According to a report from an anti-poverty group, the federal ridings including Flin Flon and Creighton have more impoverished children per capita than anywhere else in Canada.
According to the report, released on June 17 by anti-poverty group Campaign 2000, the federal ridings of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski and Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River have the highest child poverty rates of any of the country’s 338 districts. The report uses data from the 2016 federal census.
In total, the report estimates that 21,870 youth between the ages of 0 and 17 within the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding – about 64 per cent of all children living within the riding – were living in poverty in 2016. Flin Flon is included in the riding, along with the entirety of northern Manitoba.
The report also estimates that 55.7 per cent of families with children can be considered to be living on low incomes, while 57.2 per cent of all people are considered as “low income persons.”
Matters are not much better across the provincial border. In northern Saskatchewan, 15,300 children within the Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River riding, which includes Creighton, Denare Beach and all other nearby communities in the province, were living in poverty in 2016. Throughout the riding, around 58 per cent of all young people were living in impoverished conditions.
According to the given data, Churchill-Keewatinook Aski and Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River are the only ridings in Canada where more than half of all youth are considered impoverished.
Statistics from the 2016 census also state the two ridings have the lowest median annual income of any ridings in Canada – $16,606 in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski and $18,910 in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.
