“We don’t anticipate that the COVID pandemic will be with us come the summer of 2021. That is my fervent hope and that’s the expectation I think of all British Columbians.”

Yes, B.C. premier John Horgan really said that in his press conference yesterday. 

Contrary to common sense and to his own opposite contention only a few months ago, in defending his unwanted snap election, a year in advance of what the law and his sworn commitment prescribed. 

Contrary to everything that Dr. Bonnie Henry and every health official on the planet has been saying, as COVID case counts and death counts soar to record levels, albeit with new hope on the horizon that most citizens might be vaccinated by this time next year.

True to form, none of the legislative press gallery poodles even dared to call Horgan out on that ridiculous dishonest claim.

Which was all the more remarkable considering it was part of his incomprehensible rationale in answer to one reporter’s questions about why he is slashing in half the COVID-19 support supplement for B.C.’s most vulnerable citizens, effective January 1.

It’s an issue the B.C. Liberals' new interim leader Shirley Bond and opposition critic Dan Davies have been appropriately pressing over the last couple days in Question Period.

Inexplicably, the Horgan government is cutting that COVID relief supplement from $300 monthly to $150 for all those who receive income assistance, disability assistance, hardship assistance, the comforts allowance, or the B.C. Senior's Supplement.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy New Year. Or however the over 200,000 British Columbians directly affected by that morally bankrupt penny-pinching policy choose to “celebrate” this “festive season”. 

Including the more than 23,000 families with children, 60,000 low-income seniors, and thousands of persons with disabilities who will be hurt by Horgan’s callous cut to the COVID support supplement.

Don’t worry, be happy, Horgan effectively said repeatedly in the legislature, as he basically reiterated in that press conference.

Tough love for the downtrodden

Never mind that even that drastically reduced $150 monthly supplementary support is now scheduled to be entirely eliminated in March. 

Thank your lucky stars that his NDP government put the current $300 monthly COVID assistance program in place last spring.

Thank your god or maker that it already twice extended it, as the killer virus extended its death grip on B.C. before, during, and after Horgan’s unholy election that worked as planned for his party, if not for those most betrayed by its promising outcome.

Indeed, thank him for his politically inspired mid-election vote-buying scheme that will now reward some 3.7 million British Columbians with the B.C. Recovery Benefit. The government wants you to know, it will be opened for applications on December 18.

Of course, it will provide $1,000 for eligible families and single parents with a net income of up to $125,000, and a reduced benefit amount for those with a net income of up to $175,000.

Eligible individuals with a net income of up to $62,500 will be eligible for a one-time payment of $500, with a reduced benefit amount for those with a net income of up to $87,500.

Sure, all those most needy folks who are dependent on income assistance, disability assistance, or senior’s supplements will now only get 50 percent of the added monthly COVID supplement that they might have foolishly expected an NDP government to indefinitely continue.

I mean, Horgan’s government has no problem shelling out record-high billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas industry, or offering other less urgently needed targeted assistance to other industrial sectors in the midst of this pandemic.

Sorry to disappoint, but no one said that life is fair. 

As Horgan put it to Bond in Question period, “Through the remainder of this fiscal year … we've ensured that those same people have the same amount of money. In fact, they'll have 50 bucks more as we go through the budget process and make permanent changes to reduce poverty in British Columbia.”

So, there.

The Grinch couldn’t have said it better. Actually, he did: stink, stank, stunk.

Recovery benefit helps rich more than the poor

From now through March, those most vulnerable individuals should be grateful that even with their monthly COVID supplement being decimated by $450 over those three months, if they apply for their $500 COVID cash, they’ll still come out $50 net “richer”. Woo-hoo.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the other 3.5 million B.C. recipients will get the full benefit of $500 for individuals or $1000 for families, whether they need Horgan’s Christmas election-gift or not.

After all, you can never have enough $5 lattes, he as much as said.

Say what, the Vancouver Sun’s soon-to-be-departing Rob Shaw probed: should those losing half of their monthly COVID supplement before it is altogether eliminated now expect that their disability and income assistance rates will go up come the budget, as the premier suggested to Bond?

