Financial Stability is Preventative Care

Written by Mary Statham, BCPF Member

November 10, 2024

My name is Mary, and a co-speaker at a recent BCPF event reminded me that it is our stories that are most compelling. So, at that event I told my story. I identify as neuro diverse because I had my first stroke when I was 30, and it was a big one. The second came in 2008, and I am a statistical miracle. I will celebrate my twenty-fifth anniversary of surviving the first on April Fool’s Day 2025. Every year since then I have worked when I have been able. When I couldn’t work, I volunteered. I did music therapy with seniors, was a public speaker for United Way and my favourite accessibility non-profit in Kelowna. I was a peer mentor for the Canadian Mental Health Association for nearly ten years before I tried school.

It has not been an easy journey, but so rich in experience! I have done amazing things and gotten to know (and forget!) more people than I can count. I have fought to find personal worth, and to be of service to my community.

The BC government does not seem to recognize any of that value or worth. Although I worked to contribute to CPP, the province claws back that amount. If I could receive the provincial amount and CPP, I would have enough to live. While this is legal, I seriously question whether it is ethical, and whether it is contrary to the rights of people with disabilities. What right does the province have to the monies that I earned? I have so many disabilities, and the list grows longer each year or two. If I had enough money to live I would have been able to invest more in my health, into preventative care that could make a difference to our overloaded health care system.

I could even afford to travel back to Alberta to visit my family; something which is frankly impossible from under the poverty line. I got married in September, which will also negatively impact my provincial benefits. My husband’s wages will apply against my earning limits, which means that I will receive less from the ministry. Why? Because I have a disability. Because it isn’t enough to keep me struggling to float, instead they want to put two people under the poverty line instead of just one. As he says, the only person who can really afford to love someone with a disability must be wealthy. It’s absurd and it's misogynistic and it's based on old values and beliefs about the role of a spouse. His support means so much to my quality of life and the leaps of faith I take, and I don't understand why the province thinks it's okay to take advantage of him.

I have lived here for just over twenty years, watching the slow but inevitable bloom of a scarcity of affordable housing. So many issues could have been dealt with by supporting the most vulnerable of our population. If we had any kind of say in our actual financial needs, BC would not look as backward and repressive as it now does. “Nothing about us without us” needs to apply to our financial supports as much as anything else. I wonder how old the policies that apply to me are? How outdated are their assumptions?

They are certainly not in line with our federal statements about the rights of people with disabilities. I want to be an advocate for change, for the justice and mercy I believe I deserve. More than that, I believe we all deserve it. I hope to be the little pebble that starts a landslide.