• 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.

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."

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)." Therefore, 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.

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

Articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Child Poverty in Canada, Report Card 2000, Campaign 2000 http://www.campaign2000.ca/

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 http://www.auditor.sk.ca

4. Honourable Janice MacKinnon: debating the economic underdevelopment of Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis113/MacKinnUnderdevelopment.html

5. 2000 Fall Report: Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority and Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, Volume 2, Report of the Provincial Auditor, Saskatchewan, http://www.auditor.sk.ca

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 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis267/ethicalstandards.html