Although poverty has fallen off the political radar, it remains one of the province’s greatest challenges. This was the consensus at a forum on inner city issues held on the eve of Saskatchewan's provincial election.

“When people are marginalized, they really don’t have a voice, so they’re really disengaged in the political process,” said Rob Deglau, North Central Community Association community coordinator.

 About 20 people gathered for the forum, held at the Albert Scott Community Centre Tuesday evening, Nov. 6.

 Deglau said most people visiting the community centre are concerned about things like their Food Bank orders. “We have a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of problems, and are they interested in the election? Not really.”

 Meanwhile politicians are just as disengaged said Tina Beaudry-Mellor, a University of Regina researcher who studies community organizing. Political parties are more interested in chasing the upper middle class swing vote, she said.

 “All of the party platforms are relatively silent on investing in communities,” she said. In a televised leaders’ debate, discussion of inner city issues was limited to a brief mention of gang activity by Liberal leader David Karwacki, she noted.

 “Getting tough on gangs and addictions rhetoric doesn’t address disparities in income,” Beaudry-Mellor added.

 The mutual disengagement between politicians and the poor represents a serious communications breakdown, according to journalist and sociology researcher Mitch Diamantopolous.

 “There’s clearly a disconnect, a kind of communications failure. If you’re plugged into ‘news-as-usual TV’ these issues aren’t part of the election,” said Diamantopolous, who recently became head of the U of R School of Journalism.

 But the media matters to the inner city, Diamantopolous said. While conducting university-community research in Saskatoon’s core neighbourhoods, people demanded that media be part of the discussion, he said.

Researchers were repeatedly told the media doesn’t provide thoughtful analysis, is biased and entrenches stereotypes, he reported. This is unfortunate because people need the media to be the voice of the people, he said.

 “The media favours coverage of campaigns over issues. People who represent movements are invisible. Elections become entertainment, and elections become devoid of politics.”

 Indeed, media was a central issue in the open discussion following the presentations, with several audience members mentioning a Maclean’s magazine article that named North Central “Canada’s worst neighourhood.” While some audience members felt the article was unfair, others said it revealed important truths.

 In a lively exchange, NDP MLA Warren McCall, who attended as an audience member, defended Scott Collegiate as a school with good programs and a good student body. “It’s not a gang school,” he said, referring to the Maclean’s article.

McCall also challenged the idea that the government had ignored inner city issues, saying that millions of dollars had been directed toward housing, social assistance and early learning. 

In his presentation, Deglau noted there are 3,000 substandard houses in the inner city, and that community funding still hasn’t recovered from federal and provincial off-loading in the 1990s.

“People are waiting for the market to fix (housing problems)…But we can’t wait for the market to catch up, we have to intervene.” 

Deglau also noted that youth employment projects are always short-term. “Every job has a start date and an end date,” he said.

“We want to grab that policy book and re-think it,” said Deglau.

Among the solutions to poverty suggested by audience members including building cooperatives and engaging in alternative media. 

The forum was organized jointly by the Faculty of Arts and the North Central Community Association as an attempt to shed light on overlooked issues during the provincial election.

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