Government plans to reduce poverty by 25 per cent

The province launched its poverty reduction strategy with TogetherBC to reduce the number of people living in poverty.

Over the next five years, the goal is to reduce poverty in BC by 25 per cent.

“For too many years B.C. was the only province in Canada without a dedicated strategy for long term poverty reduction,” said Shane Simpson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction

The goal is to help 140,000 people out of poverty, 50,000 of whom are children.

The strategy incorporates existing programs while integrating new ones like the Child Opportunity Benefit, which gives low-income families with children between $1600 to $3400 per year.

The province is also implementing a plan to reduce and even in some cases eliminate the cost fo child care while increasing the number of available spaces.

Simpson said they hope to reduce child poverty by 50 per cent.

“A key piece of this work for me is the community pillar, looking at how we break that cycle moving forward.”

Some of the areas already in the works like the affordable housing projects for homeless, low income, and the elderly will receive additional funding to create more units.

More funding will also go towards programs and training that help people get jobs and get the qualifications for better positions.

Simpson said the government estimates the whole project will cost $4-billion.