Dear Editor It is difficult to express the horror and grief many people across Canada felt this week after the Tk emlups te Secwépemc First Nation announced that 215 Indigenous children were . . .
Posted: Mar 11, 2021 5:14 PM CT | Last Updated: March 11
Claudia Turner and Richard Wolfe are at the forefront of the movement to secure the future of North Battleford s Lighthouse shelter. (Kendall Latimer/CBC)
Claudia Turner and Richard Wolfe are leading the quest to save the Lighthouse an emergency shelter in North Battleford, Sask., that serves vulnerable people. I know what it s like to be homeless . needing somebody to talk to needing the support, just needing a boost, Turner said. That s why I m determined to help them, because I ve been there.
Turner questions whether she d still be alive if she hadn t found the Lighthouse. She said her addictions nearly ruined her.
Since 2016, we have seen fundamental changes to programs like assured income for people with disabilities, cuts to the rental housing supplement, changes to social housing and rental support programs, and even – at one point – degrading cuts to funeral assistance for people on income support. All of these changes have brought us to where we are now, during a global pandemic that has further impacted housing stability and income security for many of Saskatchewan’s most vulnerable people. The Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords has announced its closure on April 1st, 2021. Twenty-two full and part-time employees have been given termination notices. Although many people are eager to point the finger at either the federal or provincial government for the funding changes, remember that the Saskatchewan government cut core provincial funding to the Lighthouse in 2016 by 90 per cent, just a year after it opened. This funding was never restored, so the Provincial Métis Housing Corpo