Pacific Mountain Region

What’s Next Conversation
2021-07-28 10:30 - 12:00, 2021-07-21 10:30 - 12:00, 2021-07-14 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Vancouver)
Email host Andria Irwin: airwin@united-church.ca to get the weekly Zoom link. ‘What’s Next Conversation’ happens Wednesdays in July and August (none on Aug 4). 10:30am-12pm PT/ 11:30am-1pm MT. Drop in! Join Andria of United Online and Rev Randy Boyd of Rural Connect to ask any of your pressing questions around a shift to integrated in-person/online ministry. Tech questions, theological questions and questions like ‘how can I convince people to volunteer’ are all on the table.

Leaders Online Gathering: Summer Club
2021-07-27 14:30 - 15:45
Hosted by Rev Mary Nichol, First Third Ministry Staff, this recurring gathering time is for all those in leadership with Children, Youth, Families, Young Adults in a United Church setting – whether paid or volunteer in dedicated ministry with children and families, or a piece of your ministry.

Week 3 of Camp Spirit
2021-07-26 09:00 - 2021-07-30 15:00
We have 4 locations this week. Registration is still open for some camps!

Pacific Spirit United Church, Vancouver
Jubilee United Church, Burnaby
Duncan United Church, Duncan
United Churches of Langley, Murrayville

Camp Spirit continues your Child’s journey of Wonder – encouraging campers to explore faith through listening and experiencing the sacred stories, enjoy times of creativity and science, move to music, share a meal together and ​appreciate getting to know one another! Trained, screened staff & volunteers provide leadership and care while following health orders and camp’s comprehensive COVID-19 protocols.

RE-ENTRY with First Third Ministry
2021-07-22 13:00 - 14:30, 2021-07-08 13:00 - 14:30, 2021-06-17 13:00 - 14:30
A three-part, small group time for congregational ministry leaders to meet and discuss what First Third Ministry is like in their context – and imagine together, “What’s next?” How can we imagine our ministry post pandemic? What will our programs look like? How will they be different? Join a small group of leaders (volunteer & paid) from a variety of locations and contexts to re-imagine ministry in this new way. Register here.

Townhalls On Pause for July and August
2021-07-07 13:00 - 14:00
The PMRC Townhall meetings are paused for July and August. Any changes will be announced in News of Note (sign up here). You can also watch the News page on the PMRC web site (click here). We’ll see you again in September!

What's Next Conversation
2021-07-07 10:30 - 12:00

Imagine Family Retreat at Camp Pringle
2021-07-01 17:00 - 2021-07-04 13:00 | Camp Pringle, 2520 W Shawnigan Lake Rd, Shawnigan Lake, BC, V0R 2W3, Canada
A retreat for families of all makes and shapes, across the Pacific Mountain Regional Council – on Vancouver Island! Bursary funds are available if that helps you family be able to attend! Please don’t let the retreat fee keep you from participating.

Townhall Meeting: Guaranteed Livable Income
2021-06-16 13:00 - 14:30
Click here to view the recording of this meeting.

Join Rev Rhian Walker, moderating this important conversation with former moderator Lois Wilson, senior policy analyst Harvey Stevens, and more!
Poverty can happen very quickly to anyone. What would happen to our social if Canada created a guaranteed livable income program for all? The United Church of Canada is calling on all churches to help advocate for a GLI. This townhall will lay out the elements of the GLI, hear from someone whose life would benefit from the GLI, and provide concrete next steps you and your congregation could take on for Oct 19th. (Zoom access details are at the bottom of this post.)

Questions and Answers Concerning a Guaranteed Livable Income

What is a Guaranteed Livable Income?

A Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) is a payment to individuals or families by government (federal and/or provincial/territorial) that covers the cost of basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing transportation and community participation) and is not conditional on meeting employment criteria in order to qualify for the benefit. However, demographic conditions such as age and residency or citizenship may be imposed as eligibility requirements.

How can a GLI be Administered?

