Cuts to Income = Increased Poverty

It is estimated that ¼ of all BC women and almost ½ of BC's single mothers earn less than the low-income cut-off ratio. With this in mind, the changes to welfare as of April 1, 2002 will and have had a tremendous effect on women.

• Single moms on welfare with children over the age of 3 are now required to search for paid work, enroll in a training program or return to work.

• Coupled with the cuts to universal childcare, this puts women in a double bind of finding work without access to affordable childcare.

• The support portion of welfare for single mothers with a child 3 years of age or older has been reduced by $51.00. This support remains the same even if you have more than one child.

• Cuts to the childcare subsidy for low-income parents will put childcare out of reach for thousands of BC families. The subsidy cuts amount to $26 million on a $126 million budget. This is being accomplished by lowering the income threshold for the program by $285, so that fewer women qualify.

• Eliminated the Family Maintenance exemption, which allows those receiving child support payments to keep $100 per month.

• Eliminated the Earnings exemption, which allowed single welfare recipients to keep earned income of $100 or those with a child or partner $200 per month.

• Welfare eligibility is tougher; families can only possess a maximum of $2,500 in assets, which is half the previous rate of $5,000.

• Crisis grants now have monthly and annual caps. Individuals are limited to $20 per month for food and $100 per year for clothing. Families are limited to $400 per year for clothing and only one month’s shelter allowance per year. These caps defeat their purpose, which is to provide help to people who are suffering from unforeseen crisis situations.

• Security deposits must be paid back at a rate of $20 per month.

• Changes to disability benefits have tightened the criteria required for disability status. There is no longer a permanent disability classification, so women are subject to reviews as the state sees fit.

• Applicants for BC employment and assistance must wait three weeks after making an appointment for an intake interview date in which they are expected to do a 'self-directed' job search and attend an orientation session.  This is problematic as many women use assistance as a last resort and are unable to wait without experiencing severe hardship.

• All 'employable' welfare recipients will be required to seek work or participate in employment programs regardless of age.

• Seniors aged 55-64 will no longer receive additional payments based on their age.

• BC Seniors Supplement to be phased out (approximately $49 per month)

• Reduced training wage to $6.00 per hour, which will affect women who make up 64% of minimum wage earners.

• 0.5% increase in sales tax

• Reduction in provincial government’s contribution to the BC Family Bonus

• Over 83% of health care jobs lost were women’s and 1/3 of all jobs lost were by immigrant people or people of colour.

• Ripped up of contracts freely negotiated by nearly 160,000 workers in BC, thereby clawing back employment security provisions, eliminating or reducing severance, ending successorship, eliminating wage parity, and attacking health benefits that enables the government to give the work to low-wage, non-union contractors.

Cuts to Health = Increased Risks

• Health Care spending frozen – government won’t cover increased health care costs due to inflation, population growth, escalating drug costs, and obligations under collective agreements. This creates a huge funding crisis for Medicare, resulting in massive cuts in services to patients, ward closures, and facility shutdowns.

• Medical deductible being raised.  This means more medications are de-listed, leaving many women unable to purchase needed medication.

• MSP Premiums have increased from $36 per month to $54 for singles and $72 per month to $108 for families.

• Increase of $10 or $25 per prescription depending on income – everyone will pay more for their drugs, but seniors will be hurt the most.

• 7,000 mammograms cut per year, due to cuts to the BC Women and Children’s hospital.

• Diabetics charged approximately $1.00 per strip (most use 2 to 4 per day)

• As of March 31, 2002, the Minister's Advisory Council of Women's Health (MAC) was eliminated. The loss of MAC means that there is nobody to speak on behalf of the specific and unique needs of women with mental health issues.

• The Ministry of Health Services, Adult Mental Health division staff has been reduced by 70%. This act eliminates much of the staff that had been providing links between mental health and women’s organizations. It could lead to the loss of service for women with mental health issues.

• The provincial Mental Health Advocate has been eliminated and the Minister of State for Mental Health has not adopted this role.

• Home support/care for the frail, elderly and disabled facing a 30% cut in 2002. Proposed that all funding be eliminated in the next three years. With the withdrawal of home support, the added burden will be placed on informal caregivers (often female spouses and daughters).

• De-listed MSP services: routine eye examinations, naturopathy, non-surgical podiatry, massage, physiotherapy, and chiropractic therapy

• Proposal to privatize ambulances and emergency rooms in hospitals, and to close some hospitals while privatizing others. Privatization means worse service and less care.

• The Audio Book program for the visually impaired was cut in January as part of the government’s civil service cuts. Months later, it is now being taken up by InterLINK, a non-profit organization that will receive a one time grant of $200,000 for the program. The production of titles each year will decrease from 200 titles per year to 50 with this new budget.

• $360 million cut over three years to fund the Ministry of Children and Families. This has meant that childcare subsidies, social workers, preventative programs for mothers-at-risk, etc. have been cut. These cuts may result in more child apprehensions.

Cuts to Housing = Homelessness

• Landlord and Tenant Offices in Vancouver and Nanaimo – closed.

