To the editor:
Your staff writer, Mike Howell, has written a much needed exposé on our province government's inadequate distribution of the $1.5 billion yearly welfare budget here in B.C. His article is well written but the statistics from the Ministry of Social Development as stated in his article do not add up. i.e. A 10 per cent increase to the $610 monthly rate for 24,723 recipients equals $1.5 million extra cost per month ($18 million per year) and not the $24 million a month stated. If the $610 rate was doubled to $1,220 per month, the cost would be a total of $362 million per year. This temporary cash outlay would be reduced as people found suitable employment.
We all know there are administration costs, so what is this cost of the estimated $1.5 billion budget? There are people on welfare who shouldn't be and there is a large group who are under-supported by our current system. Perhaps as many as one quarter need supportive care in a facility designed to provide this type of care to people who shouldn't be left to their own devices, on the streets of our cities and towns.
Stephanie Cadieux, the minister responsible for our B.C. welfare system since September 2011, stated that the $610 category is a temporary assistance while a person searches for work. Just what type of work could you expect a person to get if they are not clean and presentable? They wouldn't get a job in the food or retail industry or with any company that deals with the public. I operated a waterproofing company and could not send an unwashed person into a client's home to make repairs. So just what type of work are these people supposed to seek? Do you have room for them in your office or home Ms. Cadieux? It would make more sense to the taxpayer to increase the monthly temporary rate and support the ability of the welfare recipients to find work and therefore reduce the welfare numbers.
In my view, a larger number of welfare recipients scam the system by working underground than are honest and report their extra earnings. To believe otherwise would require wearing rose-coloured glasses.
Ken Chamberlin, Vancouver
