Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 28/01) - Poverty hits women and children hardest, said members of a panel discussion on poverty last Sunday at St. Patrick Catholic Church.

Suzette Montreuil, co-ordinator of the social justice ministry with the Diocese of Mackenzie, provided a snapshot of poverty in Canada.

Quoting from a 1998 national child poverty profile, Montreuil said children living with single mothers are more likely to be poor, more likely to live in deep poverty and more likely to remain poor for longer.

According to the profile, single-parent families are three times as likely to rely solely on social assistance than two-parent families.

This higher rate of reliance means they are less likely to benefit from the multi-milliondollar national child supplement, introduced by the federal government in 1998.

She explained that many provinces and territories, including the GNWT, deduct a portion of this from social assistance cheques.

More aboriginal children also live with single mothers compared to the general population, she said.

Poverty statistics on aboriginal children in the North are virtually non-existent because -- until the last census -- Statistics Canada did not collect data on the territories or on reserves.

Fiona Traynor, who works at the Yellowknife Women's Centre, said poverty is about more than statistics.

"It shouldn't come down to just the numbers," she said.

Traynor criticized the GNWT for allotting women on social assistance (with a family of four) $524 for food. Traynor said the amount doesn't include diapers, formula, tampons or similar items.

She wants the GNWT to stop deducting the child tax credit and increase the amount for food to $900 a month.

Anne-Marie Giroux is a single mother of three on social assistance who lives in transitional housing. She created a petition asking the government to stop clawing back the child tax credit.

When Giroux first applied for legal aid, she had to liquidate her child's trust funds.

"There's nothing left," she said.

"That's all gone."

Giroux, who left an abusive marriage last year, said her children must do without essentials like fruit, milk and cheese for a large part of the month. She receives just over $1,000 from the government.

On top of that, she is paying off a student loan.

"I choose to stay home until my children are old enough to go to school," she said.

"And I'm being penalized every step of the way."