Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott is calling for a "comprehensive" child-poverty plan with clear legislated reduction targets over the next five to 10 years.
Child-poverty has been a challenging issue for the provincial government with the province's child watchdog, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, this week urging candidates in both the Liberal and NDP leadership races to come up with plans to reduce B.C.'s child-poverty rate.
George Abbott, the former health and education minister, called Friday for a round of public consultations leading to a plan to reduce child poverty, suggesting the issue has arisen as he has toured the province seeking support from BC Liberals.
He said in a statement that some measure of the issue is a necessity.
"As Premier, I believe that if we are going to address this issue, we first have to collectively agree on the basic measure of the problem - including how those measures may differ between urban and rural B.C. Only then can we talk about real policy and community responses to the problem, and then set achievable targets to measure our progress," he said.
The NDP opposition has accused the Liberals of failing to fight child poverty rates in B.C. that some have called the worst in Canada, but Children's Minister Mary Polak this week said the government has cut child-poverty rates by 40 per cent through various programs.