Presentation to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

Text of the presentation made by Jeff Anderson, Treasurer, on behalf of the BC Persons with AIDS Society to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Governement Services of the Government of British Columbia on October 9, 2001. The Society believes that it saves health care dollars, improves the condition of its members and empowers them to return to work, perform the important work of developing public policy and improving treatment effectiveness and contribute to improved health for all British Columbians. The Society outlined how much funding it received from the BC Government and how that funding was spent (Living+ Magazine, the Treatment Information Program, Support and Peer Counselling, the Advocacy department and administration) and that it matched each dollar from the provincial governement with a dollar seventeen from private, public and corporate support. The Society encourages the goverment to continue its support and the support its endorsement breeds with private and public funders, to continue to see BCPWA as partners in the battle against AIDS and to meet three challenges over the next three budget years: AIDS prevention, access to treatment and community based research, and office space for the AIDS community, BCPWA and AIDS Vancouver.