The Economy is Tough But Don't Forget

The collapse of the U.S. economy was not unexpected but we certainly hadn't planned for it. Even with this unexpected challenge though we have to remember that there are two primary challenges facing us in this generation: the environment and poverty.

As I pointed out earlier this week, we are not doing well on the environment - far from leading the world our emissions are rising faster than any country outside of eastern Europe (to tell the truth we are even outpacing them.)

We also learned earlier this week that we are failing to make progress on poverty in Canada.

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Canada's after-tax child poverty rate appears stalled at 11.3 per cent.

Nearly one out every nine Canadian children lives in poverty.

Forty per cent of low-income children live in families where at least one of their parents work full-time year round.

Children among visible minorities, and new Canadian and aboriginal families as well as children with disabilities are at greater risk of living in poverty.

Nearly one in four First Nations children continue to live in poverty.

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I started this with the economy because it's the issue on everyone's mind and I've noticed that when the economy is down just about every other issue is off the table. This is certainly understandable but given that poverty rates are bound to get worse, in Canada and around the globe as the economic crisis deepens and the environment is in crisis and isn't going to get better on it's own while we do other things I think it's important to keep these issues on the table.

To this end I've created a Facebook group that will act as a newsletter as well as a place to share and discuss information: If you are interested please see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36530163748.