PEI volunteers and community groups say poverty rising as government remains hush on poverty plan progress.

By Dylan Desroche, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Graphic

January 25, 2023

Catherine Boyles was always taught to look for people in need, that’s why she lept into action upon learning of a man sleeping in a Montague dumpster a tarp over it during a recent snow storm.

Though she had no vehicle herself, she contacted the RCMP who managed to find the man, who was given a place to sleep for the evening in Charlottetown. 

Though only living in Montague since 2018, Ms Boyles began to notice some growing issues.

“We have homeless people in this little province of ours and the amount of people struggling is growing, that’s the part that really gets me.” 

This motivated her and a friend to start preparing bagged lunches, containing a sandwich and snacks, and handing them out in front of St Mary’s Church in Montague on Thursdays.

As she is using her own money to help others, Ms Boyles is increasingly frustrated with the government’s lack of action. In Montague if it wasn’t for the nonprofit food bank and other citizens like her, people would be left without as there are no government-run support services in the community.

 “On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday there are meals available for people, but what about Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, what are these people supposed to do on those days?” 

She is also concerned because there is no emergency shelter for people struggling in the community, except during extreme weather events.  

The lack of action and progress upsets Ms Boyles and she fears the worst.

“It’s going to take people dying in the street before anything happens.” 

In order to reduce poverty in PEI the provincial government crafted a strategy in 2019, which featured a number of initiatives and programs to be completed by 2024. 

The Department of Social Development and Housing was tasked with developing the strategy and created the Poverty Reduction Advisory Council to guide the work. 

As part of the strategy, the province is responsible for tracking metrics, such as the number of Islanders experiencing poverty, attachment to employment and the number of Islanders with access to affordable housing.

The province is also supposed to track which projects and initiatives related to the plan it has started, is working on and which it has completed.

Despite that, when asked multiple times to provide that information, the Department of Social Development and Housing didn’t respond to The Graphic.

Karla Bernard is the opposition critic for Social Development and Housing and she isn’t surprised the province didn’t provide any information on the plan.

“I can’t get answers either. To me, if government is accomplishing goals you would think it would be something they would be thrilled to share, but this suggests to me the work is not being done at all.” 

Ms Bernard said there is an overall lack of information being shared by the King government.

“This is what we tend to find with this government, they will boast about having the most aggressive plans in Canada toward something but in reality they have no idea how they are going to get there.” 

“It is extremely infuriating, we have some really aggressive, important goals in the form of legislation, which is law, but then there are no benchmarks on how we are doing towards that goal.” 

Ms Bernard said a prime example of the government’s lack of accountability and communication is in its ongoing Senior’s Food Pilot Program running in eastern PEI.

“I’ve been trying to get information on how it’s going, or if it is even still going, because I have no idea,” Ms Bernard said. 

The strategy also claims the province looks to meet the federal government’s targets in reducing poverty by 20 per cent by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2030. 

Federal Census Data shows PEI met that goal, dropping its poverty rate from 16.5 per cent in 2015 to 8.7 per cent in 2021, but conditions on the ground don’t necessarily reflect that improvement.

Norma Dingwell is the manager of the Southern Kings and Queens Food Bank in Lower Montague. She said there are still many people in need.

“It has grown considerably,” Ms Dingwell said when asked if traffic to the food bank has increased over the year. 

“With the price of rent, food, gas, oil, people have to decide if they want to eat or get medicine or pay their rent, it’s not easy.” 

Ms Dingwell said the demand at the food bank was always growing, but even more so over the last three months. 

The food bank used to serve around 60 families a week, now it sees over 100. 

She would love to see the government do more in eastern PEI and for existing supports to become more accessible. 

“They say there are supports available all over the internet for struggling people, but if someone doesn’t know how to use the internet or doesn’t have access, the supports can’t help them.” 

Ms Dingwell said a prime example of this is with the province’s 211 phone line, which connects Islanders to various types of support services.

“For the longest time, we at the food bank had no idea that the 211 number people can call for support was even available.” 

She finds this frustrating because many of the clients at the food bank could have benefited if they had known the phone line had existed sooner.

Overall, Ms Dingwell said the government has a long way to go before all the needs of people in eastern PEI are met.

“We could have a couple of soup kitchens here, we could have a couple of homeless shelters, or shelters for abused or struggling people, we need programs that are accessible for everybody.”

Ms Boyles agrees with Ms Dingwell and went a step further, saying maybe the politicians need a reality check. 

Subscribe to our newsletter.

“I think it would be really good if we all went to Dennis King and the other politicians and got them five or six tents and let them spend a night out in the cold woods. Maybe if they knew what that’s like we would see some changes.”