Welfare challenge canceled because participants could face starvation



[ad_1]

Participants in this year's annual welfare challenge would have only $ 5.75 to spend on food for an entire week. In this photo file, Fraser Doke lays out food at the start of the 2016 challenge.

NICK PROCAYLO / PNG

Could you live on $ 5.75 a week? Vancouver Metro's annual food and beverage challenge is not happening this year

The group holds Metro Vancouver 's annual welfare conference.

Every six months, Raise the Rates has challenged participants, including politicians, celebrities and chefs, to live on provincial welfare rates for one week. In 2017, after subtracting and other basics like bus fare, that meant $ 19.

But this year would have only $ 5.75 to spend on food for the week.

"This year we can not possibly ask someone to voluntarily live on $ 5.75 a week for food," organizer Kell Gerlings said at a press conference announcing the 2018 challenge.

The average rate for a single room occupancy (SRO) unit has jumped to about $ 687 per month from $ 548, Gerlings explained, canceled out the $ 100 after the NDP took office. When you subtract $ 687 from the typical welfare rate of $ 710 a month, only $ 23 remains to pay for food for the entire month. Divided by oven, that's $ 5.75 a week.

Raise the Rates is calling for rent controls to stop landlords from rents between tenancies, as well as increases to income badistance.

Earlier this week, NDP MLA Elmore Mable said she would refund $ 244 in food expenses she claimed money while participating in last year's welfare food challenge.

The Opposition Liberals Released Expenses Wednesday, August 24, 2009 The Elderly Member of the House of Representatives.

Elmore said that she was not a member of the team during the last November.

"I did not catch it," she said after the Liberals. "In the spirit of the welfare challenge, I have decided to pay back the per diems for that week."

Elmore said she lived on boiled eggs, old fruit and homemade bean cbaderole for the week.

With files by The Canadian Press

[email protected]

twitter.com/glendaluymes

[ad_2]
Source link