Governments use two methods for designing and administering guaranteed incomes – as a demogrant and as a refundable tax credit. A demogrant is a fixed amount of income paid to all families or individuals, regardless of their income level. The amount is not reduced (clawed back) by the amount of income the family or individual has. However, the benefit could be considered as taxable income by government. A current example is the Alaska Permanent Fund which issues an annual dividend to each person who has been a resident of the state for the full calendar year and not incarcerated. The 2020 dividend is $992.
By comparison, a refundable tax credit (RTC) provides families or individuals with no other income a maximum benefit – the Guarantee – which is then reduced as the family’s or individual’s other sources of income increase. The reduction (clawback) rate can vary. A current example of a RTC is the Old Age Security benefit. All seniors with incomes up to $77,580 receive the full annual value of the OAS benefit ($7,370). For those with higher incomes, the benefit is reduced at the rate of 15 per cent, such that those with incomes greater than $126,713 get no OAS benefits.
A refundable tax credit that offers a livable guarantee is substantially less expensive than a demogrant of equal value because the benefit only goes to those whose income is low enough to qualify for a full or partial benefit. A refundable tax credit is most efficiently administered through the personal income tax system.

Does Canada Already Have Guaranteed Income Programs?

The federal government presently offers three guaranteed income programs – two for seniors and one for children. The two seniors programs are Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low income seniors. The Canada Child Benefit provides a benefit to children under 18 years of age. The demographic group not covered by any existing guaranteed income program is adults aged 18-64[1]. Provincial social assistance and federal Employment Insurance are the only income transfer programs available to these two groups but the programs impose employability and contribution tests in order to qualify.

What is a Livable Income

Canada now has an official poverty line. It is called the Market Basket Measure (MBM). It is constructed by identifying and pricing a basket of goods and services deemed to provide a “modest, basic standard of living”. The items included in the market basket are food, clothing and footwear, shelter, transportation and other expenses. Specific levels of consumption have been specified for each item to meet the needs of a family of four persons including two adults and two children. That basket is priced annually by Statistics Canada for specific regions within each of the ten provinces but not the territories or First Nations communities.[2] The total cost of the basket of goods and services is the MBM poverty line (threshold) for each region.
A national GLI would have to use one MBM threshold as the measure of the maximum benefit (Guarantee) which would be the overall average of each region’s threshold, weighted by the number of people living in that region. For 2019, the national weighted average MBM for the four person family was $44,860. For a single adult, the average MBM threshold was $22,430. For two, three, five and six person households, the national MBM thresholds were $31,720, $38,850, $50,155 and $54,942, respectively.

How much would it cost to provide a Guaranteed Livable Income to all Canadians?

The short answer is that it depends on how it’s designed. The four key components in the construction of a GLI, designed as a refundable tax credit, are

the value of the Maximum Benefit (Guarantee);
the rate at which that Guarantee is clawed back against other income (Benefit

Reduction Rate or BRR);

the definition of the income used to claw back the value of the Guarantee; and,
the demographic unit used to calculate the value of the GLI.

The net value of a GLI is the value of the Guarantee less the per cent of family income used to reduce the Guarantee. Thus, the higher the value of the Guarantee, the greater the cost; and, the higher the Benefit Reduction Rate, the lower the cost.
The following table shows the cost and coverage of a national GLI under two different levels of the Guarantee and two Benefit Reduction Rates for 2019.[3]

Guarantee/
Maximum Benefit
Benefit Reduction Rate
Average Net
Family Benefit
Number of Families with a Benefit (Millions)

Total Cost
($ Billions)

75% of MBM Threshold
20%
$9,519
14.08
$134.2

75% of MBM Threshold
40%
$7,153
8.19
$58.6

100% of MBM Threshold
20%
$14,785
16.03
$237.1

100% of MBM Threshold
40%
$11,221
10.84
$121.6

Source: Statistics Canada, Social Policy Simulation Database/Model, version 28.1. Calculations by the author.

Where would the money come from to pay for a GLI?

There are a variety of sources available to the federal and provincial governments to pay for a national GLI, including:

Cancellation of some existing income transfer programs;
Closure of tax loopholes/expenditures;
Increases in personal and corporate income taxes;
Removal of selected non-refundable tax credits;
Imposition of new taxes;
Growth of the national economy and attendant tax revenues;
Reductions in government expenditures for health and other services due to the positive impact of a GLI.