• Residential Tenancy Act is under review and proposed changes may eliminate Rent Review and require one month’s rent as a damage deposit.

• Only those people with disabilities receiving “continuous” assistance will be eligible to apply for seniors housing through BC Housing.

• 5,000 new Long Term Care beds are needed now and some Residential Care facilities will be closed in the future.

• Social housing projects frozen.

Elimination of Justice = Violation of Human Rights

• The government is currently attempting to introduce legislation that will eliminate the BC Human Rights Commission. If created, this legislation will largely affect women, who in the past year brought forth 28% of new complaints regarding discrimination based on sex.

• Closure of Court Houses throughout the province. Courthouses in 24 communities have been closed, reducing BC’s access to justice.

• Elimination of public legal education grants to community groups that help community based organizations make information on legal matters more accessible to the public.

• Elimination of the Crown Victim Services Program, which helped women and children who have been abused to access counseling and other resources.
  
  
• The Ombudsman Office, which is a neutral government office designed to act on behalf of individuals who have been unfairly treated by the government in some way, has been cut by 35%.

• Cuts to Legal Aid of 38% over 3 years means downsizing and eliminating much needed services. These cuts will reduce access to justice for the poorest members of our society: immigrants, refugees and single mothers.

• Due to cuts to legal aid and the Human Rights Commission, there will no longer be free legal representation for people lodging complaints at a hearing under the BC Human Rights Code.

• Due to legal aid cuts, 60 legal aid offices have closed. All family law cases where violence is not involved no longer qualify, as well as all poverty law cases.

• As of June 21, 2002, community-based victim assistance programs and women’s sexual assault centres had their funding cut more than one million dollars. These cuts will eliminate and put up barriers to accessing services such as emergency counseling, medical/legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and relationship violence.

• In May, Attorney General Geoff Plant announced that some cases of violence against women could be diverted rather than prosecuted in our criminal justice system. Diversion programs could impact women by creating less paperwork to document abuse, which in turn makes it difficult to get restraining orders, legal aid, etc. Alternative measures also may not be adequate to protect women from future incidents of abuse.

• Attorney General Geoff Plant told Crown Prosecutors at a recent meeting in Harrison to: “be more tolerant of domestic violence”. BC has the highest rate of violence against women in Canada (Stats Canada). This is an intolerable status quo that must be treated with utmost concern and seriousness. To “be more tolerant” sends a message to the public that our justice system does not take spousal assault seriously.

• Rape crisis counselling has been severely cut and many auxiliary victim services workers who help rape and domestic violence victims have been laid off.

• A referendum held on Aboriginal Treaty Rights could violate the Canadian Constitution if implemented.

• Debtors’ Assistance Program eliminated. This program helped 70,000 BC families deal with debt problems each year.

• Poverty law budget slashed. The Campbell government is virtually eliminating the funding for the area of law that helps BC’s poorest citizens resolve landlord tenant disputes, disputes with BC Benefits, the WCB, and Employment Insurance. BC's poorest citizens are women and therefore these cuts will affect them the most.

• Assumption that women’s unpaid work will pick up the cuts in service.

Elimination of Right to Education and Training

• Tuition deregulation – ended the tuition freeze and increased tuition by 22% to 300%.

• Students are no longer able to receive welfare and student assistance.

• Training programs and welfare-to-work initiatives have been eliminated – including: Work Study Programs, Skills for Employment, and Job Start.

• First year grants for students in post secondary education eliminated, meaning an offloading of $40 million dollars to students.

• Employment Service Centres CLOSED – office closures in Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, and Surrey.

• Employment bridging programs to be cut 2003/2004. These programs help women who are facing multiple barriers to employment, such as past abuse, relationship violence, and low self-esteem.

• Freezing funding to public education means the government won’t cover increased education costs due to inflation, population growth, and obligations under collective agreements. This creates a huge funding crisis for public education, resulting in massive cuts in services and facility shutdowns.  Currently, 52 schools are threatened with closure around the province.

• Complete overhaul of the Employment Standards Act.  Employers are no longer required to post employee rights or scheduled hours in the workplace. Minimum daily hours have been reduced from four hours to two and standards of enforcement have been lowered.

• Employers can now set up 'averaging agreements' with employees, which allows employers to side step overtime, the forty-hour workweek, and the eight-hour day.

• Women are now required to take their maternity leave in consecutive weeks. For example, if a woman had complications in the first or second trimester of her pregnancy and needed to take a portion earlier than she had planned, these rules would not allow her take that leave.

• Women are now only entitled to stat. holiday pay if they have worked 15 of the last 30 days or have signed an 'averaging agreement'.  Considering that full time workers only work 20 days in a 30-day month, the threshold is relatively high.

Compiled by the BC Coalition of Women's Centres and other social justice groups in BC. Designed by Benita Bunjun .  Revised by the North Shore Women’s Centre .

*The information provided is as accurate as possible to July 2002 and is meant to serve as an introduction to the impact of provincial cuts on women, not a comprehensive analysis.