A message to Honourable Janice MacKinnon: Saskatchewan didn't reduce its child poverty rate between 1989 and 1997
Nipawin - November 21, 2000 - by: Mario deSantis
48,300	A report on child poverty published yesterday, Monday November 20, by Campaign 2000,
	shows these dramatic events for the year 1998(1):
	- One Canadian child in five is living in poverty.
	-1.34 million children under the age of 18 lived below the poverty line, or 43
	per cent more than in 1989.
	- UNICEF reports that Canada ranks 17th among 23 of the "rich nations club",
	those countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
	Development (OECD).
	- The number of poor children was 48,300 in Saskatchewan.
	- The rate of child poverty was 18.7% for Saskatchewan, and the highest child
	poverty rate was 25.1% for Newfoundland.
excludes those on First Nations reserves	I observed more attentively the statistics about our province, and I felt that something could
	have been wrong in reporting the fact that Saskatchewan was not included among the
	provinces with the highest child poverty rates. Our provincial auditor has reported
	previously a much more disastrous situation for our school children and therefore I read
	the full report to find out if our Saskatchewan figures were biased. And yes, I found out in
	a note of the report that "Statistics Canada data excludes those on First Nations reserves;
	those in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut; and children living in institutions."
14% of the total population	Now, we have to understand that Saskatchewan has the highest growing aboriginal
	population of any other province. Also, Saskatchewan has one of the highest proportion
	of aboriginal people, that is 14% of the total population and this proportion is expected to
	rise to 45% by the year 2045(2). We must once again thank our provincial auditor to let us
	know the truth when he said that "up to 40% of Saskatchewan's school-aged children are
	at risk of doing poorly in school(3)" because they are so poor. Also, the provincial auditor
	has stated that "about 90% of children attend schools within the provincially-funded system,
	while the remaining 10% attend schools within the federally funded system (band schools
	in Indian reserve)."
28.7%	It is not true that our child poverty rate is 18.7%, and if we take into consideration the fact
	that Indian children live in desperate conditions in their reserves, than the child rate can be
	estimated to be not less than 28.7% (Indian preschooler children are not included in this
	rate of 28.7%). That is whenever we include our children living in Indian reserves our
	provincial child poverty rate is not less than 28.7%, the highest child poverty rate all
	across Canada.
written off	Honourable Janice MacKinnon didn't tell us the truth when she said that Saskatchewan
	"was the only province to reduce its child poverty rate between 1989 and 1997(4)." This
	government has written off the most indigent and weak segment of our population, and at
	the same time it has provided an economic growth for natives based on gambling and not
	education. And this is why we have a corrupted Indian leadership(5), because we have
	corrupted governments(6) gambling with the lives of our most defenseless people, our
	children, native and not native.
------------References/endnotes:
	List of relevant articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign
1.	Child Poverty in Canada, Report Card 2000, Campaign 2000
2. -	Aboriginals poised to irrevocably alter political landscape, by Adam Killick, National Post, February 07, 2000
3. -	1999 Fall Report, Volume 2, Report of the Provincial Auditor, Saskatchewan, Chapter 2, Education, pages 117-132
4. -	Honourable Janice MacKinnon: debating the economic underdevelopment of Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 2000
5. -	2000 Fall Report: Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority and Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, Volume 2, Report of the Provincial Auditor, Saskatchewan
6. -	Today's most important problem: Lack of democracy of our leaders in power, be native or not native, by Mario deSantis, November 17, 2000

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