“I will be advocating for a permanent increase,” said Horgan. “I am one voice at the cabinet table. The minister of finance makes the ultimate decision on this, that’s how our system works.

https://twitter.com/vaughnpalmer/status/1339225212366163968

“Do we have more work to do? Absolutely,” Horgan said. 

“I’ve made that clear to the minister of finance. That’s the job of the new minister of social development and poverty reduction, to make the case to treasury board and then to cabinet, as we develop the budget. 

“We need to have a structured process. All governments do it this way. I’m going to be advocating to make sure we’re helping the most vulnerable in our populations because I believe that’s the right thing to do.”

The guy who singlehandedly decided to collectively promise some 3.7 million British Columbians what we’re now told will cost about $1.7 billion in cold, hard, Christmas COVID cash now says he’s really only “one voice” at the cabinet table.

Who knew, it’s really the finance minister who holds the ultimate power, not the guy who just appointed her and who has invited her to sit in cabinet at his pleasure?

It’s her job—along with the new minister of social development and poverty reduction—not his, to persuade treasury board and cabinet that a permanent increase in disability and income assistance rates is warranted. 

Can he commit that that will happen? Nope.

Can he offer any assurance of what increase might be forthcoming? Uh, no. Wouldn’t want to jump the gun or dilute his new year’s hope with any new harsh reality that falls short of those lofty expectations.

Horgan goes back to B.C. Liberal record

But here’s what those most vulnerable folks, including those living below the poverty line, all sure know far too well, as Horgan likes to remind his dejected Liberal nemeses across the aisle.

They know that compared to the Campbell/Clark B.C. Liberal governments, the Horgan government has at least made some important steps towards addressing their plight.

As Horgan chided Bond in the legislature, “you'll be interested to know that between 2001 and 2016, the B.C. Liberals increased contributions monthly to people with disabilities by $200. This government did that in two years, not 16 years... for people on income assistance, the B.C. Liberals increased that monthly stipend by $100 over 16 years. We increased it by $150 in two years.”

Very true. Kudos to the NDP for that modest progress.

Moreover, to its credit, the Horgan administration also restored the B.C. Bus Pass Program that the Liberals so callously cut. And it developed a long-overdue poverty reduction strategy that the Campbell and Clark governments studiously resisted, among several other commendable initiatives.

None of which answers Bond’s fundamental question on behalf of those most needy citizens who are shell-shocked by Horgan’s COVID support supplement clawback.

Namely, why on Earth would this NDP government, especially, not leave that full existing supplement intact until the current health crisis is over? 

Why would it cut that assistance now, in the midst of a pandemic that is far worse now than it ever was last spring when it was first announced?

Why would it not keep that $300 supplement fully in place until a permanent increase in monthly income and disability assistance is announced in the budget and duly authorized?

That’s the point. 

Blaming the Liberals for their negligence in government is just more partisan political clap-trap.

Horgan’s the premier. Has been for over three-and-a-half years.

He could have and should have already done much more to honour the promise of his “democratic socialist” government in combatting the curse of poverty that has been exponentially compounded by this global pandemic. 

And also, by his selfish, politically opportunistic decision to impose an unwanted early election that had the effect of putting the government in limbo, including by unnecessarily delaying the budget by some three months.

Here’s what those directly affected by the COVID supplement cuts also know.

A single person receives $760 a month on income assistance, plus the $300 monthly COVID support supplement, for a “whopping” total of $1,060 a month. Starting January, that will be cut to a mere $910 a month, before the supplement is then altogether wiped out after March.

A single person on disability currently receives $1,183 a month, and $1,483 with the $300 monthly COVID support supplement. That will fall to $1,334 a month.

A single parent on income assistance with two children currently receives $1,609 a month, and $1,909 with the supplement. That will drop to $1,759 a month when the supplement is slashed.

Why should they not be equally entitled to receive those same temporarily supplemented monthly amounts—plus with the same full $500/$1,000 one-time B.C. Recovery Benefit that individuals and families with much, much higher incomes will be entitled to receive?

Why should only those citizens who can least afford to take another financial hit be deprived of the full one-time value of the recovery benefit that everyone else will enjoy, including those making $125,000 a year? It’s grossly unfair.

