"Reorient MCFD and child welfare towards prevention, connection, and the adequate resourcing of social determinants of health.

1. Implement a public health framework with tiered prevention levels:
2. • Primary Prevention: Family strengthening programs, resource access, and public awareness campaigns.
3. • Secondary Prevention: Home visits, respite care, and family resource centres.
4. • Tertiary Prevention: Wrap-around supports for children and parents affected by violence.
5. Create non-punitive, culturally safe environments in which families can talk about their struggles without fear of consequence.
6. Enact legislative reforms ensuring families are provided with the necessary resources and services, as guided by the reports released by the BC Representative for Children and Youth.
7. Redirect Ministry funds to provide families with financial resources, address poverty-related neglect, and create conditions in which parents are resourced and supported."

— Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13

"Implement a new targeted basic income benefit for all youth formerly in care, equal to the market-basket measure poverty line, until age 25." — Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13

"According to the Government, as of March 2025, there were 4,795 children and youth in care, and of that number, 3,260 were Indigenous, making up more than 68% of children and youth in care.

Youth in care can access Strengthening Abilities and Journeys to Empowerment (SAJE) until age 27, which includes partial fulfilment of the targeted income through Unconditional Income for youth leaving care, though it only partially fulfils the recommendation. This is a cash transfer of $1,250 per month until their 20th birthday. Between 20 and 27, this transitions into Conditional Income support of $1,250/mo based on enrollment in an education program. This program also includes access to guides and navigators; however, SAJE Navigators and Guides have unmanageable caseloads, leaving youth without proper support. These guides are crucial for many youth aging out of government care because of the complicated income and wrap-around supports offered through MCFD, and because many lack the familial and relational support other youth have for life planning and skill building.

In 2017, the BC Green Caucus made a study of basic income a requirement for entering the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA). The report was led by David Green, Professor at the University of British Columbia (Chair), Jonathan Rhys Kesselman, Professor Emeritus at the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, and Lindsay Tedds, Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. The report is based on over 40 research studies commissioned by the panel and written by “some of the best public policy economists in Canada.” The panel consulted British Columbia residents through a web-based public engagement process and received over 450 submissions from individuals and community organizations. The panel held in-person consultations with stakeholders in May 2019, and the report incorporates findings from an online survey in 2020 that sampled approximately 2,000 British Columbians. The Committee’s report is available here: https://bcbasicincomepanel.ca/

The panel found that youth aging out of care are less likely to have graduated high school, are more likely to have used income assistance, and are more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system. Collectively, these costs and foregone tax revenue due to underemployment have a net present value per individual of $320,000 at age 19. They also found that the mortality rates of youth aging out of care are much higher than the rest of the population - 15% of the people aged 19 to 33 who died in 2015 were former children in care.

“Numerous researchers and investigators argue that these poor outcomes arise from a background of instability. Anyone taken out of their family home has, by definition, experienced a traumatic event and for many, it is simply one of many traumatic events.”

Accordingly, the Basic Income panel recommended a targeted basic income for former youth in care, equal to the market basket measure poverty line. The package of support for youth aging out of care was estimated to cost $120 to $190 million per annum in 2020; we have costed this at $250 million per annum to account for inflation over the past 6 years."

— Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13

"Recognize Indigenous jurisdiction over child welfare, providing appropriate funding to support culturally rooted, distinction-based services and language revitalization." — Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13

"Promote community-oriented, family-centred care where extended family plays a vital role, ensuring conditions for children to thrive." — Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13

"Ensure funding and resources are available to families and community members of children of missing and murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people." — Believe in Better, retrieved 2026-10-13