A new report shows Saskatchewan has the third highest rate of poverty among children in Canada.
The report from Campaign 2000: End Child & Family Poverty said that one in five children in Canada live in homes below the poverty line. In Saskatchewan, that number is one in four.
"With poverty comes, you know, the housing isn’t good, the health isn’t good, the education is minimal," said Delora Parisian, Executive Director of the Eagle Heart Centre.
The report shows the national average of children in Canada under the age of 18 years old who is poverty is 19.6 per cent. In Saskatchewan, that number is higher at 26.7 per cent.
For children under the age of six who live in poverty, the national average is 20.7 per cent. Saskatchewan has the third-highest rate atis 29.2 per cent.
The report also shows that child and family poverty rates among first nations are at 37.9 per cent. Parisian said there needs to be Indigenous consolation in regards to anti-poverty actions.
"Setting the policies, leading up the focus groups, carrying out what they feel needs to happen within the community not what somebody comes and tells us," said Parisian.
Peter Gilmer, an advocate with the anti-poverty ministry, says a big reason why Saskatchewan has such high rates of poverty is the province has large inequalities among its residents.
"I think that everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living and that we need to make sure that protections are in place," Gilmer said.
The Ministry of Social Services says it has a 10-year strategy to reduce the number of people living in poverty in the province. It wants to drop the poverty rate by 50 per cent by 2025.
