Goal 4

BC Employment and Assistance Services Provide Supplementary Assistance for Eligible Clients.

Core Business Area: Supplementary Assistance — the ministry provided a range of services through supplementary assistance.

Objective 1

Eligible seniors and Persons with Disabilities have access to public transit.

Key Strategies

Provide low cost public transit passes to eligible seniors and Persons with Disabilities.

Performance Measures and Results

Measure 4.1: Number of bus passes available to eligible seniors and Persons with Disabilities.

Supplementary assistance included a range of services that were provided to eligible clients. Supplementary assistance was provided for multiple objectives. The ministry supported low-income seniors and Persons with Disabilities by providing subsidized bus passes. This performance measure indicates the number of bus passes the ministry has issued.

Bus passes were issued on a calendar year basis and could be purchased at any time of the year. Replacement passes were also provided at a minimal cost. This replacement fee escalated with the number of passes replaced. The variance of the measure was –1.3 per cent for 2003/04. The provision of bus passes is based solely on demand by the public and is not a strong indicator of the ministry's business, as such this target is not included in the 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan.

Objective 2

Homeless individuals have access to safe emergency accommodation.

Key Strategies

Provide emergency accommodation to the homeless who have no other resources.

Performance Measures and Results

The ministry spent $12.1 million in 2003/04 on over 700 year-round emergency hostel and shelter beds and $750,000 on 193 additional beds during the cold wet-weather season. On January 6, 2004, the ministry committed an additional $25,000 to fund over 90 emergency hostel/shelter beds because of the extreme winter weather.

In 2003/04 the ministry began a review of the Emergency Shelter Program to identify opportunities to strengthen the program, build upon the partnership between the ministry and its service providers and confirm program outcomes and results.

Objective 3

Individuals and families have access to short-term disaster assistance through the Emergency Social Services (ESS) program.

Key Strategies

Provide short-term assistance through the ESS program to those forced from their homes by disasters.

Performance Measures and Results

Emergency Social Services provided short-term assistance to British Columbians who were forced to leave their homes because of fire, floods, earthquakes or other emergencies. This assistance included food, lodging, clothing, emotional support and family reunification.

No specific performance measure was identified for the Emergency Social Services program. Throughout the summer and fall of 2003 British Columbia dealt with major fire and flooding across the province. Emergency Social Services responded by providing support to individuals and families affected by these major disasters.

Firestorm 2003 was the largest incident involving Emergency Social Services in British Columbia's history. Over 37,000 people registered with ESS at 17 reception centres and five group lodging facilities across the province. Over 6,000 volunteers, municipal and regional district staff, and ministry employees responded to this emergency.

Objective 4

Eligible clients have access to supplementary health services.

Key Strategies

Provide designated health services to those who are eligible.

Performance Measures and Results

Health supplements were available to provide health assistance to eligible clients. The ministry provided supplemental health assistance to those most in need — children, people with disabilities and people with persistent multiple barriers to employment. The Healthy Kids program removed one of the barriers of moving from welfare to work, and assists those families with low- and moderate-income with their children's basic dental and optical expenses. For employable clients, the ministry provided emergency dental services for the relief of pain and basic optical services.

Additional health supplements included: medical transportation, diet supplements, dental and orthodontia, optical, medical supplies, medical equipment, and orthotics and bracing, as well as other therapeutic services.

New Measures (2004/05)

Percentage of clients receiving a service, who are confirmed eligible for the service.

This measure tracks the percentage of clients receiving a supplementary assistance service. A higher percentage for this measure indicates that the ministry is successfully focusing its resources on assisting those who are most in need.