Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

forwarded by PSAC member, Anne-Marie Sleeman

VICTORIA - The Province is launching an enhanced WorkAble Solutions website that will directly connect British Columbians with disabilities who are looking for work to employers that have jobs available,Employment and Income Assistance Minister Claude Richmond announced today.

“Many people with disabilities find it difficult to secure employment that matches their skills and abilities. At the same time the demand for skilled workers is great,” said Richmond. “This site provides an excellent meeting place to bring together qualified job seekers with disabilities with employers who have positions that need to be filled.”

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(Vancouver) A major study released today finds that BC’s welfare system is systematically discouraging, delaying and denying assistance to many of the people most in need of help, with harmful consequences for some of the province’s most vulnerable residents.

Denied Assistance: Closing the Front Door on Welfare in BC examines why the number of people receiving welfare has plummeted in the wake of changes to eligibility rules and the application system, and looks at what is happening to people who seek and are denied welfare. It is the first in-depth assessment of the new application system, drawing on data obtained through Freedom of Information requests and extensive interviews with people who have applied for welfare, front-line community advocates and Ministry workers.

“The provincial government says its policies are a success. It claims that more people are leaving welfare for work, and that the new application system is ‘diverting’ people to employment,” says Bruce Wallace, Researcher with the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG), which undertook the study with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). “This is true for some people. But our research found that many others are being ‘diverted’ to homelessness, charities, survival sex and other forms of hardship.”

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At least two premiers want to raise the thorny issue of day-care funding when they meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on Friday night.

Harper’s human resources and social development minister, Diane Finley, sent letters this week confirming that the Conservatives will terminate a $5-billion series of federal-provincial child-care deals after the first year is up.

Read more at cbc.ca.

Tell Stephen Harper to honour the promise of a national child care program: sign the open letter at buildchildcare.ca!