To the editor:
Re: “Little progress in reducing child poverty,” Nov. 26.
I am skeptical that in British Columbia one in five children are in poverty. I find the matter of a young boy arriving at school in flip flops because he had no other shoes to be beyond belief. It is to me an indication, not of the perceived inadequacies of the government’s child support programs as the article seems to suggest, but rather of the incredible irresponsibility of the boy’s mother.
There are, within a short distance of me, two clothing drop boxes that are regularly filled with donated items. There are any number of charities in this city that would have been willing to provide shoes for the child had they been asked to do so.
Similar comments apply to the remarks about the lack of any food. There are food banks for families that find themselves with no food on hand.
The article noted that the mother is to give birth to yet another child. You might ask what a mother who finds herself in poverty is doing having yet another child if she cannot provide for the children she already has? Where is the father? Where is the sense of personal responsibility?
Personal responsibility seems to be lacking and yet the B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition wants already overburdened taxpayers to underwrite ever more government programs such as affordable childcare, more income assistance and an increase in the minimum wage.
Decent, hard working middle class people in this province are struggling under an oppressive tax burden and are being bled white with personal income taxes, the GST, the PST, property taxes, gasoline taxes, customs and excise duties and fees and licence charges of all kinds.
The provincial government is struggling to balance its budget. Yet the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who would have every individual they perceive of as affluent taxed to death, acknowledges that efforts to end poverty would cost the province $3 to $4 billion per year.
Individuals such as myself are supposed to underwrite this monumental bill.
No thanks.
The centre suggests that the cost of doing nothing about child poverty at between $8 billion to $9.2 billion annually. It would be interesting to know just how the centre arrived at this figure.
Finally there is reason to believe, as per what some observers have noted about Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, that those involved in social services really do not want to see an end to poverty. These individuals are in all too many instances comfortably ensconced in secure, well-paying positions with excellent salaries and benefits. Some observers have termed such people as poverty pimps.
Someone having a child should, except in exceptional circumstances, be responsible for the care and upbringing of that child, not the overburdened taxpayer.
There is far too much of the sort of nonsense that was given a platform in your article in the press. One can only hope, that in the future, the Courier will present more balanced reporting on matters such as child poverty.
Jon Wood,
Vancouver
