According to recently released statistics, 64% of children in northern Manitoba live in poverty.

Those rates are the highest in the country, and our Member of Parliament said that she doesn’t think it comes as a shock to the people who live here.

Niki Ashton was the guest at Wednesday’s Chamber of Commerce lunch, and said that the release of the report was a moment for Ottawa to step up to the plate, but they didn’t.

She added that she was disappointed that they instead chose to highlight their investment in the child tax benefit. Ashton said that while that may help some, the underlying causes of poverty need to be addressed.

Ashton said that while going door-to-door here in the north, the underlying problems that she hears the most are housing, education and health.

She said that what poverty looks like is a mold infested home with 18-22 people struggling to live, with most of them being children.

The MP said that while the government has made some investment, it’s not enough in terms of the foundational barriers that people are facing.