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That’s not what we’ve got now. Take a look at Budget 2017 and you might conclude that our method of determining social spending is piecemeal and disjointed. While some people’s lives will no doubt improve due to changes introduced in this year’s budget, that will be more about the luck of the draw than the result of planning.

We would never invest in bridges, roads, schools and hospitals without a clear sense of why we were undertaking a project and what outcomes we were aiming for. But investments in social infrastructure are made without the overarching vision, goals and planning that would help to ensure better outcomes for people.

Many billions of dollars are spent every year in B.C. on human services and hundreds of thousands of British Columbians rely on these every day — daycare, early childhood intervention supports, schools, seniors’ care, immigrant settlement, community mental-health programs, foster care, income assistance and more. But we’ve never had the public conversation to establish the measurable, meaningful results we want to achieve in B.C. We haven’t established consistent funding or viewed such services through the lens of improving social determinants of health.

Consider the most-reported aspect of the 2017 budget: The reduction in Medical Services Plan premiums for families with household incomes below $120,000. It’s always nice to have more money in our pockets, but will the reduction actually improve people’s lives? Are the families who will benefit from reduced premiums the ones who most need a financial break right now? Where is the money coming from to cover the loss in premiums — and what other services will suffer as a result?