Poverty is becoming our shame
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Updated: November 04, 2009 4:15 PM
Poverty in British Columbia is becoming a persistent black mark against our province.
For the past six years, under BC Liberal governance, British Columbia has ranked as the province with the highest child poverty rates in Canada.
Furthermore, in the City of Burnaby, 29.2 per cent of all children live in poverty.
This is heartbreaking and needs to be fixed immediately.
There are so many things that can be done, at all levels of government, and even by regular people reaching out and lending a hand.
Local governments can pitch in by raising awareness of the issues within the city, and re-zoning buildings to be used for social housing or emergency shelters for those who need help getting back on their feet.
For the provincial government, this is the time to start building social housing.
We’ve all been given an influx of cash from the federal stimulus package; use this money to construct low-cost housing for the most vulnerable in society.
The federal government needs to start putting together a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem in a systematic, uniform way that all the provinces can work with.
Canada is now the only industrialized nation without a national plan, and it shows in the statistics regarding poverty levels.
The three levels of government have to start working together to solve this problem, because it’s not going to solve itself.
For individuals who want to get involved, stick with non-profit organizations—there are charity groups in every city and town desperate for more volunteers.
Especially with winter approaching, any kind of donation to charitable organizations is welcome.
The only societies that have poverty are those that allow poverty to exist.
Together as citizens and as government organizations, we can work together and defeat poverty in our lifetimes.
Trevor Ritchie
Burnaby
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