At our October Coalition Meeting, First Call voted in favour to become a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food. The BC chapter is the first provincial chapter of the national Coalition for Healthy School Food, a group of 76 organizations seeking federal investment in a Universal Healthy School Food MORE
Rhys Kesselman, Professor Emeritus with Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy, is one of three researchers appointed to lead a B.C.-focused exploration of basic income. His recent article, published in the Financial Post, argued that a cost-neutral re-targeting of the Canada Child Benefit would permit an increase of $2,000 to MORE
Generation Squeeze released a petition calling for affordable homes for young Canadians. The petition notes that, “Canada’s housing market is out of control and people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are feeling the squeeze.” For this upcoming Federal Election, Generation Squeeze is encouraging you to add your signature to get federal MORE
Earlier this week, the Government of Canada provided an update on the implementation of Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. With Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy marking its first anniversary, Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, released the report entitled Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy – An Update. The update marks MORE
The Public Health Association of British Columbia will host its annual conference in November in downtown Vancouver. This year’s theme is “Simplifying Complexity: Public Health Approaches & Practice in Complex Systems,” and will explore sub-themes of food systems & security, immunization & infectious disease control, wicked problems in health equity, MORE
As was released in our past newsletter, the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services released their Budget 2020 Consultation Report and corresponding Media Release. We were pleased to see a number of recommendations included in the report. However, for the first time in many years, the report did not call for an increase to MORE
October 17th is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The Dignity for All Campaign for a Poverty Free Canada is organizing their annual Chew on This! Campaign. It is a non-partisan cross-country campaign to raise awareness about poverty in Canada by engaging with people on the street, in schools, MORE
Earlier this week, ACORN Canada held a series of events across Canada to launch their new report: Barriers to Digital Equality in Canada. The data was collected through a survey of around 500 low and moderate income household members across Canada. The report finds a digital divide between Canadians. Low-income respondents MORE
This new report co-authored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Assembly of First Nations, published by Upstream, uses Census data (2006 & 2016) and National Household Survey data (2011) to show that child poverty on First Nations reserves has remained almost unchanged for a decade, with the most recent MORE
In this year’s BC budget submission, First Call highlights five recommendations from our 2018 Child Poverty Report Card starting with important targeted poverty reduction measures for families living in deep poverty. Our Key Recommendations: 1. Increase income supports for families living in deep poverty 2. Invest in early childhood 3. Ensure MORE
This week the Nelson Committee on Homelessness released its 11th Annual Report Card on Homelessness. The report found that vacancy rates from purpose-built rent-controlled units in buildings of more than 3 units remain at effectively 0% for the fifth year in a row. The report ends with recommendations including: the development of MORE
Penticton Western News: City of Penticton supports $10aDay Child Care program CTV News: B.C. ‘struggling’ to meet needs of vulnerable youth in contracted care: auditor APTN National News: Language and child welfare bills pass as MPs head home for the summer APTN National News: B.C. CFS moves in to seize 90-minute-old baby on report MORE
This research report, Straddling the Gap, “illustrates the state of housing affordability for younger Canadians, in every province and the major cities within them. It shows that Canadians between the ages of 25 and 34 continue to straddle a massive gap between housing prices that remain at near-historic levels in key MORE
Looking for easily-accessible facts specific to your region to present and share with your communities? We have pulled data from our 2018 Child Poverty Report Card to create Regional Factsheets that are shareable in .pdf and .ppt files and can be downloaded below. Factsheets are available by region and federal riding. A MORE
This Commission is now seeking input on closing the gap between living wages and the minimum wage in B.C. Let them know you support recommendations for the provincial government to: continue to raise the minimum wage with regular, predictable increases until it reaches the living wage rate, and then index MORE