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Much of cabinet has been reset in a renewed B.C. government, but Nanaimo’s incumbent MLA remains in her role as minister of social development and poverty reduction.
Sheila Malcolmson, MLA for Nanaimo-Gabriola, spoke with the News Bulletin recently about being returned to cabinet and the work ahead for her ministry.
“The challenges that we see people grappling with in Nanaimo around housing and the cost of living, transportation, all the things that can make life harder, are the same across the entire country, and some things like the toxic drug crisis hit Nanaimo earlier and harder than it did other communities,” she said.
She said indicators such as increased food bank use suggest cost-of-living challenges are mounting for British Columbians, and she knows there is much work to be done still, on the affordable housing front, for example.
Malcolmson said her government has increased income assistance rates five times, and added that Work B.C. employment programs are making a difference and community-based employment services are helping people who have faced barriers to finding and keeping jobs.
Some of her ministry’s work ahead will be guided by B.C.’s poverty reduction strategy from this past year which established specific targets that included reducing youth and seniors’ poverty rates, for example.
“We have a road map that’s informed by people with lived experience and the people that support them that directs my work as minister, but also implicates all of government in better bringing down costs for people and making sure they have the supports that they need and deserve,” Malcolmson said.
One of the minister’s first tasks will be helping shape the new Canada Disability Benefit, as she said the provincial government agrees with the feds that the benefit is not enough right now.
“We’ve committed that we will not claw back the federal benefit so it’s a clear income bump for people who are on disability, but we are working very hard to make the program as broad and as accessible so that it has maximum impact for people living both with disability and poverty,” she said.
Part of her work on the file will be consulting with non-profits, something she’s keen to do as she said that service providers and community partnerships in Nanaimo can be examples for other places in B.C.
“I’ve been drawing on them in my role as minister over the last four years and I’m really grateful for the chance to carry on that instruction from Nanaimo to help inform … as we build back up the systems of care and the supports so that people can have a better life.”
Malcolmson said she and housing minister Ravi Kahlon and attorney general Niki Sharma represent the “continuity team” in government, and she’s looking forward to working with a new cabinet that she said has some brand-new perspectives, talent and diversity.
“All of those are going to inform the work that we’re feeling the urgency of delivering further on for British Columbians,” she said.
Malcolmson was asked about the challenge for the B.C. NDP of governing with such a slim majority. She said her party got a “strong message” that voters want to see parties in the legislature work together, but said all provincial governments she’s been a part of have relied on partnerships, and added that the best outcomes come from co-operation.
“We’ve got a strong track record of working with the Greens in the past, we’ve got a strong track record working with service-delivery community groups and with local governments…” she said. “So that’s all experience that we can draw on. The votes will be tighter and things in the legislature itself may be a little bit more divisive than what we experienced over the last couple of years, but none of that has to affect the way that people in communities actually experience our government and receive services.”
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