According to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, released Wednesday, 78,000 Saskatchewan children — 27.1 per cent — live in poverty.
Canada’s national child poverty rate is nearly 10 points lower than Saskatchewan’s at 18.3 percent.
“Scott Moe and the Sask. Party are making life more expensive and, frankly, it’s absolutely heartwrenching what they are putting too many young families and children though,” said Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck.
“Everything is more expensive, and young families are being crushed by the power rate hikes, taxes on groceries and children’s clothes, and rising rents. Saskatchewan is going in the wrong direction after 20 years of a Sask. Party government and people are leaving this province in droves.
“We have to act right here and right now to deliver change for families and make their lives more affordable.”
According the study, children under six in Saskatchewan are disproportionately likely to be living in poverty, with a 30.39 percent poverty rate — or almost one-third of all children. Almost one out of every two children in lone-parent families in Saskatchewan live in poverty (49.4 percent).
Carla Beck’s team continues to call on the Moe government to give hardworking families much-needed cost of living relief and remove the PST on children’s clothing as well as groceries, deliver rent control, and reverse course on the power bill and insurance rate hikes.
“Speaking as a former teacher, I know kids can’t learn in schools when they arrive hungry,” said Matt Love, Saskatchewan NDP Education Shadow Minister. “This is about giving our kids the best shot possible in life, and this government is failing miserably.
“If the Sask. Party cared about fixing this issue, we wouldn’t be ranked last in Canada. We need change and the only way we’ll get it is with a Carla Beck government.”
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