The Causes of Poverty

On Wednesday at noon, Wendy picked Mark up at school and we went for lunch. The blizzard was just picking up steam and I didn't want him to go back to school. Mark doesn't miss much school and wasn't impressed that I was pulling him out (now classes were cancelled about an hour later and schools were closed along with the malls and most businesses within two hours) in case he missed something important. I assured him he wouldn't fall that far behind and all was good.

Sadly there are about 2000 kids who are truant in Saskatoon which is a phrase I did not learn in school but rather from Archie comics as a kid. Growing up in our neighborhood, it wasn't much of a problem but for many it is. So if you are not in school (whether it be traditional public or home schools), where do you learn to read and write?

For some reason, I thought illiteracy was restricted to legislators and fundementalists but day in and day out now, I am spending time with people that a large percentage can not or do not read at a level high enough to function in any workplace and in many social settings. If you can't read, you don't even know about many of the jobs in the first place. Around here, I bug a co-worker who put up a sign that says, "Want to Learn How to Read? Talk to --------". Now I know that her sign was put up for people who are close to or are friends with people who are illiterate but it does remind me what an isolated world people who are illiterate are and how hard it is to deal with it. I have a feeling that Jacques Demers (former coach of the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens) is the exception that proves the rule and that is if you are illiterate and an adult, most are condemned to a life of poverty.

Saskatchewan Liberal Party leader, David Karwacki wants to add a bonus on Social Services checks for the poor whose kids attend schools to deal with the truancy issue. He says he doesn't want it to be punitive but rather as an incentive. Straight up it makes some sense and those ideas have been used in poorer areas of the world to reward what society believes are good behaviours. At the same time, for those who don't care to enroll their kids in school, will a extra $100 a month make a difference? I don't know but I am glad someone is starting a debate about this, even if I don't totally agree with his answers.

I wonder if there needs to be a punitive aspect of this as well. Saskatoon has schools all over the place and if you aren't in walking distance, the two school boards will bus or taxi your kids to the nearest school all for free. Should a check from the Government of Saskatchewan and through the Child Tax Benefit, the Government of Canada not come with the basic exception that the children that the government is funding go to school? If one can't prove that they are attending class, should those benefits continue? Now when I hear that argument, part of me fears that it won't change anything except that Saskatoon's most at risk kids will become even more at risk.

I have been having these discussions with Gloria Reimer about what a church can do to relieve poverty in the inner cities. So far our discussion has been about short term needs but I wonder more and more if the focus needs to be on the long game which is education - literacy, math skills, computer skills as well as what I am going to call margin housing. Medium term subsidized housing that gives some financial margin back into people's lives with some performance conditions (kids attending school, work or job training, rehab if needed). While it isn't that common in Canada, it is more common in the United States and from what I have read, has generated some excellent results.

Just some Sunday morning thoughts. If after reading my contradictions above, you want to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

For more information:

• Aboriginal Gangs in Prairie Provinces in "Crisis Proportions" :: In the executive summary, the report notes, "In1992, the Lynn Report stated that, Oit was said that an aboriginal youth had a better chance of going to jail than graduating from Grade 12 ­ this is still true today."
• 1 in 4 Saskatoon kids live in poverty :: Saskatoon beats the national average in the child poverty rate...  The report card, released on National Child Day, shows that more than one in four children in the city lives in poverty – and most of them can be found in one section of town.
• Half (52 per cent) of Aboriginal residents in the Saskatoon Census Metropolitan Area (which includes adjacent municipalities) lived below Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut Off (LICO) in 2001 -- the second highest
  proportion of any comparable area in the country (Regina is marginally higher at 53 per cent).
• A statistical look at urban poverty :: Among Canada's largest urban centres, Winnipeg, Montréal and Saskatoon have the highest rates of poverty for children under the age of five. In these cities, one-quarter of preschool-aged children are poor. By contrast, Oshawa and Kitchener, Ontario have the lowest rates.
• End Child Poverty in Canada from Make Poverty History

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