The Strathcona Regional District is considering what could be an extremely innovative and societal changing plan. As CAO David Letich informed the Board, at their Wednesday June 26 meeting, the draft Poverty Reduction Plan is already more than 100 pages long. It was his intention to have the plam introduced through a presentation and then, hopefully, they will forward it to the Committee of the Whole for further discussion. 

Madison Stewart, the District’s Community Health Network  Coordinator, made the presentation:

“A large group of folks worked on this plan, so I’m happy to be here to present it to you.” 

“In April 2023, the Strathcona Regional District was successful in receiving $147,000 from the UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities) Poverty Reduction Planning and Action Program, which aims to support local governments in reducing poverty at the local level and to support the province’s poverty reduction strategy, known as Together BC.” 

“The plan is meant to build on and align with similar foundational reports such as the Housing Needs Report and be utilized for the following government functions.  One being providing a strategic framework to focus and align poverty reduction efforts, lending to policy and program development, leveraging funding and resources to secure provincial, federal, and private funding, facilitating collaboration to foster a sense of shared responsibility.” 

“To monitor and evaluate, measuring success, ensuring accountability, and informing data driven adjustments,  raising awareness, and serving as an advocacy tool to educate the public and policy makers.  And to build on and leverage existing efforts, creating a more robust strategy.” 

“So what is poverty? Together BC defines poverty as lacking the necessary resources, both material and non material to live a full and dignified life.”

“Poverty reduction refers to decreasing both the number of people who live in poverty and the depth of poverty they experience. In addition to reducing the impacts of poverty on individuals, equity seeking groups, and communities. Reducing poverty is crucial not only for improving individual lives, but also for enhancing societal well being and economic stability across communities and throughout our region.”

“The plan’s been developed using both primary and secondary sources. Primary source findings were derived from a series of engagement sessions, focus groups, interviews and survey responses across the region between February 26th And April 15th, 2024 and secondary source data for this study included past internal reports such as the housing needs assessment as well as local, provincial and federal data sets.  Throughout the study, a community team of over 100 participants throughout the region were consulted with to give feedback to ensure that qualitative findings were accurate and relevant.”   

Recommendation One: Housing

Recommendation one refers to housing, so engagement findings across region indicated that housing is perhaps the most critical issue, where affordable, suitable and stable housing remains insufficient. The plan outlines the challenges according to community feedback and provides tangible, innovative solutions.  Recommendation one is to prioritize housing need and not demand and actions attributed to this recommendation are as follows.

• 1.1 –  Develop a regional, affordable housing strategy. 
• 1.2 –  Ensure the SRD housing service addresses a broad range of housing needs.  
• 1.3 – create programming to assist homeowners struggling to maintain their homes. 
• 1.4 – advocate for increased provincial and federal funding for non market and supportive housing. 
• 1.5 – partner with developers and industries that utilize seasonal workers to explore temporary housing solutions. 
• 1.6 – develop a rental registry to connect renters with legitimate housing opportunities preventing real estate scams. 
• 1.7 – explore opportunities to help renters transition to home ownership. 
• 1.8 – expand the SRD building service to ensure homes are built to the BC building code and meet eligibility requirements to some provincial and federal housing programs. 

Recommendation Two: Advocate for a Universal Basic Income

The overall engagement findings show a strong desire to address the need for reforming income support to reflect local living conditions and address affordability crisis more effectively. Recommendation two is to advocate for a universal basic income and the actions attributed to this recommendation are as follows.

• 2.1 –  is to collaborate with nonprofits and advocacy groups to amplify universal basic income efforts.  
• 2.2 – is to advocate government to government for universal basic income. 2.3 – is to implement a public awareness campaign to educate and gather support for universal basic income. And 
• 2.4 – advocate for increasing the amount of extra income that people receiving income support can earn. 

Recommendation Three: Transportation

Transportation also emerged as a critical barrier during engagement in all communities except Campbell River. A lack of transportation services regionally compounds challenges in accessing economic opportunities and social or health services.  Recommendation three is to ensure that safe and affordable transportation is available to all who need it and the actions are as follows: 

• 3.1 – gather insight from rural transportation models and assess their suitability. 
• 3.2 – develop transportation pilot programs tailored to community needs.
• 3.3 –  assess the feasibility of a bike sharing program.  
• 3.4 – advocate for improved telecommunications along travel routes for safety. 
• 3.5 – develop, expand, and enhance active transportation routes to support non motorized travel.  
• 3.6 – advocate for the Motor Vehicle Act to prioritize the multimodal movement of people and freight rather than vehicle efficiency. 