In 2019, the Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) released a paper showing how a Guaranteed Livable Income could be designed and financed.[4] Chapter 4 of the paper identified $202.6 Billion in revenue that could be raised from both federal and provincial sources to finance two of the BICN’s proposed GLI options. The itemized list of revenue sources presented in that chapter have been re-grouped according to the above list and the total revenues presented in the following table:

Income Source
Total Revenue ($Billions)

Cancellation of Federal Income Transfer Programs1
$58.8

Cancellation of Provincial Income Transfer Programs2
$16.2

Closure of tax loopholes3
$27.2

Increases in Personal Income Taxes
$8.2

Increases in Corporate Taxes
$17.4

Removal of Selected Non-refundable tax credits4
$74.9

TOTAL REVENUE
$202.7

Notes: 1 Includes the Working Income Tax Benefit, GST Credit, Guaranteed Income Supplement, Old Age Security and Spousal Allowance. 2 Includes social assistance. 3 Includes a range of items like the partial inclusion of capital gains, the employee stock option deduction, meals & entertainment deduction. 4 These include the basic exemption, pension income credit, caregiver credit, student loan interest credit and others.
In its report, Platform for Tax Fairness[5], Canadians for Tax Fairness identified a range of new taxes that could be levied which would target the wealthiest Canadians and corporations and would raise $40+ Billion in additional tax revenues.
In addition to these direct and immediate sources of funding is the additional tax revenue generated by the macro economic stimulus effect of providing low income individuals and families with additional income. A December 2020 report prepared by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis – Potential Economic Impacts and Reach of Basic Income Programs in Canada – indicates that providing Canadians with a GLI would lead to increased employment of between 298,000 and 346,000 people, grow the national economy by between $178 and $199 billion and generate between $46 and $52 billion in taxes over the first five years of the program.
Finally, as noted below, there may well be savings to government from reductions in the cost of other health and social programs due to the positive impact of a GLI on the lives of its recipients. However, there are no hard numbers for Canada on the size of those savings.

What is the effect of a GLI on people’s willingness to work?

Between the late 1960’s and 1970’s four social experiments were conducted in the United States and one in Canada (Manitoba) to determine the effect of a Guaranteed Income on working age adults’ level of work effort. The one Canadian experiment found that male heads worked 1 per cent fewer hours, secondary earners in two parent families worked 3 per cent fewer hours and female heads worked 7 per cent fewer hours. It is worth noting that a federal/provincial/territorial evaluation of the National Child Benefit program that started in the late 1990s found that the female spouse’s labour force participation also declined with the receipt of the child benefit but they used the extra hours for home-related work such as child rearing, care of dependent elderly family members and furthering their education.

What other effects does a GLI have on the lives of recipients?

The most immediate effect is to raise their income and lift many of them out of poverty. For example, a national GLI featuring a Guarantee equal to the MBM poverty line with a benefit reduction rate of 40 per cent would lower the national rate of poverty by 58 per cent. This immediate increase in income would generate the following positive spin-off effects, as documented in a recent article in the public health journal, Lancet Public Health[6]:

Teens more likely to remain in and complete high school;
Improved academic performance
Reduction in low birthweight babies and higher birthweights associated with higher benefits;
Lower probability of child obesity at age 3;
Less use of hospitals due mainly to fewer accidents or injuries and mental health diagnoses;
Improved mental health due in part to less financial stress;
Reduction in young adult obesity;
Reductions in criminal activity;

Qualitative evidence gleaned from both the Dauphin site and those who participated in the recent Ontario Basic Income Pilot project show that the provision of a guaranteed income had wide spread positive effects on participants. Many recipients reported improvements in their physical and mental health, labour market participation, food security, housing stability, financial status and social relationships. Basic income also had a noticeable impact on the use of health services, with many of the survey respondents indicating less frequent visits to health practitioners and hospital emergency rooms. For a significant number of participants, basic income purportedly proved to be transformational, fundamentally reshaping their living standards as well as their sense of self-worth and hope for a better future.[7]

What is the political opposition to adopting and implementing a GLI?

