Act of generosity blocked by Victoria
Policy problem: Fund would have helped single moms on assistance get an education
From the pitiless cobblestoned streets of Dublin, where her own parents gave her up, to the abject avenues of postwar Vancouver on which she landed as a divorced, 38- year- old mother of two, Jane Tyler knew poverty.
But she had found friends along the way — friends who dug deep into their pockets to help her return to school, earn an Early Childhood Education diploma and leave behind gnawing need.
That journey — from single mum working as a domestic to middle- class kindergarten teacher — left a profound impression on her daughter Gale, herself now a retired teacher.
Jane died at 95 in Feb. 2009 and when Gale opened her safety deposit box — a cherished archive rather than a treasure chest — she found that old diploma.
It made her teary and it prompted her to establish a legacy in her mum’s name to help other mothers on assistance get an education. Victoria blocked her. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“My mum in the late 1940s wasn’t trained to do anything when her marriage ended. It was such an inspiration for my sister Anne ( who died five years ago) and myself. We saw our mum go to school and pull herself up with her own choices to the benefit of our family. We saw her taking charge of her own life.”
Pausing, inundated with memories, Gale explained: “I don’t have kids of my own so I wondered what I could do. I thought of creating the legacy fund and on my death leaving my house ( worth in the neighbourhood of $ 1 million) to do what friends did for my mum — provide bursaries for single mums on social assistance who wanted to alter their circumstance by going back to school.”
A provincial policy, however, prevents that.
In the same way the government claws back child care payments received by single parents on income assistance, a similar mean streak runs through the regulations covering training courses or educational programs.
It boils down to this — fulltime students have been ineligible for income assistance since 1997.
Anyone on assistance with a child over the age of three must be available to accept a job, so they are essentially prohibited from taking courses.
Theoretically, if you have a child under three, you can take a part- time course — but in reality that is nigh impossible given child care costs and other issues.
“These parents are encouraged to focus on obtaining fulltime employment,” the government says — that is, lots of luck trying to navigate the rules and successfully take a course.
Over the last few decades, governments of both political stripes, in truth, have been culpable of providing not enough support for needy parents in the name of fiscal prudence and preventing abuse of social support plans.
The child’s age for eligibility was reduced to 3 from 7 in 2002 shortly after the Liberals took office, but the NDP had previously reduced it to 7 from 12.
Still, Gale and the friends she rounded up to create the Jane Tyler Legacy through the Vancity Community Foundation Endowment Fund were incredulous.
“When we found out we couldn’t give any money to someone, we were stunned,” said Linda Shuto, another retired teacher and a member of the advisory committee.
Shuto said the women were told that unless they were willing to pay educational and
living expenses and take over almost full support of the singleparent family, they could forget about it.
“We are just appalled by this and we have had to become activists to change this policy,” she added. “Even if you enrol in school, it’s a hard struggle.”
Marion Malcolmson, another former teacher involved in the fund, said she believes the policy is misguided.
Before retirement, she worked on now discontinued programs in the east side of Vancouver and in Surrey that helped single mums upgrade their education.
“We know from experience this works — as a result of the programs I worked on a number of those women got their lives together, were able to support their kids and the impact was cross- generational,” Malcolmson said.
“The short- sightedness of the current policy is unbelievable — how can people get a decent job if they don’t have the job skills? In terms of self- esteem for the kids, it’s quite striking — to be able to say, ‘ Hey my mum is going to school or has a job,’ instead of, ‘ My mum’s on welfare,’ and the stigma associated with that. That’s huge.”
The women have lobbied the government and sent letters to MLAs without getting traction.
“We have tried everything,” Shuto said.
“It’s crazy. It would be in everyone’s interest, especially the children of these women, because poverty becomes an inter- generational thing.”
Tyler and her friends got the B. C. Teachers’ Federation to pass a resolution in 2013 calling on Victoria to give single parents with children up to the age of 13 income assistance if they were pursuing full- or part- time secondary or postsecondary education and permit them to receive bursaries without penalty.
Still, Victoria has been indifferent.
As a result, Gale said they have broadened the mandate of the fund to include needy mothers not on assistance who want to better their education.
This week, the NDP introduced a bill to reduce poverty, pointing out that for the last decade B. C. has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada.
Social Development Minister Don McRae maintained the government is doing all it can in these financial straits — including raising the minimum wage, cutting taxes and easing medical services premiums for the poor.
“We realize that we can always do a little bit better, and so, as we go forward, we consider new changes,” he said.
For single parents, he should consider reversing the clawback of child support and tear down the roadblocks to selfimprovement.
( Donations to the Jane Tyler Legacy Fund can be made online at the Vancity Community Foundation. The group is holding a fundraising house concert May 10 with Juno award winner Shari Ulrich. For tickets email galetyler@shaw.ca)