The CCPA is a founding member of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition (PRC), which for over four years now has been advancing the call for a comprehensive BC poverty reduction plan. Its Open Letter calling on the B.C. government to adopt a legislated plan has been signed by hundreds of organizations.

The PRC has now published its analysis of where the parties have landed. You can find a summary table here.

And below is an opinion piece on the subject co-authored by PRC organizer Trish Garner, Ted Bruce and myself.

A Poverty Reduction Plan for B.C.: Government spending saves money in the long-term

These are certainly interesting times. For all the faults in last week's B.C. Budget (and there were many), it's worth noting that the conversation about taxes has fundamentally shifted, and in a welcome direction.

After vigorously insisting for years that tax increases would be ruinous to the economy, in a significant about-face, the B.C. government did just that -- increasing corporate taxes by one percentage point (from 10 per cent to 11 per cent) and instituting a new 6th income tax bracket at $150,000 of income (income above this threshold is to be taxed at 16.8 per cent rather than 14.7 per cent, albeit only for two years).

In her report on B.C.'s 2013 budget CCPA-BC economist Iglika Ivanova concluded that the province's financial statement focused on balancing the budget at the expense of British Columbians' present and future wellbeing. The following are a few examples of this.

Last Tuesday's budget continues a 12-year record of systematically undermining the province's social infrastructure.

-  Block funding for school districts was frozen for the next three years despite the fact that enrolment has started to rise again. Inflation and other costs imposed on school boards will mean a hit this year of $134 million in school funding cuts.