Liberals promise basic income, free tuition for youth from care

Even though last week's Liberal throne speech is unlikely to be worth the paper it was written on, it did contain some amazing proposals that merit further discussion.
Most surprising was the promise to introduce a basic income support for youth aged 18 to 24 who have left government care. The B.C. Liberal government has refused to recognize that these young people need more support past 19 and has insisted that the programs that are in place are adequate.
In 2014, Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert and myself wrote a series of articles about what happens when foster children turn 19 and lose their supports. We also did a cost-benefit analysis that found that for every dollar spent supporting foster children to age 24, the benefits to society would amount to $1.11.
Since then, several young people, including Alex Gervais and Paige Gauchier, have died either shortly before or shortly after aging out of care.
But the Liberals steadfastly stuck to their story that the programs B.C. already had were good enough.
Interestingly, it was the Green Party's platform that said they would introduce a basic income for former foster children. Their platform also said the party would introduce a pilot project for a basic income for everyone, something that is already underway in Ontario.
The NDP promised to increase funding to support youth aging out of care by $10 million a year, to increase educational supports in K-12 education for children in care and to work with universities and colleges to expand an existing tuition waiver program.
The tuition waiver program was started by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who got Vancouver Island University and the University of British Columbia to agree to allow former foster children to attend those schools tuition-free. Since then 10 universities and colleges have come on board.
The Liberal throne speech took that one a step further too — they pledged to provide free post-secondary tuition for all children in care.
Yesterday, the NDP-Green MLAs voted down two bills the Liberals tried to pass, even though both bills were proposals made by the two parties to begin with. It looks like on Thursday the Liberals will lose the confidence of the Leglislature and with that, their government will be over. It remains to be seen whether the Lieutentant-Governor will call a new election or allow the NDP-Greens a chance.
But either way, the Liberals must now stick with their promise to support a basic income for kids aging out of care. They've promised it -- and many other things -- in their throne speech and there's no backing down now.
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