Arne Petryshen
The City of Cranbrook will stay on with the Community Poverty Reduction Strategies Initiative.
City staff recommended that council direct them to respond to the request and indicate that the city wishes to continue being part of the initiative on the basis that the city has no direct funding obligations.
Coun. Ron Popoff is one of the liaisons from council to the Poverty reduction group, as well as the social planning and others.
“Those groups are seeming to be merging a lot more and getting a lot closer in their discussions and planning and outcomes,” he said. “I think it would be very positive for the city continuing the mayor’s support as is mentioned here.”
Coun. Tom Shypitka asked if there was any concern that the UBCM is planning to bail from the program, as well as the City of Prince George leaving the initiative.
Popoff said the UBCM work was completed already.
“Now this is the phase two — to turn it back to he community,” Popoff said. “Now that the work of phase one is complete and we know what those outcomes and recommendations are, it’s now back to the community to start working on those. So it’s just the natural transition.”
The recommendation was in response to a letter from Sept. 10, asking if the City of Cranbrook wishes to continue to be part of the Community Poverty Reduction Strategies Initiative. The letter was from Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Children and Family Development and AI Richmond, chair of the UBCM Healthy Communities Committee,
The initiative began in May 2012 as a joint partnership between the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The report noted that it is “premised on the understanding that no one party can effectively address a complex issue such as poverty and that community initiatives have tremendous promise as one part of the policy and program repertoire needed to address poverty.”