BURST
Former youth-in-care Jade Ryan was hoping to get some tuition support from the province to help cover her classes at Douglas College this fall on her road to a nursing degree.
Instead, the 26-year-old is struggling to make ends meet and has taken up work at a strip club several times a week just to pay the bills because the B.C. General Employees Union strike, alongside Canada Post service disruptions, have caused extensive delays with application processing and payment delivery for a number of government grant programs.
“Now that my shifts are increasing to three to four days a week, I’m expecting a little bit more money,” said Ryan. “But it’s also just frustrating because I turn 27 in May, and that means I lose my support in May, and MCFD (Ministry of Children and Family Development) has no plan for youth after they turn 27 except to put them back on disability support.”
Ryan’s story puts a public face on the impacts of the BCGEU strike, which is now in its seventh week and doesn’t appear likely to end anytime soon.
Union president Paul Finch has escalated job action to the point where all public liquor stores are shuttered and many government ministries are operating with a skeleton crew. He said he would be willing to settle for a wage increase of eight per cent over two years, while the government’s latest offer sits at five per cent, although the union disputes the offer is even that high overall.
Ryan is no stranger to advocating for herself, having sent a letter to the province in 2021 urging the B.C. government to do more to support former youth in care once they have aged out, especially amid COVID-19.
She told Postmedia News that she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to access the $5,500 she had applied for through the ministry’s strengthening abilities and journeys of empowerment program, which provides former youth-in-care income and educational support up until age 27.
“There was no email, like general email sent out to all the youth on the SAJE program letting them know that MCFD has joined the strike and services will be delayed,” said Ryan, who said she didn’t end up hearing anything until late September.
A series of emails sent to Ryan by her new SAJE worker, Rebecca York, starting Sept. 25 outline how the program is being forced to prioritize former youth-in-care with immediate safety concerns. She said the ministry’s ability to help others, such as Ryan, has been curtailed.
“Because of the current strike and the impact to our program, our ability to provide services is very limited,” York told Ryan. “I know this might be frustrating and I really appreciate your patience and understanding.”
It isn’t just delays with the SAJE funding that Ryan is dealing with, as the BCGEU strike has also shut down StudentAid B.C.’s website, leaving students unable to apply for funding or access money they have already been approved for, and needs-based funding through the United Way won’t arrive until the end of the semester in December.
Ryan said she also had to fight to get on Douglas College’s health insurance plan because MCFD won’t cover the treatments she needs to help manage her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disease that affects a person’s connective tissue. The hypermobile form of the disease that Ryan has leaves her vulnerable to dislocated muscles and other injuries that can happen for seemingly no reason.
She said she ended up having to borrow $500 from the family she used to live with to cover the cost to get on the insurance plan, which covers physiotherapy, chiropractic appointments and pain management medication.
A recent car accident also created a further strain on her finances as she had to pay for a new car with her ICBC settlement and the car turned out to be faulty, leading her to buy another one at added expense. She uses the car to get to classes and medical appointments.
As for making ends meet amid all this, Ryan said she has been picking up a couple shifts a week at a local strip club. She said that some nights she can make as much as $600 after paying the fees owed to the club, while other nights she leaves with nothing.
“Sometimes guys will come in just to have a drink and they have no intention of tipping anyone,” said Ryan. “It was also a big learning curve for me, because you are essentially, in a way, selling yourself and saying, like, ‘Hey, come dance with me.’ ”
Neither Children and Family Development Minister Jodie Wickens or Jennifer Charlesworth, representative for children and youth, were available to comment on Ryan’s situation Monday but, in a statement, the ministry acknowledged the challenges brought about by the strike, stating that 600 of the 5,000 employees of MCFD are currently involved in job action.
It said that people can still submit applications through SAJE but that there may be delays in hearing back and in receiving funding.
Premier David Eby also weighed in and said situations like Ryan’s are why both sides need to come to the table and reach an agreement.
“There are programs that are experiencing delays, and it’s not just a grant program or an educational program, it’s also student loans, business permits, getting a bottle of wine for Thanksgiving,” said the premier. “We have made a fair offer to the workers to keep them in-line with inflation, make sure that they’re not falling behind, but recognizing that the province is in considerable financial strain, and that we have to be fair to taxpayers as well.”