Poverty reduction strategy engagement summaries and submissions

Last updated on March 1, 2024

We received a lot of input from organizations and people about ideas to reduce poverty in B.C. The input will help us understand what poverty looks like in communities, and how we can best take action to help people who need it most.

On this page:


What we heard

To inform the update of TogetherBC, the province’s first poverty reduction strategy, B.C. completed a wide-ranging public engagement on poverty reduction beginning in Spring 2023. Over spring and summer 2023, we heard from over 10,000 people across the province, over 70% with lived experience of poverty.

Government also undertook a separate, distinctions-based engagement with First Nations, including Modern Treaty Nations, and Métis in late spring and summer 2023. Urban Indigenous people were also engaged as an intersectional group comprised of all distinct Indigenous groups, including Inuit and Indigenous people from outside of B.C. A separate Métis-led engagement was organized through Métis Nation BC.

Engagement Input

Post session summaries:

Written submissions:

What We Heard About Poverty in B.C.
What We Heard About Poverty in B.C. report cover

Over spring and summer 2023, we heard from over 10,000 people across the province, over 70% with lived experience of poverty.

Read the What We Heard Report (PDF, 12.5MB)

What We Heard from Indigenous engagement
Cover of the Together BC engagement with Indigenous Peoples summary with an illustration of many people in silhouette

In late spring through fall 2023, we held a separate, distinctions-based engagement with First Nations, Modern Treaty Nations, Métis, Inuit and Urban Indigenous people.

Read the Indigenous Engagement report (PDF, 7.2MB)