“British Columbians have scored a fiscal hat trick. For the third year in a row, British Columbians will have a balanced budget.”
— Finance Minister Mike de Jong, B.C. budget 2015
If some British Columbians have scored a fiscal hat trick, other British Columbians feel once again that they have been financially shut out.
As expressed by the speech from the throne and this latest provincial budget, there is a stunning absence of a social vision and plan by the Clark government. Any inquiries into the state of the families-first agenda are met with quiet smirks or embarrassed looks.
For income-assistance programs, the province’s social safety net, no new funding is planned for 2015-16. There is $20 million in additional funding for income assistance for 2016-17, due to caseload increases, and no new funding for 2017-18.
For high-income earners, there is to be a scheduled tax cut, as their special sacrifice to aid in balancing the budget is no longer necessary, their extraordinary burden of the tax bracket at $150,000 to be relieved as promised. This represents $227 million of forgone revenue.
For 2014-15, the budget year just ending, the budget surplus will be $879 million. Budget surpluses for the next three fiscal years are conservatively forecast to total more than $1 billion. If under these favourable and promising financial circumstances the Clark government does not improve financial assistance to the most vulnerable living in our province, then when will they ever do so?
The Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services recommended in its pre-budget consultation report that the government introduce a comprehensive poverty-reduction plan, review income-assistance rates, examine the persons-with-disability rate and consider increases to reflect higher costs of living. The 2015 budget is silent on all of these recommendations. If the Clark government does not respond in any way to such consensus recommendations from MLAs, then when will they ever take action on these important social policies?
On housing, the target for the number of households to benefit from provincial affordable housing programs is to go from 102,000 in 2014-15 to 103,000 in 2015-16 and then to 104,000 in the next two years. These programs include shelters and housing with supports for those who are homeless; housing that meets the cultural needs of aboriginal peoples; transition housing and supports for women and children fleeing violence; and assisted-living and wheelchair-accessible apartments for seniors and people with disabilities. This is a modest increase, especially against the backdrop of a growing population and continuing affordability challenges in the province.
As anticipated, the budget announced that the province will no longer deduct child-support payments from income-assistance and disability-assistance calculations. These support payments will be fully exempted from income assistance effective this September. This move is an important step in Canadian welfare policy, a modest financial move that will cost $6 million in 2015-16 and $9 million the next year. However, the change is offset somewhat by cutting $4 million from administering the Family Maintenance Program. Community groups worry that this cut will make it difficult for custodial parents, single mothers for the most part, to get the money they are owed from a maintenance agreement or court order.
Exempting child-support payments is said to benefit about 3,200 families currently receiving income assistance and disability assistance. This represents just 2.3 per cent of the annual average caseload for income and disability assistance in B.C. The other 97.7 per cent, about 132,000 families and individuals in need, are shut out from any additional income provision. The last enhancement to basic benefit amounts was in 2007.
It is overdue that all families and individuals in need of assistance deserve a more secure tomorrow. But when is that secure tomorrow to come? How many more tomorrows, how many more budget speeches must there be?
One can imagine and certainly wish that as the next election gets closer, the 2016 and 2017 budgets will present a more caring and progressive set of strategic investments in human and social development. Until then, we will hear the roar of celebrating a hat trick of balanced budgets in an unbalanced society.
Michael J. Prince is the Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy at the University of Victoria.
