More money not the only answer
Standing committee receives input from organizations working to make life better for many Islanders
Alyse Rossitter has felt the degrading sting of poverty.
After losing her job five years ago due to layoffs, the single mother of three spent two years living on social assistance.
She increasingly felt like a burden to herself, to her family and to society.
The work management program at the Adventure Group – a non-profit education and training organization that addresses needs of young people and their parents – turned her thinking, and her life, around.
She began focusing on her strengths and stopped harping on her weaknesses.
Her confidence and skills grew, and she took advantage.
Today, she is a facilitator of the same life and work management program she tackled as a client of the Adventure Group.
“It was just really knowing that I could be more than just what I was when I was on social assistance,’’ she says.
Rossitter shared her compelling personal story with the standing committee on poverty in P.E.I. on Friday.
The committee members lauded her success.
Now she hopes they take her message to heart – and take effective action.
“Making money is not the only factor in eliminating poverty,’’ she told The Guardian following her presentation to the committee, which is charged with reporting fully costed recommendations to the legislative assembly regarding the creation of a basic income guarantee pilot for the province.
“We need to pick the people up out of the water and figure out why they are falling in in the first place,’’ Rossitter adds.
“You can give people lots of money, but if they don’t know what to do with it or they don’t know how to function in a way that is healthy, they’re not going to get themselves out of where they are now. They are just going to keep falling down.’’
Many Islanders need a higher level of income to rise above the poverty line.
Marcia Carroll, executive director of the P.E.I Council for People with Disabilities,
believes the province should use the market basket measure to gauge poverty.
She notes the federal government uses this measure, which is based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services representing a modest, basic standard of living.
“So, if we are going to measure (poverty) let’s measure the way the federal government is so that we are speaking a common language,’’ she said.
Social Development and Housing Minister Ernie Hudson, a member of the standing committee on poverty, told The Guardian that the market basket measure seems to be the “way to go’’ but added the committee has yet to compile its recommendations to establish clear definitions and measures of poverty.
Carroll told the committee that people living with disabilities need $2,000 per month to cover basic living expenses like food, clothing and shelter – almost double what they currently receive. This money, she adds, needs to be in addition to assistance received through the provincial accessibility support program.
Carroll notes roughly 20 per cent of Islanders live with disabilities. Of those, about 40 per cent live in poverty.
“It’s a grim picture,’’ she told the committee.
She says the province’s strong economy and a recently announced provincial surplus of $57 million should allow the government to pump more money into poverty reduction sooner rather than later.
She adds the government must be able to measure how effective money is being utilized in attempts to lift Islanders out of poverty.
“They need to know that they have a good, robust program that is actually working,’’ she says.
Mike Redmond, residential manager of Bedford-MacDonald House, notes money alone will not pave the way out of poverty for many of the shelter clients he serves.
“They need to have supports along the way,’’ he says.
Redmond adds some people are not equipped to live on their own but can do well with appropriate supports.
He says better allocation of resources, not simply tossing money at the problem, is needed to more effectively address poverty.
Hudson says it is too early to say how much of the provincial surplus might go towards addressing poverty in the province.
However, he welcomed the input Friday from three organizations that are working hard to make life better for many Islanders in the throes of poverty.
“These groups have a tremendous amount of respect for each other, and they do work together very collaboratively,’’ he says.
“I think it’s important to hear these comments.’’