Likely the biggest barrier to implementing a GLI is the cost, particularly now that the pandemic has increased the federal deficit from $20 Billion in 2019/20 to a projected $381 Billion for 2020/21 and the federal government’s reluctance to raise taxes to pay for programs and services. In addition, a review of the federal government’s 2018 Poverty Reduction plan[8] reveals a clear preference for reserving income transfer programs for children and seniors. The only programs in its plan for working age adults are increases to the Canada Workers Benefit and the funding of a national housing strategy. This preference is likely grounded in the federal government’s reluctance to paying those deemed employable a guaranteed income. Also, some argue that a commitment to a permanent income support program will increase the structural deficit problem facing the federal government such that, even when the economy is operating at full capacity, the government runs a deficit. However, structural deficits arise because there is insufficient tax revenue being generated which is due, in part, to the existence of the kind of tax loopholes described above.
Prepared by Harvey Stevens, member of Young United Church in Winnipeg, whose history of involvement with the Guaranteed Income topic/issue includes:
– working for the Mincome Manitoba Guaranteed Income Experiment as a researcher between 1974 and 1976;
– co-authoring 3 peer-reviewed journal articles on the design of a Guaranteed Income for Canada between 2014 and 2017;
– undertaking the modeling for the Basic Income Canada Network’s paper, Basic Income: Some Policy Options for Canada, in 2019; and,
– providing the Special Committee on Poverty of Prince Edward Island with costed options for implementing a Basic Income program for that province in 2020.
January 2021
[1] The GST credit and the Climate Action incentive offer unconditional benefits to this group but they are very small amounts.
[2] For more information about the MBM, go to the Statistics Canada website and look up the document, Report on the second comprehensive review of the Market Basket Measure. Cat. No. 75f00002m.
[3] The Canada Child Benefit’s (CCB) definition of the demographic unit (the nuclear family) and the Canada Revenue Agency’s ‘net’ family income have been applied to all households living off reserve in the 10 provinces in 2019 to arrive at the cost of the four options.
[4] See, Basic Income: Some Policy Options for Canada. https://www.basicincomecanada.org/policy_options
[5] See, https://www.taxfairness.ca/sites/default/files/resource/c4tf_draft_federal_election_2019_platform_proposals_.pdf
[6] See: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30005-0/fulltext
[7] See: https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/documents/southern-ontarios-basic-income-experience.pdf
[8] See: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/poverty-reduction.html

Townhall meeting on Zoom
June 16, 2021 1pm PT/ 2pm MT

Celebration of Ministry & Sunday Worship
2021-06-13 10:00 - 12:00
The June 13th Celebration of Ministry and Sunday Worship will be held online, inviting all communities of faith and United Church people across the Regional Council to attend this important and meaningful worship experience.
Streaming from Highlands United, we will celebrate Commissionands, and experience the gift of Nadia Bolz-Weber preaching.
Click here for the YouTube worship link to share with your communities of faith.

General Meeting 2021 "With Hope and Abundance"
2021-06-11 - 2021-06-13
All Details for the 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council are here (click).
Gathering Together and Business of the Council: Friday June 11, Saturday June 12
The 3nd Annual General Meeting Gathering of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council will be held entirely online, using the event platform Whova.
Celebration of Ministry & Sunday Worship: June 13
The June 13th Celebration of Ministry and Sunday Worship will be held online, empowering all communities of faith and United Church people across the Regional Council to attend this important and meaningful worship experience.
The Celebration of Ministry will be live-streamed from United Online (Highlands United), and Nadia Bolz-Weber will be our preacher. Click here for the YouTube worship link to share with your communities of faith.

The Gathering Place
2021-06-08 10:00 - 11:30, 2021-05-11 10:00 - 11:30
This is a project of the Ministry Personnel Support Team (formerly Spiritual Care Network), welcoming United Church ministry personnel together for community and collegial support.
The Gathering Place will happen on Zoom
Tuesdays 10-11:30am PT / 11am-12:30pm MT
Join us online at 10am on the 2nd Tuesday of the month for ninety minutes of being in community. Check-in, pray, laugh, share sacred stories and maybe even sing a little – together. The Gathering Place is FREE and open to all Ministry Personnel in the Pacific Mountain Region, and hosted by the PMRC’s Ministry Personal Support Team!
For more information contact Marc Coulombe: mcoulombe@united-church.ca
Register to get the Zoom access here (click).

Calls to the Church: Listening to the Wisdom of the Elders
2021-06-04 18:30 - 19:30, 2021-06-03 18:30 - 19:30, 2021-06-02 18:30 - 19:30
4 evenings, starting June 1

Financial Forum
2021-06-03 14:00 - 15:00
Pre-General Meeting Financial Forum
Thursday June 3rd, 2-3pm PT / 3-4pm MT
Hosted by the Region’s finance council, Houston and Treena to provide and update to people who are interested about the regions finances.
To attend this gathering, please tick the box Financial Forum in the main General Meeting registration form.

Townhall Meeting: COVID Reopening Plans
2021-06-02 13:00 - 14:30
Click here for the recording of the Zoom Meeting.

