Legislative reform to reduce Indigenous women’s manufactured vulnerability

Recommendation 14: Amend the provincial Residential Tenancy Act to cover all housing and to strengthen tenants rights. Amend the provincial Human Rights Code and Residential Tenancy Act to make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of social condition including health status and drug use.

Recommendation 15: Implement an Indigenous reparations tax on top of property taxes on residential, commercial, and industrial properties, with all revenues going to implementation of an Indigenous poverty reduction plan.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 55: Implement a human rights, Indigenous rights, and gender based analysis in the conception and implementation of all poverty reduction strategies, policies, legislation, and decision making.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 56: All levels of government must coordinate on an Indigenous specific poverty reduction plan, complete with specific goals, targets, timelines, and accountabilities.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 57: Implement an Indigenous reparations tax on top of property taxes on residential, commercial, and industrial properties, with all revenues going to implementation of an Indigenous poverty reduction plan.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 59: Provide all residential school survivors with a guaranteed livable income for the rest of their lives.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 60: Implementing existing recommendations from the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition for a whole-of-government poverty reduction strategy.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 61: Increase income and disability rates to the Market Basket Measure to reflect the cost of an adequate standard of living, and index them to inflation.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 63: Eliminate barriers to accessing income and disability assistance by reducing unnecessary eligibility criteria and simplifying the application processes. This includes:

1. Removing the two-year financial independence requirement for income assistance.
2. Basing income assistance eligibility on current income only.
3. Removing the penalty clawback for failure to work search requirements for income assistance.
4. Removing the work search requirement for mothers with children over the age of three years old.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 64: Restructure the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, including:

1. Bringing back individual caseworkers and timely individualized assistance.
2. Ensuring there are computers and Ministry support staff at every Ministry office for the purpose of helping applicants.
3. Modifying the online application for income assistance so that it is not mandatory to create an email address and BCelD.