Transportation supplement for those in need
O
n a day dominated by so much bad news and tragic tidings, it was a relief to hear some good news at the B.C. legislature on Monday:
The new government unveiled a $52-a-month “transportation supplement” for poor, disabled British Columbians, more than restoring the free bus pass so cruelly clawed back by the previous government last year.
The decision to stop providing the bus pass was not only cruel, it was also one of the dumbest political moves ever. The sight of poor people in walkers and wheelchairs protesting outside the legislature made the thengoverning Liberals look heartless and uncaring in the run-up to a doomed election campaign.
Despite the backlash, the Liberals stubbornly refused to budge on the cruel cut, insisting poor disabled British Columbians were “better off” after their disability rates were increased by $77 a month.
But remember what the Liberals did: They gave with one hand and took away with the other.
At the same time they raised the disability rate – the first increase in nine years – they announced poor, disabled people would have to pay $52 a month for a bus pass they used to get for free.
This forced a terrible choice on people: Use the increase to pay for a bus pass, or use it for food, shelter or other pressing needs.
“Many people chose to eat first,” Faith Bodnar, executive director of Inclusion B.C., told me. “People were more relegated to being at home.”
On Monday, the new NDP government announced the transportation supplement for the approximately 110,000 lowincome disabled people currently receiving assistance.
That $52 will not be subtracted from disabled people’s current support payments, which the government earlier increased by another $100 a month.
Significantly, the transportation supplement will be available to all assistance recipients, and the money can be spent on any form of transportation with no need to produce receipts.
This means the supplement is effectively an increase in the general disability rate, since the additional money can be spent on anything, even though it’s earmarked for transportation.
Does this mean some people will choose to spend the money on food instead of transit? Probably. But at least every disabled person is getting the full amount, with no clawback from their basic rates.
This is the simplest way possible to provide additional assistance to disabled people, many of whom count among the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
Keep in mind the Persons With Disabilities program is a meanstested program available only to people who are disabled and also low-income. Full benefits are only available to disabled people earning less $12,000 a year.
That’s why the decision to claw back the bus passes in the first place was such a shockingly callous one by the previous government.
“In retrospect, it was certainly a miscalculation,” former Liberal finance minister Mike de Jong told me. “I’m proud of our record. But we were not perfect.”
They certainly were not, especially in this notorious example. If the Liberals had shown more compassion while racking up all those big budget surpluses, they might still be in power today.
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