FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved

News by FFWD Staff Good news budget bad news for women Although the provincial budget being announced March 11 is expected to be hailed as a "good news" budget, it’s likely to be bad news for Alberta women, according to Calgary women’s groups. In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8 and in anticipation of the Alberta budget, the ad hoc Committee on Women and Economic Justice, and Calgary Status of Women Action Committee (CSWAC) released the real-life monthly budgets of four Alberta women – one living on social assistance, one on minimum wage, one with a pension (CPP and old age security), and one full-time student living on loans, grants and part-time work. The first woman, single with two children age four and six, living on social assistance (Supports For Independence), has a total income of $812 per month – $547 SFI, $240 child tax credit, $25 GST rebate, $0 child maintenance, and $0 low income support. Her expenses total $1,099 per month – $620 housing including utilities and telephone (subsidized), $50 transportation (bus pass), $33 child care/ school fees, $366 groceries, $30 medical expenses, non-prescription drugs and personal items. This leaves her short $287 at the end of each month. The second woman, single with one four-year-old child, working full-time at minimum wage, has a total income of $811 per month – $620 wages (37.5 hours per week), $132 child tax credit, $25 GST credit, $0 child maintenance, and $34 low income supplement. Her expenses total $1,104 – $620 housing, $50 transportation (bus pass), $160 child care ($500 minus $340 subsidy), $244 groceries, $30 for non-prescription drugs and personal items. This modest budget leaves her short $293 per month. The woman living on a pension also has a tight budget, ending the month short $43.91, and the full-time student, with one five-year-old child, comes out just ahead with an extra $118 per month. "Our point is that it’s not going to be a good news budget for many women in Alberta," says CSWAC coordinator Julie Black, adding that people on low income, particularly women, are bankrolling the government’s efforts to pay off the debt as soon as possible. "These budgets really are representative of a lot of women that we know.... They’re not unusual." The committees make three demands of the province that would make a direct difference in the lives of women experiencing poverty: • Immediately raise the minimum wage to $8 per hour (which would bring Alberta up to its 1977 level of $3 per hour when you factor in inflation); • Increase the level and accessibility of social assistance; • Increase availability of affordable, safe and accessible housing. Black says a report released by CSWAC entitled Watering Down the Milk: Women Coping on Alberta’s Minimum Wage, based on focus groups with 50 women in Southern Alberta, demonstrates that minimum wage earners cannot make ends meet – even when they work several minimum wage jobs. As a result, they must resort to using the food bank, relying on family and friends, or watering down their children’s milk in an effort to make ends meet. She adds that the government’s decision to increase the minimum wage to $5.90 by October 1999 is not enough. "We want a raise that means something." Black is also opposed to decreases in the level of social assistance and changes that make if more difficult for people to access funding. "Right now you can’t get it, you can’t live on it, and you can’t stay on it." She points out that women in Alberta are considered employable when their child is six months old, but in B.C. they remain eligible for social assistance until their child is seven. Black says when the government talks about "reinvesting," it promises more money for education and health. However, social assistance was also affected by the cutbacks of the early ’90s. "Nobody talks about social assistance. Education and health... those are so important, but so is social assistance. It’s taken devastating cuts, and no one’s putting it back in." The third demand addresses the lack of safe and affordable housing available, a situation which contributes to the problem and that has been well publicized in Calgary. Fluoridation bylaw may be challenged The battle over the fluoridation of Calgary’s water is not over yet. The Alberta Court of Appeal has allowed a 60-day window of opportunity to a legal challenge of the city’s water fluoridation bylaw. Fluoride challenger Jack Locke has 60 days to raise $10,000 for an appeal that was temporarily dismissed last summer. "I am overjoyed by the latest ruling," says Locke. "Perhaps now the Court of Appeal will finally determine whether water fluoridation violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Locke will be starting a fundraising plan appealing to Calgarians, and says he believes they will help in the effort to put the meaning back into "Clear Running Water" (the traditional translation for Calgary). The fluoride challenge was started in November of 1989 and went to trial in 1993. The city started putting hydrofluosilicic acid into Calgary’s drinking water in 1991, after a majority of Calgarians voted in favour of fluoridation. Voters reaffirmed that decision in the city’s sixth vote on the issue in a plebiscite last fall, prior to which the Calgary Regional Health Authority spent $250,000 to promote fluroidation. Calgary’s water is fluoridated at a rate of one part per million, however, after a study last year by a panel of University of Calgary professors, the city has applied to Alberta Environmental Protection to reduce the level of fluoridation to 0.7 ppm. Marijuauna approved for medical use Health Minister Allan Rock has approved clinical trials on the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The drug will be supplied to those suffering from terminal illnesses, such as AIDS and cancer, to determine whether it can help ease their pain. This is the first step towards the legalization of marijuauna for medical use. Pro-medical marijuana advocates support the move, stating that marijuana has helped to reduce spasms for people with multiple sclerosis or epileptic seizures, and reduces symptoms of nausea from chemotherapy. However, Reform Party members expressed concern that it would be the first step to full legalization of the drug. According to Rock, scientists will gather evidence on the issue and develop appropriate guidelines to control how much marijuana is distributed, depending on the individual situation and greatness of need. He denies that Ottawa is opening the doors for full decriminalization. The announcement comes more than one year after an Ontario judge ruled that growing and using marijuana for medicinal use is legal. Yellowstone to Yukon back on trail The Yellowstone to Yukon hike continues this month after 2,000 kilometres, 72 mountain passes, a 154,000-foot vertical climb and over a dozen bear encounters. Carrying a 60-pound pack, Karsten Heuer hiked from Yellowstone, Wyoming to Jasper, Alberta last summer as part of a conservation campaign. On March 15, Heuer – a Banff park warden and wildlife biologist on a two-year leave – and friends Leanne Allison and Jay Honeyman will depart from Jasper for a 30-day, 450-kilometre ski trip that kicks off the wilder and more remote second leg of the 3,400-kilometre Yellowstone to Yukon hike. If all goes well, the trio will emerge 30 days later at Monkman Provincial Park in Northern B.C., where Heuer and Allison will wait for the snow to recede. The pair will be joined by Heuer’s dog Webster in June, and then they will hike 700 kilometres from Monkman to Mayfield Lakes, B.C.; canoe 300 kilometres of wild water down the Gataga and Kechika rivers to Coal River, B.C., and hike the final 200 kilometres from Coal River to arrive at the final destination, Watson Lake, Yukon. The trek, which started in June 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by September 1999, traces some of the most likely wildlife routes linking protected areas in the Rockies, and is promoting a visionary plan to recognize and retain them. The Y2Y initiative proposes a network of core reserves, transition zones and connecting wildlife corridors. This network, managed for wildlife but not excluding human use, is meant to reduce the threats of inbreeding, disease and other disasters that wildlife face when they are restricted to small, isolated islands of habitat. The initiative is being advanced by more than 200 scientists, conservation groups and others from Canada and the U.S., and works in conjunction with sportsmen, First Nations, ranchers, local communities and others to encourage open dialogue about the future of the region and to promote long-term economic sustainability. The pace of change and increasing fragmentation occurring in parts of the Y2Y region concerns many wildlife scientists. "The intent of Y2Y is not to remove human use from the landscape, but rather, to initiate and coordinate a map-based plan that prevents the severing of key wildlife movement areas through poor planning," says Dr. Paul Paquet, a world-renowned wildlife biologist with World Wildlife Canada and a member of the Y2Y network.

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