A less than a week old petition that calls for Saint John to be designated a demonstration site for the national poverty reduction strategy has already passed the required number of signatures in the time frame it needs to be presented in the House of Commons and receive final certification.
Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long, at the official launch of the petition on Friday at the Human Development Council offices in uptown Saint John, says we lead the country in child poverty and that needs to change.
“We do have two wards in our city that have almost a 50-percent rate of child poverty,” says Long. “If you step back and think of that one out of every two children in these wards is living in poverty and as a city and as a community that is not acceptable.”
The petition was initiated by the HDC’s Randy Hatfield and is sponsored by Long.
Sign our parliamentary e-petition https://t.co/2Kxg0mK8v5 calling for federal funding towards SJ poverty reduction! pic.twitter.com/e1ceiWsQzP
— SJHDC (@SaintJohnHDC) April 22, 2016
For an e-petition to be presented in the HOC and to receive final certification it needs to receive a minimum of 500 signatures within 120 days. You can check out the petition here.
