The federal government announced ambitious poverty reduction targets on Tuesday morning, and Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Dan Ruimy was part of the committee that worked on this initiative.
Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, announced the country’s first poverty reduction strategy that will reduce poverty by 50 per cent by the year 2030, living 2.1 million Canadians above the poverty line, including more than 500,000 children.
Ruimy was on hand at 3H Craftworks in Vancouver for the announcement, which included a poverty reduction target of 20 percent, 850,000 people, by 2020.
Ruimy is on the parliamentary committee, HUMA, that did worked on poverty reduction plans. They were in Maple Ridge in February 2017, and toured the temporary homeless shelter at 22239 Lougheed Hwy., and heard from local people about their experiences in poverty, at a hearing at the Arts Centre Theatre. The work resulted in the announcement on Tuesday morning.
“They are both ambitious and realistic,” Ruimy said of the targets.
Critics have said the announcement includes no new spending, but Ruimy said the government has already implemented policies that will make a difference, such a national housing strategy that will offer $40 billion over 10 years.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but housing is important – figure that out, and it can change everything.”
He said the government has also introduced the Canada Child Benefit for children under 18. In his riding, it is a tax-free payment of approximately $300 per child every month. It is a maximum payment of $6,500 per year for children under six, and $5,500 for those six to 17.
In Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows this amounts to an injection of $5.4 million per month for 10,400 families and 18,060 children.
A housing benefit of $2,500 per year will be made available in 2020, he said, and the government has a new minister representing seniors in cabinet.
“It’s not one thing that’s going to fix this, it’s a serious of policies and procedures.”
Marc Dalton, who is seeking the Conservative Party nomination in the riding, said the Liberal government has also made numerous cuts that used to benefit families and lower income earners, such as eliminating the family tax cut that would provide families with a maximum tax credit of $2,000, cutting the fitness and arts tax credits, cutting the education and textbook tax credits and also the transit tax credits.
“That’s a lot of measures where they are pinching here and pinching there,” he said.
“What their actions show is quite contrary to their promises,” said Dalton. “And by going further into debt, they are actually limiting the government’s ability to help out.”
He added that 12 years is too far for a government to make accurate financial projections.