Less money in more pockets

Rev. Terry O'Connor addresses North Bay council Monday night about poverty. Photo by Bill Tremblay, Special to BayToday.ca.

Fifteen years ago the House of Commons voted to abolish child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.

Rev. Terry O'Connor says the politicians have failed.

Now over one million Canadian children live in poverty, O'Connor told North Bay city council Monday night; the child poverty rate has actually increased to 15.6 percent.

“That’s one million too many,” said O’Connor, a member of Campaign 2000,a Canada-wide group of 90 organizations working together to solve the problem of poverty in Canada.

O'Connor said one-third of Canadian kids have experienced at least one year of hunger.

“We have to achieve the goal of no poor children," O’Connor said.

Rev. O’Connor blames the federal and provincial governments for the increased rate of poverty in Canada, and the only way to stop poverty, he said, is to let these governments know Canadians care.

“We have to raise the issue. We have to let Anthony Rota and Monique Smith know that we are concerned,” O’Connor said.

“Hopefully people will say, look it, we have to do something about poverty.”

The issue hasn't been raised, O'Connor said, because it's not easy for people who live in poverty topic to talk about it.

“People don’t brag about going to the soup kitchen or the food bank. People aren’t proud about being poor,” O’Connor said.

He explained that raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour could help solve the problem of poverty.

“Ontario needs a raise,” O’Connor said.

Another way to wipe out poverty, O’Connor said, is to make affordable housing available.

“Since 1995, not a unit of affordable housing has been erected."

O’Connor said Canada needs a cure for poverty, not a “band aid”, and the only way for this to happen is through the people.

“I want them to get angry.”