First Call BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition has been tracking child and family poverty rates in BC for more than two decades. Every November, with the support of the Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC), a report card is released with the latest statistics on child and family...

This is a report on child poverty in British Columbia and connections to the working poor, employment insecurity, living on low incomes, and gives policy recommendations to respond to this...

This report highlights mostly B.C.-based research and includes key information, facts, and statistics to answer common questions that neighbours, local government, and other stakeholders may have about supportive housing. The easy-to-read question and answer format also includes infographics to...

With the bulk of baby-boomers set for retirement, the financial abuse of seniors is a growing concern in British Columbia—for government, financial institutions and boomers themselves. In order to address the problem of seniors financial abuse it is generally agreed that communities must improve...

This report provides an overview of the payday lending landscape in British Columbia compared to the rest of the country and explores the underlying factors contributing to the growth of the industry in recent years. It puts forth a series of recommendations to help ensure consumers have access to...

Last year marked the seventh straight year of solid employment gains in Canada following the recession. But, scratching beneath the surface shows the credit went solely to part-time positions. Steep losses in energy-producing provinces are only partially to blame for the decline in full-time...

A recent study published by the Metcalf Foundation found that Metro Vancouver had the second-highest rate of working poverty of any major city in Canada in 2012, with a rate only slightly lower than Greater Toronto. This report digs deeper into the data from the Metcalf Foundation study, maps the...

This report was commissioned by the SMCPC for the purpose of replicating for the British case, as far as possible, the findings in Our Kids. In this era in which public concern about poverty, inequality, and social mobility has been increasing, our primary aim in this report is to find out if the...

Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States (the sixth edition of the report) is the only distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This comprehensive report assesses tax fairness by measuring effective state and local tax...

People living on low incomes have historically been excluded from politics and policy debates, even when the question at hand is how poverty can be reduced or its impacts mitigated. The aim of this research was to explore how people on low incomes perceive politics, understand how far they feel...

This toolkit contains resources and information which may offer support to organizations, agencies, or frontline staff supporting individuals, during a challenging time. This toolkit was developed in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and more resources will be added as they become...

Benefits and credits provide income and financial support for many individuals. This toolkit contains information on common tax credits and benefits, benefits for specific populations, and practitioner resources including case studies and information on identification documentation for accessing...

Despite the fact that, with only basic identification, all Canadians have the legal right to open a bank account, there has been an explosive growth in fringe financial institutions (FFIs) over the past decade or so which offer financial services such as cheque cashing, payday loans, and income...

This infographics from the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) show information about the program by province for the tax filing year 2019, including number of returns filed and amount of refunds and benefits accessed.  The information is presented in English and French. Les...

These reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory....

This report examines the financial health and vulnerability of households in Canada’s 35 largest cities, using a new composite index of household financial health at the neighbourhood level, the Neighbourhood Financial Health Index or NFHI. The NFHI is designed to shine a light on the dynamics...

Delivered in partnership with Plan Institute, this webinar "Future planning tips for people with disabilities and those who support them," discusses how planning for A Good Life can lead to achieving greater peace of mind about the present. This webinar also introduces the online Future Planning...

This webinar shares insights from three different financial coaching and counselling programs in Canada, discussing what these financial coaching programs look like, program successes, and program challenges. The speakers are: Sheri Fata, Manager of Education and Support Services at Thunder...

This collaboration primer is a hands-on resource for organizations seeking concrete methods to create sustainable partnerships. This resource is based on the literature focusing on inter-agency collaboration and the experiences of a multi-stakeholder partnership for health promotion. The...

This dissertation evaluates the effects of various public policies related to education in Canada. The results indicate that the actions of parents are generally consistent with the procrastination saving model. I estimate that higher matching rates on contributions and lump-sum subsidies increased...

This report presents an analysis of a survey of financial service choice of residents of low-income inner-cities in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. The survey was administered in 2006-07 with 83 residents and asked them quantitative and qualitative questions about their financial service options...