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VANCOUVER — The British Columbia NDP has released a poverty-fighting plan it says will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands families in the province.

On the election campaign trail in Vancouver, New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix says an NDP government would raise welfare rates and implement a family bonus program.

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As many as 300,000 families would get payments of up to $70 a month per child in family bonuses, and the welfare increases are part of the $558 million NDP plan to reduce poverty in B.C.

Dix says the NDP is funding much of the proposed changes through plans to increase taxes on corporate, bank and high income earners, and to rework the carbon tax so gas companies pay for extra venting costs.

The NDP’s budgeting also includes the $146 million the Liberal government planned to give B.C. families as part of a $55 monthly bonus for families with children six-years-old and younger.

Welfare rates for single people and couples without children would increase by $20 a month and earnings exemptions would double to $400 a month.