The social condition in British Columbia

The report therefore makes several suggestions: • In order the help make work pay, the British Columbia government should support the introduction of a strong federal Earned Income Tax Benefi t, and cooperate in the integra- tion of its income-tested programs with the federal program. [...] Admittedly, the BC economy went through a diffi cult period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which took a toll on growth in family incomes in the province.6 Nevertheless, British Columbia has a high standard of liv- ing, and it seems strange that the proportion of the population falling below the low income threshold is greater than in all other provinces. [...] The Appendix also assesses the reliability of the income data used in calculating the LICO, comparing the results using the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) with data from both the Census and the tax returns that Canadians fi le each year. [...] The report an- alysed the difference in low income rates in BC and Canada, as well as the broadly similar difference in the rates in Vancouver and Toronto. [...] In seeking to explain the differenc- es, it concentrates on three sets of factors: • demographic differences (family structure and size, age structure of the population, proportion of immigrants in the population, education levels); • levels of employment (of both the main income earner and other income earners in the family); and, • sources of income of families with low income.