Child poverty affects future leaders
Victoria Times Colonist
November 28, 2009
By Edith Loring-Kuhanga, First Nations Training and Consulting Services

Once again, B.C. made history on child poverty: Six consecutive years of having the highest rate of child poverty in Canada.

The First Call B.C. Child Poverty Report Card's statistics are in reference to 2007 -- before our province was impacted by the global recession -- how disgraceful and shameful to our future leaders!

As we have seen with the Liberal government, it is so removed from the everyday British Columbian that it is disgusting. Listening to Mary Polak on CFAX Radio made me realize how little the Liberal government knows about the public it is suppose to be serving in B.C.

She said that she did not feel that the minimum wage had a correlation to poverty since the majority of those who are getting minimum wage are youth who are living at home with their parents.

Many of our young people are young parents who are earning minimum wage in our province. Many of our single parents are barely surviving on minimum wage.

As the cost of living continues to increase so do the chances of our young people being successful and contributing members to our society. I would like to challenge Mary Polak to live on minimum wage for three months and see what impact it has on her child.

When are Premier Gordon Campbell and his cronies going to wake up and see what impact that their short-term decision making is going to have on our future leaders of this province?