The NIMBY dimwits

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2015 (3073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The argument began, as arguments often do, on new social media under the cloak of anonymity.

There is a theme running rampant on Facebook and Twitter that will probably be part of Grey Cup conversations at the half, over nachos and buffalo wings.

It goes something like this: The poverty rate/homeless rate/unemployment rate is so high, why are we wasting our money to sponsor 25,000 refugees from Syria?

To the woman who posed that question on a Facebook page Tuesday night, I do apologize for calling you sanctimonious. But you’ll have to forgive me for being just a bit impatient with this line of questioning.

Frankly, we’ve always had poor people in Canada. We’ve always had homeless people in Canada. And unemployment, while it may ebb and flow, is a reality as well. Prior to the decision to let in refugees, who are fleeing terrorism and a civil war, what exactly did we do to alleviate the suffering of Canadians? Or is this just another subtle way of saying, not in my backyard, not that religion.

Last weekend, one of my favourite executive directors, David Northcott, talked about Winnipeg Harvest’s 30th anniversary. As he put it, the need for food banks in Winnipeg, in Manitoba and in Canada, wasn’t supposed to last 30 years. It was just supposed to feed the hungry until the 1980s recession ended, but that moment never came. Back when Winnipeg Harvest opened in 1985, it served 4,420 people. In 2014-15, it served 60,000. The numbers keep rising.

Monday, statistics revealed Manitoba’s child-poverty rate is one of the highest in Canada, at 29 per cent, a full 10 percentage points higher than the rest of the country. But in 1989, the same year the House of Commons passed a resolution to end child poverty, the poverty rate was at 15.8 per cent. So child poverty rates nationally have been abysmally high for a while now.

And in a week of statistics blitzes, the homeless stats for Winnipeg were revealed Wednesday. The United Nations declared 1987 the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. It was made clear that developed countries, including Canada, had a homeless problem. However, the federal government responded by terminating spending on the construction of new social housing units and in 1996, went further and transferred responsibility for social housing to the provinces. Wednesday, the Winnipeg Street Census team, co-ordinated by the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg revealed its homeless count: 1,700 people are currently in some stage of homelessness, either in transitional housing, in emergency shelters or couch surfing.

The point is, while things are bad in Winnipeg, in Manitoba and in Canada, it’s been bad for some time, long before there were Syrian refugees we could reject in the name of financial prudence. Poverty activists have been sounding the alarm for years that for a certain percentage of people, the dream of a steady job, a good income and a safe place to live, is just that: a dream. Yet, when there are discussions about doing more to alleviate poverty and homelessness and hunger, a certain segment of those who have seem uninterested in helping those who have not. It’s easy to feel good about dropping a tin in the bin for Winnipeg Harvest once a year. It’s not easy to feel good at tax time, when the governments come calling for additional money to be spent on social housing, improving social benefits or ensuring that employment is well paid and permanent.

This country is wealthy enough to help those at home and those overseas. It doesn’t have to drive up deficits, it just needs to be made a priority, and people have to be willing and innovative to look at solutions that go beyond building more shelters and opening more food banks.

Take for example the City of Medicine Hat. In 2009, it made the decision to end homelessness. In 2015, it pretty much has. Local landlords and property management companies, municipal, provincial and federal governments and citizens have all played a role in this. Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston says the goal is that “within 10 days of discovering that you don’t have a place, we’ll get you a permanent residence.” No need to stay in shelters. No need to sober up first. An apartment.

Clugston, a self-described fiscal conservative, says his plan “makes financial sense. That’s how I had my epiphany and was converted. You can actually save money by giving somebody some dignity and giving them a place to live.” What they’ve discovered is that once people have a home, they can attend to the other demons controlling their life, such as addictions and mental illness.

So let’s stop using the poor in Canada as an excuse to shut down our borders. Let’s stop worrying about our taxes when the discussions start on poverty initiatives here at home. Let’s start making dignity a priority.

 

Shannon Sampert is the Free Press perspectives and politics editor.

shannon.sampert@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulySigh