With the amount of wealth in this province, it’s hard to believe that 25 per cent of the children in the Peace River-Westlock riding are living below the poverty line.
That’s the finding of a Campaign 2000 report, released in June that documented child poverty on a riding-by -riding basis.
Numbers for our local riding were among the highest in the country as of 2016.
How can this be and how do we solve the problem?
The authors of the report and its representatives point to a higher minimum wage, a national pharmacare program and a universal child care system, among others, as partial solutions. Unfortunately, those also require political will and are unsupportable to a large portion of voters because they will likely result in higher taxes.
The cycle of poverty is vicious and it’s difficult to understand unless you’ve actually wondered where your next meal, or your child’s next meal, will come from. It’s about more than bad luck or laziness as some may have you believe. This goes beyond bleeding-heart liberals trying to naively change the world.
We’re talking about hungry children, here, in our own neighbourhoods.
Something as simple as missing breakfast can unfortunately have life-long implications.
A single mother, working two jobs sends her child to school without breakfast. The child is so hungry they can’t concentrate on their studies and are eventually placed in a remedial class, which appears on their permanent record and makes it harder for them to attend college, gain an education and achieve success.
Instead they grow up, work two or three menial jobs like their mother did and send their kids to school hungry and the cycle repeats itself.
There are very real systemic issues at play and while we hear the success stories of people picking themselves up by their bootstraps and achieving success, we don’t often hear about those who lack the upward social mobility to change their circumstances.
The point is, it’s hard to get ahead once you’re down and something needs to change that. And if taxes have to be hiked to make sure no more children go hungry, then so be it.
