Frustration Poverty Has Been Ignored In Election Campaign

There's a move afoot to establish a branch of the Common Front for Social Justice in Saint John where the poverty rate still exceeds 20 per cent. Jean-Claude Basque co-chairs the Common Front which is based in Moncton.

He tells CHSJ News in 2008, poverty was responsible for adding 189 million dollars to the cost of healthcare in the province. Basque cites a study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which estimates poverty costs each New Brunswicker from 15 hundred to 2 thousand dollars a year.

The Common Front is frustrated poverty has barely been mentioned during the current federal election campaign.