BC Budget 2024: a step towards affordability when we need a leap into systemic change
The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition welcomes investments made in Budget 2024, but poverty eradication is clearly not a priority in this budget.
The BCPRC hopes to see continued, expanded, and transformative funding to reduce and eliminate poverty in BC.
February 2024 - Victoria BC, from unceded Territories of the Lekwungen People, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations communities.
BC Budget 2024 has made commendable efforts in affordability for the middle class, housing, and healthcare investment but falls short of the targeted poverty reduction measures. However, it is clear that poverty eradication is not a top priority for this government. The gap is widening between the economic policies we have in BC and those needed to improve the lives of people experiencing poverty. The word “poverty” appears only five times in the entire BC Budget 2024 document. Further, the lack of gender-based analysis or targeted measures for equity-deserving groups, including people with disabilities, is disappointing.
The BCPRC recognizes the impact of the various affordability measures through tax credits, such as the one-year 25% increase to the BC Family Benefit Bonus, the BC Electricity Affordability Credit, the BC Renter’s Tax Credit, and the Climate Action Tax Credit increase. The $40 million in heat pump rebates for low- and middle-income families is also welcome. Short-term, often one-time cash infusions are a welcome relief in the face of runaway cost of living.
One-off payments cannot replace systemic solutions to broad economic challenges faced by people experiencing poverty.
We commend the government for its spending on housing. Housing highlights include the $198 million increase in BC Builds investments for more affordable rental housing and introducing the Housing Flipping Tax. Both of these measures work towards easing the impacts of the housing crisis. This budget also makes important strides towards clean and reliable energy for homeowners but leaves renters and people in precarious housing out in the cold.
The investments into critical infrastructure such as healthcare, supporting seniors to live in their homes, the $405 million more into climate emergency preparedness and response measures, and other key areas, are necessary. This is not an austerity budget, and the government is committed to making critical investments to improve people's lives in BC.
There is a glaring lack of investment in poverty-related measures in this budget.
Disappointingly, Budget 2024 does not increase the social assistance rates. This lack of action will keep thousands of people in legislated deep poverty. At the current rates, families are forced to choose between essentials like food, medication, rent, and utilities. We affirm that disability and social assistance rates need to be increased to the poverty line at minimum, and the rates should be indexed for inflation. Further, transition housing and shelter beds are underfunded for the demonstrated need, as are food security and justice measures to keep people in BC fed well.
A highlight of Budget 2024 includes the significant investment of $398 million into justice and family safety. This includes the expansion of legal aid that will enable more families, people escaping intimate violence, and lone parents to access pathways to justice. We congratulate Legal Aid BC, West Coast Leaf, and the Centre for Family Equity for the tireless, collaborative advocacy work that made this possible in Budget 2024. This news is life-changing for many!
Although we see a government interested in investing in families, key areas remain underfunded, such as the $ 10-a-day childcare program. This program significantly improves low-income families' access to child care while increasing their quality of life and ability to participate in the economy. We also notice a gap in public transit investments. Our vision for expanding fare-free transit to youth aged 13-18 and people on income and disability assistance would advance mobility justice for thousands. We will continue to advance these investment points at the provincial level.
Further, given the extraordinary rate of toxic drug deaths in BC, exponentially greater interventions and investments into a regulated, safe supply, additional harm reduction measures, voluntary treatment, and overdose prevention sites are necessary beyond what is promised in this budget. BC residents are dying at a rate of nearly seven people per day from the toxic drug supply, and the continual lack of investment into interventions supported by people who use drugs or solutions put forward to meet this ongoing crisis is shocking.
Overall, we congratulate the BC government on Budget 2024. With the cost of living increasing substantially and hitting families hard, now is the time to run a deficit budget instead of cutting services. The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition hopes to see continued, expanded, and transformative funding to reduce and eliminate poverty in BC.
We hope to see more intersectional, systemic, and structural funding to create the condition for greater economic justice needed for prosperous, healthy, and happy communities and families in BC. People in British Columbia deserve nothing less.
