Pound Foolish

You know the government is in trouble when at the beginning of its second term it still tries to hide behind the NDP. Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer spent half his August 18th article on the evaluation of the job placement program (JP) with a history of how Moe Sihota and Joy MacPhail backed the program when the NDP was in office. He got one important part right in that the NDP also had the expectation and requirement that people who receive welfare look for work; however, no one can accuse the NDP of spending more than $10,000 to save $200, as appears to be the case for the Campbell government's job placement program. That's what the evaluation of the Campbell government's job placement program shows it to be doing. It might remind you of the time when that punitive government demanded an extensive review of all people who were receiving disability benefits. In 2003 it spent over $3 million to harass 19,000 disabled people only to find 400 whose benefits were reviewed.

Speaking in the legislature on March 4, 2002, then Minister of Human Resources Murray Coell said: "my ministry is committing in this budget $300 million over the next three years toward effective job placement and training-for-jobs programs. The money will support performance-based programs that move people off income assistance into sustainable jobs." The Campbell government took two pilot programs that had been run by the previous government starting in January 2000, and in July 2002 substantially expanded them. In 2002, according to the researchers, the focus of the program shifted from those new to income assistance who might quickly return to work, to everyone who was classified as "expected to work".

No one should think that the decline in the number of people receiving welfare (BC Employment and Assistance - BCEA) is a result of the job placement programs. Researchers retained by the Ministry to evaluate the job programs noted: "A further complication is the fact that the BCEA Expected to Work caseload has been declining sharply over the last two years because of changes in government policies with respect to eligibility and benefits. As part of our research, we have had to distinguish the impact of these policies from the impact of the programs." They found that the job programs shortened the period of receiving benefits by an average of less than 0.5 months relative to people who were referred to the programs but not accepted.

The evaluation of the job placement program makes a very important point that no one has been able to get through the head of the Campbell government and that is that most people on welfare do everything they can to become self-sufficient. Those who went through the programs achieved independence a half month quicker on average. The evaluators recommend that "Since a number of BCEA clients can find work quickly on their own, the Ministry may wish to expect a longer period of independent job search before a person is referred to JP. This would allow the Ministry's limited employment dollars to be focused on those who need assistance."

The issue is not whether there should be a job placement program, and it certainly had to be evaluated. Where the Liberals are open to criticism is on holding the report until after the election, for releasing a 34 page summary rather than the full report and for not realizing that the program is too expensive to be offered to those who are likely to achieve independence on their own. Blind ideology characterized by the slogan "ending the culture of entitlement" led the Campbell Liberals to require that those who could find work on their own participate in placement programs. Hopefully the government will accept the recommendations of its researchers and make more effort to tailor programs to meet the needs of those who need help.