Recommendation Four: Racism

Recommendation four is to end the racism, discrimination and stigma associated with poverty  and actions are: 

• 4.1 – Develop community education campaigns in partnership with community groups to challenge stigma and build empathy.  
• 4.2 – publicly celebrate and recognize Indigenous People’s Day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,Red Dress Day and Louis Real Day 
• 4.3 – Engage an external organization to review the SRD administration’s programming for cultural safety and alignment with Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action.  
• 4.4 – Embed anti racism and cultural awareness in all SRD administration initiatives. 
• 4.5 – Develop a framework in alignment with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and UNDRIP. 

Recommendation Five: Families, Children and Youth

Addressing the needs of families, children, and youth is essential for effective poverty reduction for families, especially those with young children or single parent living situations. Poverty presents multifaceted challenges ranging from securing affordable child care to finding appropriate housing. For Children, the years from 0 to 5 are not only formative, but also determinant of long term health, education, and economic prospects. Recommendation 5 is to expand affordable child care and resources for youth and the actions attributed to this recommendation are as follows: 

• 5.1 – advocate for the $10 a day child care program. 
• 5.2 – promote early childhood education pathways for youth and adult learners.  
• (5.3 was omitted) 
• 5.4 – develop communications which amplify awareness campaigns, linking families to child care subsidies and resources. 
• 5.5 – develop, expand, and enhance safe, affordable social opportunities for youth. And 
• 5.6 – develop a regional child care strategy, while exploring partnerships with municipalities, First Nations, and non profits. 

Recommendation Six: Social Support Services

The region faces several challenges in providing adequate social support services. The greatest challenges are those relating to access to healthcare, food security, and aging.  Recommendation six is to enhance the integration and coordination of social support services and the actions attributed to this recommendation are as follows.

• 6.1 – establish a strategy to implement and monitor actions from the poverty reduction plan. 
• 6.2 – advocate for improved access to mobile, social and health services or transportation to services. 
• 6.3 – explore partnership opportunities to support residents trying to navigate the social support services that are available currently. 
• 6.4 – advocate for sustainable funding and resource support for NGOs. 

Recommendation Seven: Employment

Average employment rates throughout the regional communities are lower than the provincial average. Seasonal and part time employment, which is prevalent in the region, contributes to household financial instability.  Recommendation 7 is to explore pathways for introducing a living wage and developing regional economic and employment opportunities and the actions are: 

• 7.1 – evaluate local conditions, determining a living wage regionally and subregionally.  
• 7.2 – partner with businesses to create casual, creative, and non traditional work opportunities for those with  flexible work needs. 
• 7.3 – create and implement economic development plans to identify opportunities and partnerships which support long term employment growth and stability and including employment pathways for critical sectors such as healthcare. 
• 7. 4 collaborate with employers and labor unions to promote and implement a living wage initiative. 

Recommendation Eight: Education

Recommendation 8 is to explore approaches in advancing educational opportunities.  

• 8.1 – is to explore increasing subsidies for boarding youth in education and promote stable housing and regular home visits.
• 8.2 – explore partnerships with school districts and North Island College to identify opportunities for the housing service to support student housing 
• 8.3 – collaborate to support educational opportunities and literacy initiatives regionwide.

There were some edits, but the passages above are close to a word for word transcription of Ms Stewart’s presentation.

Few of the SRD Directors commented at that time.

Regional Director Mark Vonesch, of Cortes Island, responded, “It’s  a large report with a lot of recommendations and when I look at them, I’m like, ‘oh yeah, that sounds, that sounds good, that sounds good,’ and then your’re like, ‘how much is all this going to cost?’”

“I think the challenge for us is like, ‘how do we address this very real issue in our communities? What’s possible? What are the things we’re already doing? What are the  lower hanging fruit, and what can we make investments into?’ So, I think having a larger discussion around this would be important, and be more fruitful, than trying to do things today.” 

Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott added, “I just have one thing that would be very helpful if we’re going to refer this over the committee of the whole and perhaps an addendum. There was a reference that we had to have measurable outcomes and  I didn’t really see them. I don’t want to have 500 outcomes. I think we should be very tight in terms of what we’re measuring.”

Moments later she asked, “Is this something we can change?”

Madison Stewart replied, “The action plan is something that I would expect would be refined regularly, so certainly.”  

Regional Director Gerald Whalley moved that the matter be referred to the Committee of the Whole for further discussion. 

This motion carried, with three opposing votes. 

Links of Interest

• Draft Poverty Reduction Plan – SRD (June 2024)
• TogetherBC – Gov of BC
• SRD Community Health Network website
• Would Universal Basic Income work in the SRD? – Cortes Currents
• Coming to Cortes & Quadra:  SRD Poverty Reduction Plan – Cortes Currents

Top image credit: Sad Toast – Photo by Kenneth Lu via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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