August 2, 2006

Richmond Admits Error but Presses On

According to an August 2nd article by staff reporter Gary McKenna in Kamloops This Week, Employment and Investment Minister Claude Richmond "said a recent editorial he wrote citing the number of children living in poverty at three per cent is incorrect, and the number is actually much higher." His subsequent comments indicate that his error was more than an innocent mistake; they suggest an uncaring attitude that the poor can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Richmond now says he confused the number of children in families on income assistance with the number of children living in poverty. He went on to say that one in 30 families with children living on income assistance compares to one in seven when the NDP was in power. Since Richmond has recognized that as many as one in four children live in poverty, his comparison to the 1990s amounts to an admission that the Campbell Liberals have denied assistance to tens of thousands of children who live in poverty. Statistics Canada continues to report on the number of families living below the low-income cutoff, and the BC Progress Board and the National Council of Welfare continue to cite the figures. Stringent eligibility requirements and low assistance rates have slammed the door in the face of those in need.

Richmond did not correct his errors with respect to the working poor. In his radio editorial Richmond minimized the extent of low paying jobs, and claimed that: "Even entry level jobs are paying in excess of $14 per hour." Statistics Canada reports that in 2005, according to its Labour Force Survey, there were 372,600 full-time workers in BC who earned less than $14.00 per hour; when part-time workers are included that number jumps to 576,700 or nearly one in every four BC workers. It may be a surprise to Richmond and others in the Campbell government, but some of those 576,700 workers support children; 152,900 of those people are between the ages of 25 and 44 and work full-time.

Once a child turns age 19 the Campbell government says "you're on your own". Eligibility for welfare is denied until there is a two year period of self-support. Foster parents receive no help for their charges who reach the age of majority, and we recently saw the government launch an appeal to a court decision which ruled it couldn't cut off help for developmentally disabled children when they reach age 19 merely on the basis of an arbitrary IQ test.

Claude Richmond and the rest of the Campbell government need to recognize that hundreds of thousands of British Columbians and their children are not sharing in the province's prosperity. In a wealthy province like British Columbia there is no excuse for leaving so many behind. BC should be the best place on earth to live for more than just those who are fortunate enough to enjoy high incomes.