The province has set aside funds to allow the province’s 16,000 single-parent households collecting welfare to have free access to childcare and one year of school tuition in approved programs.
For this, we offer the government nothing but praise.
Year after year, B.C. has led Canada in child poverty rates. The Liberals’ typical response has been to talk about the importance of low taxes and growing the economy — benefits that would supposedly eventually “trickle down” to those most in need. But clearly, that approach wasn’t working.
Poverty is a trap. As the jobs minister noted, a choice between taking care of your child and going to school is really no choice at all.
The measures announced this week truly have the potential to elevate someone out of poverty and give them solid footing on their own. Kudos.
But the single moms and dads better be getting good schooling because someone with low skills and low income has an extremely difficult challenge ahead. Thursday, we learned the minimum wage would be upped by 20 cents per hour to $10.45 and indexed to the consumer price index going forward.
With a typical two-bedroom basement suite starting at $1,000 per month on the North Shore, this $8-per week raise won’t be a difference maker. It’s a far cry from the $15 per hour the B.C. Federation of Labour was calling for.
We’re pleased to see the wage indexed to the CPI but our minimum wage is still woefully short of a living wage. It really was the least they could do.