Calls to the Church: Listening to the Wisdom of the Elders
2021-06-01 18:30 - 19:30
Four evenings, listening together
This four-session series will highlight the Calls to the Church approved at the 2018 General Council. The Calls to the Church document articulates the Indigenous Church’s vision for the ongoing development of Indigenous Peoples’ mission and ministry and communities of faith within The United Church of Canada. It outlines pathways for the whole church to continue to walk in the Spirit of Christ toward justice, healing, and reconciliation.
Four evenings

June 1 – 4, 2021

6:30 -7:30 pm PT / 7:30 -8:30 pm MT

Free

Register here.

Townhall Gathering ~ Affirming Ministry Update
2021-05-19 13:00 - 14:30
Members of the Affirming Process committee join the Townhall in preparation for the June 11-13 General Meeting.

Join the Townhall
Wednesday May 19, 2021
1-2:30pm PT / 2-3:30pm MT
https://united-church.zoom.us/j/96617102734?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 966 1710 2734
Password: [REDACTED]

One tap mobile
+15873281099,,96617102734# Canada
+16473744685,,96617102734# Canada

Dial by your location
* Please use local numbers when feasible to save costs for the church. *
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
855 703 8985 Canada Toll-free
Meeting ID: 966 1710 2734
Find your local number: https://united-church.zoom.us/u/abANn1n4O3

Red Dress Day ~ a Special Shared Townhall
2021-05-05 13:00 - 14:00
Video Resources from this event are available on the PMRC YouTube Channel.
Join us for Red Dress Day on Wednesday May 5
We commemorate the lives of Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit people who have been lost in our community. We look to our history, the decisions and catalysts that have created the inequalities Indigenous people face today. As we seek to rectify our relationships and reconcile with our Indigenous neighbours in the Calls to Action and the Calls to the Church, we share space with Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit People who have suffered and continue to suffer by remembering their lives and pledging to do better in our work to help them find equality and justice.
Pacific Mountain & Chinook Winds Shared Townhall Gathering
Date: May 5 2021
Time: 1pm PT / 2pm MT (1 hour)
Link: https://united-church.zoom.us/j/98231867711?pwd=[REDACTED]
Film Screening: Highway of Tears
Time: 6 PM PST (2 hours)
Link: https://united-church.zoom.us/j/95360654491
For more information contact Tony Snow at tony.snow@hillhurstunited.com.
Red Dress Beaded Pin
Treena Duncan bought the pin shown above from Gwen cMcCarthur, an Indigenous maker who is part of a Facebook group called “Shop Indigenous Women’s Market“. Thanks for the photo, Treena!

Regional Youth Virtual Trivia Night
2021-05-02 19:00 - 20:30
Regional Youth Virtual Trivia Night. The PMR First Third Ministry team is hosting an online trivia night for youth around the Pacific Mountain Regional Council! All youth and youth groups and leaders are warmly invited to make this Virtual Trivia Night one of your Youth Group nights in May – or an extra one, if you meet on other nights too. Come join regional leaders Jake Highfield, Sarah Prestwich, and Robyn Garland on Zoom for an evening of fun games, social connection, and cool prizes!

Young Adult Book Study: Braiding Sweetgrass
2021-04-29 19:00 - 20:15, 2021-04-22 19:00 - 20:15, 2021-04-15 19:00 - 20:15
4-week study, starting April 8

PMRC Townhall - this Wednesday, with Guest Rev Gary Paterson!
2021-04-21 13:00 - 14:30
Click here for the recording of the meeting.

A Place At The Table
Wednesday April 21, 2021
1pm PT/ 2pm MT
We’re coming together with Chinook Winds for a special Affirming Town Hall featuring former United Church of Canada Moderator, Rev. Gary Paterson!
Gary will share theological reflections, rooted contextually and in story, on what it means to be Affirming, working through the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” of Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience. As we explore more about what it might mean to be ‘Affirming’, join in faithful reflection alongside someone who has walked the Affirming journey in an intimate way for many decades.

Deepening Pastoral Practice Amidst Continuing Pandemic Realities
2021-04-14 10:00 - 12:00
Deepening Pastoral Practice Amidst Continuing Pandemic Realities   with Dr Julie Clayton and Michael Collins
This four-week workshop equips you with a framework to assess and evaluate where you currently find yourself in pastoral practice.
You’ll determine what is needed to address the ongoing traumatic waves that impact pandemic-ridden congregations.
Specific attention will be given to understanding the complex nature of family systems and how they impact an individual, a family unit, and the larger congregational community.
You’ll be empowered to respond with deepening holistic healing strategies that are trauma-informed and trauma-oriented.
