Anti-poverty initiative encouraging Regina residents to donate tax credit cheques

A local initiative is encouraging Regina residents to donate their upcoming tax credit cheques to anti-poverty organizations.

Earlier this year, the Saskatchewan government announced it would be distributing $500 affordability cheques this fall, to residents who filed their taxes in 2021.

Share the Credit Regina Equity Project aims to direct affordability tax credit funding from the province towards four local shelters in Regina.

Carol Schick advocates for the Share the Credit program and is hoping the project can make a difference in people’s lives.

“The main idea is to see if the tax credit can be used more effectively and collectively to help address the horrendous issue of poverty in Regina,” Schick said.

Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, North Central Family Centre, Carmichael Outreach and All Nations Hope are the shelters and agencies that will benefit from the donations.

Rally Around Homelessness is preparing for a tough winter and are distributing sleeping bags to those in need.

“We just want everybody geared up for the cold weather,” Alysia Johnson, with Rally Around Homelessness, said. “There is going to be a lot of people battling minus 30 winds and trying to be sheltered this winter.”

Johnson adds that there are also fewer services available for people affected by poverty than this time last year.

Nineteen per cent of Saskatchewan’s population lives in poverty, while child poverty in the province is the second highest rate in Canada at 26 per cent, according to a 2021 study by the University of Regina.

The University of Regina and the City of Regina have created a survival guide that includes a directory of services for those in need.

“What they have is a service directory that outlines various centres that offer food and other services, emergency shelter services, free clothing, and needle exchange,” Johnson said.

The donations will be split evenly across the four organizations, or a donor can decide where they would Ike to see their money go within an organization.

Schick asks those who are not struggling to consider donating to local advocacy groups.

“Some of these organizations have been working for 50 years,” Schick said. “When they started they thought [poverty] would be over but in many ways it has gotten worse.”

People who are interested in helping out a specific organization can do so by going to their online donation pages.