The Provincial government has recently introduced a Poverty Reduction Strategy. It will be released in early 2019 and sets poverty reduction targets and timelines for government to meet. For example, committing to reduce BC’s overall poverty rate by 25 per cent and child poverty rate by 50 per cent in the next five years.
Ann Harvey with the Nelson Committee on Homelessness says although there’s still a lot of fine print to look at, it’s a great first step.
“BC was the only province left in Canada that does not have a poverty reduction plan and actually we have to thank our local MLA [Michelle Mungall] for years and years of trying to bring this before the previous government and then finally helping to move something forward in this current government.”
The Province says a broad public engagement period on poverty reduction was held from last November to March of 2018 with more than 8,500 people taking part. These voices and experiences helped shape the legislation.
