Investing in people wise policy

The annual report card on Canadian food bank usage came out last week, and the good news is that in Saskatchewan it fell by three per cent in the past year. The bad news is that use has still increased 38 per cent since 2008.

The numbers show that 47 per cent of the users are under the age of 18 years, while 84 per cent of the users are on some form of government assistance, which suggests they are not working. In March, 24,621 people accessed food banks in Saskatchewan.

Government mentality for decades across North America has been that those on social assistance need to be hungry and do without, because people would not want to work if the assistance is too generous. Out of that came workfare and a variety of other forced “incentives” to get people to work rather than seek assistance. Such programs rarely had an impact, and often made the problem worse. Even today’s policy reflects the old way of thinking: Social assistance rates are always set below the lowest paid work. Despite provincial guidelines that those who qualify for the Saskatchewan Assistance Program are unemployable, we don’t give them adequate money to purchase enough food each month.

For many, even “affordable living” rent is higher than they can afford under Saskatchewan’s rental supplement. The shortfall in rent has to be taken out of the money designated for food. Being housed for many means to go hungry.

Not only does underfunding basic food allowances cause short-term problems, but it costs us more as a province in the long term. A 2008 study by the Wellesley Institute shows that raising the income of the poorest 20 per cent of Canadians by $1,000 a year would lead to 10,000 fewer chronic conditions.

The Ontario Association of Food Banks points out that poverty issues cost the Canadian health-care system about $7.6 billion a year. In British Columbia alone, it costs the province around $2.3 billion for poverty-related issues.

When all the societal costs are tallied, the amount grows to $8.2 billion. Meanwhile, a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy has been assessed at less than $4 billion a year. The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action.

Governments love to focus on the short-term projects such as housing, which have immediate political payoff, rather than invest in poverty reduction projects that may take a generation to pay off. There are few politicians and governments outside Alberta that have the longevity and ability to take a long view on anything.

Instead, we break up problems, try to take a shortterm win here and there, and call it progress. As the numbers show, it isn’t progress, and the problem is getting worse.

We have known about the issue for years. In 2002, city council adopted the Saskatoon Food Charter that reads in part: “Food is more than a commodity. It is a basic right. Every Saskatoon resident should have access to an adequate supply of nutritious, affordable and safe food without social and economic barriers.”

While the city, non-profit agencies and thousands of citizens have done a lot in trying to bring this ideal to reality, the provincial government continues to be the biggest obstacle for many who don’t have enough to eat. While the province is right to focus on housing, to ignore food security and basic needs hurts the people who will fill the apartments the government is so desperately trying to build.

There are many ways to tackle hunger in Saskatchewan, but it starts with giving people who are on social assistance enough money to afford food. While some claim this will lead to a dramatic increase in social assistance numbers, the opposite has been found.

Newfoundland and Labrador has increased benefits as part of its poverty reduction strategy, and the result is that more people are leaving the social assistance program than ever before. Instead of merely trying to survive, they gained the ability to make the changes to get ahead.

We need to invest in housing units for people, as well as invest in the people who will call them home.

The current system doesn’t work. It hasn’t for decades. It’s part of the problem, not part of the solution. The fact that almost 25,000 people in our province need help from non-profits is something that we need to address now, not later.

Food banks across the province can deal with the symptoms, but the Saskatchewan government needs to address the problem. In this case, the problem is decades-long flawed policies that have become the status quo.