Enough studying, we want action.
That was the main message coming out of a poverty reduction meeting in Quesnel on Saturday.
Tony Goulet, the Executive Director of the Native Friendship Centre in Quesnel where the meeting was held, says other topics included defining poverty, getting rid of the stigma around it and the problems with accessing the system…
You have to do all the stuff on-line and there was a great discussion on the technology part as people don’t have access to computers, internet, cell phones and that type of stuff, so it becomes a barrier for them so we need to really take a look at that as well.”
Goulet says they didn’t go into a lot of details about how much money was needed in the system…
“They talked about the social assistance and how they could raise that up by a hundred some odd dollars but they didn’t really get into too much specifics. I think they were talking about is that enough, like what people are getting for shelter, does it meet their needs and they’ll have to go back and as a government to try and figure that out.”
He says it was well attended with around 100 people taking part.
He says the plan is for the Provincial Government to take the recommendations from all of the meetings throughout the province to come up with a poverty reduction strategy.
Goulet says BC is currently the only province without one.
There was also a poverty reduction meeting in Williams Lake on Friday.