New Westminster objects to funding cuts targeting some of British Columbia’s most vulnerable citizens.
Council has approved a motion by Coun. Nadine Nakagawa to write to the provincial government, including New Westminster’s two MLAs, advocating that the government reinstate the $300 monthly top-up for people receiving disability assistance.
“The BC government just announced that they would be reducing the top-up for people on disability and income assistance to $150 for the period of January to March,” Nakagawa said. “The income assistance rate and the disability rates are so far below the poverty line; it is quite scandalous that we are condemning people to very deep poverty. The government just announced other benefits, and I think we really need to be prioritizing the people who are in the deepest poverty in B.C., and that is people on disability and income assistance. So I really want to advocate to the new provincial government that they make this a dignified rate.”
Since April, the province has been making a $300 supplement available to people who weren’t eligible for emergency funding support from the federal government and didn’t already receive income or disability assistance. That supplement, launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be reduced to $150 in January, February and March and eliminated in April.
The NDP government has come under fire in the B.C. legislature about the cuts. The premier has indicated the government is working on an increase for low-income British Columbians and disabled individuals.
The motion approved by New Westminster city council also calls on the province to permanently raise the rates of income assistance and disability assistance to a livable rate that is above the market-basket measure.
Statistics Canada states the market-basket measurement (MBM) is a measure of low income based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services representing a modest, basic standard of living. That includes the costs of food, clothing, footwear, transportation, shelter and other expenses, and also considers costs in different geographic areas.
