Nearly 1 in 3 children below poverty line in Manitoba: report

Coupons, twice monthly trips to the food bank, generous parents, a vegetable garden and the occasional meat sale helped single mom Monique Curci get by on social assistance for years.

“I had to know where every single cent and dollar went,” she said. “It’s definitely a struggle. It really kind of fed my depression. I don’t want my kids to struggle. They see their friends — ‘They get to have this. They get to go here’… It definitely eats away at the self-esteem. It’s hard to pull yourself out of it.”

Now, after 13 years on and off welfare and disability, trying to care for two special-needs children and trying to finish her bachelor of arts degree, Curci is revelling in a new job, one she loves that pays her double what welfare did.

But, for years, her children — son Dillan, 13 and daughter Riley, 10 — were among the thousands of Manitoba children living in poverty.

She says the shortage of affordable housing is a huge problem for poor, single parents. For a while, she was paying $1,149 a month and got only $1,400 on disability.

She said the shortage of services for kids with special needs such as autism, and the delays getting diagnoses and into programs, made it nearly impossible to find and keep a job when she was constantly asking for time off for appointments or to care for unpredictable kids.

This year, with her own mental health stable, Curci started looking for work, sending out about 10 applications a day. But with a spotty employment history, big gaps spent looking after her kids and an unfinished university degree, the search took months.

Recently, she got a job at Work and Social Opportunities Inc. helping adults with intellectual disabilities find their own jobs. “I’m actually not going to be broke for a week and a half or two weeks at the end of the month. It’s such a huge weight that has been lifted off my shoulders,” she said.

Set real targets

• Premier Greg Selinger: “Our view is we want to make continuous progress every single year, and we have done that… We will commit to continuous progress and annual reports to show you the results.”
• Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister: “Yes… I think it’s really critical that there be those targets. I accept with great enthusiasm the challenge of working to set hard targets.”
• Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari: No specific reply. “We are looking for a more complete and comprehensive approach instead of piecemeal solutions. We will articulate our position on poverty reduction in the coming weeks, well in advance of the election.”

Double the “basic needs” welfare allocation, now a maximum of $466 a month for a single parent of one.

• Selinger: “What we’re committed to is we want benefits for people that allow them opportunities to take education and work and that include social assistance reform… We want them available not just to people on social assistance but available to people who are working, as well.”
• Pallister: “I’m very hesitant to make promises when I don’t know if I can keep them.”
• Bokhari: No reply.

Immediately increase the minimum wage to $15.53 an hour from $11.

• Selinger: “We will commit to a process to increasing the minimum wage while ensuring that we’re creating jobs. A minimum wage that’s very high when jobs are shrinking is not really that helpful. A minimum wage that continues to go up and allows people to live outside poverty while we create good jobs is the way to go… We’re the only political party in this province that has a commitment to raising the minimum wage on a consistent basis.”
• Pallister: “There is lots of mixed research on the wisdom of raising the minimum wage, in terms of how it helps people or does not help them. There’s lots of different opinion on that in Manitoba, too, because we’ve consulted with a lot of people on this. Many people believe raising the basic personal exemption should come ahead of raising the minimum wage… We’ve taken the position that the basic personal exemption kicks in far too early… That doesn’t rule out raising the minimum wage, though.”
• Bokhari: No reply.