Saskatchewan has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, and Prince Albert is among the communities most affected, Cumberland MLA Jordan McPhail said.
According to a report released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Saskatchewan has the highest child poverty rate among Canadian provinces, with 27.1 percent of children living in poverty.
“We also see poverty rates in Prince Albert, where one in three kids are growing up in poverty,” McPhail said in an interview with the Daily Herald.
McPhail, the Saskatchewan NDP’s Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs, said the figures reflect long-standing affordability challenges, particularly in northern communities.
“So. I think the main reasons why we have such a higher rate of poverty in northern Saskatchewan is just the cost of the essentials of life are substantially higher in northern Saskatchewan, and also the means of which people have to get to a cheaper form of the essentials of life,” he said.
He described examples of high food and utility costs reported by families.
“We were hearing firsthand from people in Fond du Lac, Stony Rapids, and Black Lake, they pay $200 to $400 for single bags of groceries from grocery stores in northern Saskatchewan,” McPhail said.
McPhail also added the high utility costs faced by residents.
“We saw $1,200 SaskPower bills from families and individuals living in northern Saskatchewan,” he added. “Cost of fuel: $2-$3 per litre for regular gas up in northern Saskatchewan.”
McPhail said higher prices often force residents to travel to cities such as Prince Albert to access more affordable groceries and services.
He said poverty can affect children’s ability to learn and succeed in school.
“I’m raising two little ones, and I know that they are far better off when they get into a school with a full belly ready to learn,” he said. “They will not be able to do that without having the food in their belly and ready to work, ready to learn.”
He also pointed to housing shortages and limited childcare access as contributing factors.
“We’re seeing overcrowding in housing because there’s a lack of housing in northern Saskatchewan,” McPhail said, adding families face “insurmountable challenges trying to get their kids into affordable daycare situations.”
He shared an example of how families are coping with rising food costs.
“They said, because of the cost of the milk in some of these areas, what they’ve had to do is they’ve had to take the milk once it was half drunk through the gallon, and they’d have to refill it with water, water down the milk to make it stretch a few more days just to make sure that they were able to provide some nutritional value for multiple days to families,” he said.
In a written statement provided to the Daily Herald, the Government of Saskatchewan said affordability remains a priority and pointed to measures introduced in the provincial budget.
“At a time when cost-of-living pressures are affecting all Canadians, affordability challenges remain top of mind for our government,” the government said in the statement.
The province said the Saskatchewan Low-Income Tax Credit is increasing by five percent annually over four years and will benefit more than 300,000 individuals and families.
The government also highlighted income supports, housing programs, and childcare investments aimed at helping low-income residents.
“Through the Ministry of Social Services, our government provides income support and access to safe, affordable housing for families with low incomes,” the statement said.
Officials said income assistance benefits have increased in recent years and include additional supports for northern residents facing higher living costs.
“Income assistance programs include enhanced supports for clients living in northern communities to help address the higher cost of living in these areas,” the government said.
The province also pointed to childcare agreements, housing investments, and tax relief measures, saying affordability initiatives provide more than $250 million in tax savings this year.
With the provincial budget recently introduced, McPhail said he believes more action is needed.
“We’ve been talking about cutting the PST on groceries and kids’ clothes. They have the opportunity right now to put the money into the people’s pockets in Saskatchewan, making life more affordable,” he said. “They can scrap their increases on the SaskPower rate hikes, they can scrap their rate hikes on SGI rates.”
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
