Poverty has many faces in our community including children, injured workers, persons with disabilities, low-wage and precarious workers, undocumented persons, and members of equity-seeking groups. Poverty is a problem that impacts all of us and we must work together to eliminate it from our province.
The former BC Liberal government refused to develop a poverty reduction strategy, and BC fell behind other provinces. BC’s poverty rates remained high with one-in-five children living in poverty. We also saw the rise of income inequality – with the rich getting richer and a significant erosion in the economic power of the middle class. The former Liberal government’s failure to act has had a significantly negative impact on those living in poverty through unnecessary suffering. Poverty weakens the social fabric of our communities, results in lost productivity and causes a measurable financial loss to our economy.
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