The face of poverty
Alaska Highway News
February 22, 2008
Opinion By: Hardy Friedrich

There are two faces to Fort St. John. One looks real good: a $60,000 truck loaded with two snowmobiles, brand new hockey gear for the kids and a stocked fridge and bar at home. They are the ones living in the oil and gas rich North Peace, which boasts one of the highest disposable income rates in Canada at nearly $40,000. This face is invariably tied to a man's mug.

Then - and there's no flashy way to dress this up - there's the 17 per cent of the population that lives below the poverty line. Since they are not decked-out in chrome, they are not nearly as visible on a trip through the city. The face: a single mother.

A new report that investigates the relationship between women and their community using employability and health sheds light on the struggles that women face in Fort St. John. But unlike most studies that end in graphs and generalizations, and that group together factions of the community that are as far apart as different continents under a middle-class stereotype, this report ends in the faces of 18 women. And that's where its impact lies.

The personal story from one woman in the report about how her family's health is suffering because they cannot afford to eat grabs the eye quicker than would a graph on income levels. This inquiry method - called Feminist Action Research - visits the problem rather than weighing it against a societal curve, which in Fort St. John's case is steep.

One woman in the study says: "...the only job I could get right now would be for minimum wage and I would have to pay for two children in diapers, which costs more than potty trained children for daycare. It wouldn't be worth it; I think my whole wage would pretty much go to daycare."

Powerful. And from that health and economic base, the study branches out into stories of violence, abuse and harassment in the workplace. But how much of an impact the study will have in creating change will depend on how much weight it receives from governments….

While this may only be the stories of 18 women, the point is they live in a community that is capable of providing a lot more help. It is a social injustice that single mothers are forced to be unknown faces in a 'have' city, which in ways even facilitates their struggle.

The study has brought new faces to the table, and it's time for politicians to start looking to it for answers.