WEBVTT

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[piano music...]

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A lot of people think poverty is a problem

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for other people in other neighbourhoods.

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But even if you, or no one you know

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is ever affected by poverty,

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not doing anything about poverty

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is costing us all.

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It's costing money.

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More and more money, every single year.

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British Columbia has the highest poverty rate in Canada.

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Not addressing this comes with a price.

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And this is what it looks like

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when we do the math:

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For starters, it costs us one point two billion dollars per year

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to pay for the healthcare costs related to poverty.

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That's because poverty is literally bad for your physical and mental health.

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You're more likely to live in

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poor quality or unsafe housing,

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or none at all.

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You're more likely to go hungry,

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have a job that exposes you to hazards,

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or end up with preventable health conditions.

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We've heard a lot lately

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about how we need to get "tough on crime",

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but some crime could be prevented by reducing poverty,

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which is linked to

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crimes of desperation, low literacy rates, and living in unsafe situations.

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The poverty related costs of crime in BC

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add up to $745million per year.

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Then, there's the income that the poor might have earned from working,

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if they had access to better supports and training.

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Or the income that the working poor could have earned

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if their jobs paid better wages.

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This is also a loss to our economy

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to the collective wealth of our society.

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And it adds up to as much as 7 point 3 billion dollars per year.

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So that's what it's costing us

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to stick with the status quo

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of keeping one in nine British Columbians in poverty.

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All together, it works out to between

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8 and 9 billion dollars every year.

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This is a terrible deal.

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And the worst part of this

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is that it would cost us

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between 3 and 4 billion dollars per year

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to put an effective, poverty reduction plan in place.

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That's less than half of what poverty is costing us now.

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You don't have to be an economist

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to see that it costs more to keep people in poverty

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than it does to fix the problem.

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It's just simple math.

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Not for other people

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in other neighbourhoods,

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but for all of us.