Advocate Adrienne Montani says that some good work was done assisting families with crisis situations, but there is no evidence that they are no longer living in poverty
In April 2012 the government of British Columbia announced that seven communities across the province would participate in a pilot project using poverty-reduction strategies targeting the unique needs of local families struggling to get out of poverty. Prince George, Cranbrook, Port Hardy, Surrey, New Westminster, Stewart and Kamloops were selected for the project, as they reflect a mix of metro, urban, rural and remote communities.
The project would focus on the underlying factors that lead to family poverty, recognizing distinctive needs and local resources. The Province would appoint a provincial steering committee, including representatives from provincial cabinet, the UBCM, the voluntary sector and the business community to guide the project. And twenty additional communities would be added to the project in successive years.
Two years later, in May 2014, the B.C. government and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities released the Community Poverty Reduction Pilot Projects 2014 Progress Report [opens to PDF]. The news release says that families who participated directly in the pilot projects described the work as “priceless” and that their quality of life improved, barriers were lifted and stress levels declined. One parent said their family consultant “has taken a difficult situation and has proceeded to make it an easy one.” But was poverty reduced?
No results: Promises of two-year pilot program are largely unfulfilled
Adrienne Montani is provincial co-ordinator of First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition and a member of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition. She writes in a June 15, 2014 Vancouver Sun op-ed column that the promises of British Columbia’s Community Poverty Reduction Pilot Projects have largely been unfulfilled:
The projects clearly struggled with meeting the services needs of the 72 families they worked with, especially solving their big issues—housing, child care, more income. Some good work was done assisting them with crisis situations, e.g. evictions, or finding free food, but there is no evidence that they are no longer living in poverty. (Vancouver Sun)
Montani points out that the micro-focused initiative “supports two myths: that the real cause of poverty is poor families’ failure to find the services they need; and that existing services are sufficient, if everyone just works better together at the community level.” And the commitment to expand to more communities is gone.
B.C. poverty background
The B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition says that BC has the highest poverty rate in Canada and no plan to tackle it directly. All but 2 provinces in Canada either have poverty reduction plans or are in the process of adopting them, and many are already seeing success. Adrienne Montani observes that “British Columbians of many stripes have been calling on the provincial government for many years to develop a more strategic approach to the problem of our consistently high child and family poverty rates, which have been higher than the national average since 1999.”
The “community poverty reduction strategies” seemed promising at the time but it seems increasingly likely that progess to reduce poverty in the province has not only been stalled—the projects that were supposed to lead families out of poverty don’t seem to have lived up to their billing.
We speak with Adrienne Montani.
video
Adrienne Montani discusses the epidemiology of child poverty in the plentiful province of B.C. and the actions that are needed to combat this scourge. (David Berner TV, January 16, 2012)
