“We have to decide to either address the emergency that is poverty or we can let it fester and pay for it later”
 
Yesterday at the Telus Convention Centre, hosted by Calgary Economic Development and Vibrant Communities Calgary, Mark Chamberlain stated that poverty is a public health crisis out-competing SARS and much more detrimental to our economic prosperity.
 
Mark Chamberlain described the focused emphasis that the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction put on children (1 in 6 children in Calgary live in poverty).  Research in Hamilton recently revealed the geographic nature of poverty in Hamilton, where life expectancy was 21 years shorter for those living in a low-income area than from those in areas of higher-income earners. Chamberlain added that researchers in Hamilton could now fairly accurately determine a child’s future by his/her postal code.
 
Chamberlain thus urges us to work together to remove the conditions that create poverty – to make sure children are fed, safely housed, and educated – saying this will cost us much less later on in terms of health and the justice system.  As well as calling poverty a public health crisis, he calls it a human capital crisis, pointing out that the more Canadians who are healthy and resilient, the more they can contribute to a thriving economy, and the less they drain various social service sectors.  He calls this the difference between an “aspirin” society, where we pay to treat illness and hardship, and a “vitamin” society, where we work to avoid illness and hardship altogether, and diminish treatment costs. 
 
Thank you to Mark Chamberlain for a talk that was both moving and practical, and encompassed both economic rationale and basic human compassion.