Regardless of what permanent increases may or may not ultimately be announced in the April budget, that punishing differential treatment for B.C.’s most vulnerable and lowest-income residents is unconscionable.

No bank account? No way to apply in 2020

But wait, it gets worse.

For starters, the budget won’t even be tabled until sometime in April. 

None of those needy individuals and families will have any certainty about whatever permanent increases might be proposed by the government until that budget is introduced and then passed by the legislature. 

Horgan has added insult to that prospective injury by delaying the budget from its formerly legally prescribed February tabling until April, all because he chose to break his word, ignore the law, and call a snap election.

Many of those dependent on income or disability assistance are homeless. 

Whereas the current monthly supplement that is being cut to $150 is now automatically deposited and/or included in their monthly assistance cheques, the new one-time COVID cash “gift” will only be paid out to those who apply for it.

As such, many of those living on the streets and/or with disabilities will have a new hurdle to face, to reap their supposed “net-net” $50 “windfall” over the next three months under Horgan’s absurd COVID support regime.

The government says that “For people who have not filed their income taxes for 2019 or those who do not have banking services, a modified application process will be available in the new year.” 

Which means they won’t even be able to apply for that B.C. Recovery Benefit on December 18, even if they wanted to.

And that’s assuming they are even aware that they will be eventually obliged to do so, in order to get their one-time $500 or $1,000 cheques that will largely go to offsetting their imminent monthly losses from Horgan’s cut to the COVID support supplement.

If the Liberals had still been in power and tried to pull this stunt, most of the “progressive” world in British Columbia would be rightly and loudly calling for change.

Where the hell are they and why so bloody quiet? That, too, is maddening and disheartening.

Those progressives should be screaming blue murder that any premier and governing party would be so insensitive, unfair, short-sighted, and outright stupid as to deprive those most in need of the timely help they so desperately require in the face of this killer crisis.

Least of all, an NDP premier and government.

Let’s be honest. It’s all being done to save the province a few bucks. 

I suspect, all to lower expectations of what any permanent increase to disability and income assistance rates might eventually be, from $300 a month down to maybe $150 a month, which would likely cost around $450 million annually to fund. 

Chump change in the context of a $13.6-billion or higher deficit, and an urgent priority at that.

No one in their right mind would for a moment accept that the premier couldn’t and shouldn’t reverse his idiotic and crushing cut to the monthly COVID supplement. 

Of course he could—in an instant—as he should have done and officially articulated and enshired in his relevant ministers’ mandate letters and new marching orders.

Under the present circumstances, if almost anyone other than John Horgan had ever had the temerity to suggest that they “don’t anticipate that the COVID pandemic will be with us come the summer of 2021” and “that’s the expectation … of all British Columbians”, they would have been ripped to shreds by the press gallery.

We all know that COVID is not going away anytime in the foreseeable future, even if the vaccination rollout goes as planned. 

Instead of compounding uncertainty and fear for those who are now facing dramatically reduced monthly COVID support supplements—that, incredibly, are soon to be extinguished—Horgan should be moving heaven and earth to alleviate those citizens’ financial and emotional burdens.

As Shirley Bond rightly asks from the Liberals’ well-deserved status far removed from power, in the wilderness of opposition, “Will the Premier today do the right thing—stand up and end the clawback?” 

With enough political pressure, he will, I assure you. But only if he really feels the heat.

If Horgan’s government was at all worthy of its NDP heritage and promise, it would do that and go much further.

First, Horgan would reverse his planned cuts and pledge to indefinitely extend the full $300 monthly supplement for as long as it takes to beat the COVID virus. Which he bloody well knows will be with us far beyond next summer.

Second, he would automatically deliver the B.C. Recovery Benefit to all of those who are already entitled to receive the COVID-19 support supplement. No applications required, full stop.

And third, he would stand up now and announce his intended prescribed permanent increases for all those receiving income assistance and disability assistance. He should clarify for all of those who are most in need what they should expect will be contained in the budget, whenever it is tabled and passed, as a matter of confidence.

That’s the sort of “stability” that those individuals and families—and indeed, all British Columbians—really need and should demand, in furtherance of the premier’s election rationale in properly leading us all through this unprecendented health crisis.