VICTORIA— It’s wrong for the B.C. Liberal government to take every nickel of child support from B.C.’s poorest children, say New Democrats.

“Half of single mothers and their children in B.C live in poverty,” said New Democrat social development critic Michelle Mungall. “The B.C. Liberal government only deepens that poverty by clawing back every nickel of child support from children living in families receiving income assistance.”

The B.C. Liberals removed the income assistance earnings exemption for child support in 2001.

Mungall noted that 30 per cent of food bank users in British Columbia are children, and the province has had the worst child poverty in the country for a decade.

“Last year the B.C. Liberals took $17 million in child support from the poorest children in British Columbia – and then they spent $17 million on partisan pre-election advertisements,” said Mungall.

“Every year in the life of a child is precious – and thousands of B.C. children spent a year with fewer supports, in unhealthy housing, and with less access to healthy food because the B.C. Liberals took their child support to pay for partisan ads.”