount of money that welfare provides. It is not the same as truly being at the mercy of the welfare system, but from the insights that MLA Brar gained clearly there is something useful and eye-opening that can be gained from the experience.