By Tom Mark

NDP Seek Public Input On Poverty Reduction

Oct 30, 2017 | 11:44 AM

An advisory forum has been tasked to help the provincial government come up with a Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Shane Simpson announced the 27 member panel this morning.

Simpson says they will gather ideas aimed at having legislation ready for the spring.

“They’ll share their expertise and insights on poverty and related issues.They will recommend actions to reduce poverty. They will provide advice on how to support the engagement process moving forward.”

Mable Elmore, Parliamentary Secretary for Poverty Reduction, and Dawn Hemingway, chair of the University of Northern British Columbia’s school of social work will co-chair the forum.

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“This is an incredibly diverse group that we’ve brought together. We have people with lived experience. We have first nations. We have poverty advocates, labour and business interests.”

The only member of the panel from the Okanagan is Shelley DeCoste, a disability advocate from Kelowna.

She started the DIVERSABILITY campaign in 2012 and now has followers across B.C.

Shelley says, “If you break down the word DISabled, you get not able. If you break down DIVERSABILITY, you get different, but able. To create a better understanding we can begin with something as simple as changing our language.”

Shelley is an inspirational speaker, trainer and mentor and has presented on Inclusive Employment and DiversAbility all over B.C.

In recognition of Shelley’s contributions to people with developmental disabilities, in 2016 she was awarded – along with the Kelowna Sunrise Rotary – with a Community Living BC Widening Our World (WOW) Award which celebrates British Columbians who are inclusion leaders in their community.

Shane Simpson says public input is being invited to help form the strategy.

“We’ll be launching a website where people will be able to share their ideas on poverty and how we move forward on poverty. We also will very soon be initiating an in person engagement process in up to 20 communities across the province.”

Those sessions will be held from November through March.

The dates and locations have yet to be announced.

“I look forward to hearing from British Columbians across the province who believe this is an issue that we need to challenge. Who believe that we need to reduce inequality and that reducing poverty is a fundamental step in that.”

B.C. has the highest poverty rate in the country, with 678,000 British Columbians living in poverty according to the Market Basket Measure.

The Market Basket Measure recognizes that a minimum disposable income of $20,000 a year for singles and $40,000 a year for a family of four is necessary to provide a basic standard of living.

One hundred and 18 thousand of B.C.’s poor are children in low-income families and about 64,000 are seniors.

Approximately 40% of those living in poverty are low-income, working adults.

Join the conversation at: http://engage.gov.bc.ca/bcpovertyreduction/

by Tom Mark