My Plans to Eliminate Poverty

As you may have heard on my interview on 630 CHED last week, my goal for the city of Edmonton over the next four years is ending child poverty so I would like to concentrate on child poverty issues.

In 1943 Abraham Maslow theorized that human needs are hierarchical. I have always believed the same thing. As a result, I believe that we must work to provide for all of our children’s base needs first.  These needs include food (and water) and shelter (and heat and power). Second level needs include Personal security, employment, health and property. It is an interesting study in politics to note that cities provide for human’s base needs and Provincial governments provide higher level needs, making it harder for cities to directly control such challenging issues. In answer to your question I would like to concentrate on some immediate solutions. These solutions can help break the chain of poverty, which I feel is one of the root causes.

These are items I intend to address immediately; items that the city of Edmonton has authority over and where I will be able to make the most immediate difference.


To address Physiological needs I will:

• continue my work with the Edmonton food bank. Almost 50% of food bank users are children.  Food is the number one priority. Make it available and more importantly de-stigmatize food bank use by attending and assisting.
• remove “base cost” of city of Edmonton utilities for Low Income households, so that they only pay for usage, not infrastructure. This one is enormously important and something we can do immediately (Also my fiscal responsibility/tax restructuring in other areas of the city will take the pressure off Utilities to produce such large profits).
• continue the city’s low income housing, first home and infill programs to assist low income Edmontonians that want to become home owners.
• Make Edmonton more Breastfeeding Friendly. The simplest act on earth to guarantee proper nutrition is to support nature’s perfect food.

To address Safety and access to schooling (replacing employment) needs I will:

• Adjust cost of Transit Passes for Low Income homes.
• Work with the Crisis network and/or add direct connect to 211 from the 311 system. Empower 211 to intercede in domestic violence (witnessing domestic violence is also experiencing abuse).
• Provide quick access from 311 to the provincial health line for health and safety issues.
• Work with police to create drug and gang free zones. Add drug and gang activity (and graffiti and vandalism) to the city’s crime tracking site to assist police.
• Have the city pay entry fees for low income moms who want to join the “New Mom’s Network”. 

To reiterate, these are areas that the city has the ability to act and to make a direct difference in people’s lives. It can do so quickly and easily (I hope). Though there are many more I could address, I have always felt that a small number of attainable goals allow for solutions.

Finally, these are areas of provincial government responsibilities where, I feel, the province is abrogating its responsibilities and we need to find ways to help.

• Edmonton’s school drop out rate and high school completion rate
• Especially First Nations, Metis and Inuit
• Adult literacy
• City libraries can increase the number of programs for adult literacy
• there are creative ways to assist with adult literacy i.e. Khan academy
• Continue to provide ESL training at a reasonable rate
• Mental Health
• Find some way to force the province to increase spending on Mental Health. Much of adult homelessness is mental health related. Extreme poverty is highly correlated to mental health problems.
• Residential school abuse continues to echo through our society and survivors AND THEIR DESCENDANTS need to be helped.
• Minimum wage
• Work to increase minimum wage to a living wage.
• Work to assure equal pay for women. 

Photo credit: www.kemptvillesalvationarmy.org/foodbank