Inequality and poverty

On February 17 the BC government will table the province's first recession budget in a generation. The big question for the budget is no longer whether a deficit is in order, but how large that deficit should be, and what a meaningful stimulus package looks like.With grim economic numbers piling up, the danger is in the government doing too little.

(Vancouver) Next week’s provincial budget should assume BC will be in a recession in 2009 and perhaps longer – and include an aggressive stimulus plan capable of reducing the length and severity of the downturn. That’s the central recommendation in BC Budget Reality Check 2009: Planning for a Recession, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

On February 5, the CCPA's BC Office joined with 200 other organizations from across the province as signatories to an open letter calling for a legislated poverty reduction plan. Together these groups launched a website where individual British Columbians can add their voices to the call, www.bcpovertyreduction.ca. --