EDITORIAL: Helping the city's poor

The Thunder Bay Poverty Reduction Strategy wants city council to take a long, hard look at what it can do to reverse the fortunes of the city’s downtrodden.

On Monday night representatives of the group presented council and administration with solutions aimed at fixing a problem that appears to have gotten out of hand.

All seem to have merit.

A twice-a-year homeless count could paint a true picture of just how many people are living on city streets.

Subsidized transit for the city’s poorest residents could help them get to job interviews and medical appointments.

And access to second-hand technology could help some of the city’s homeless turn their lives around.

Together it’s a start to address a problem that leads to so many others in our community.

Poverty and addiction are gateways to crime. It’s a proven fact.

But more importantly, by trying to break the cycle of poverty, we’d be trying to turn people’s lives around and give them back the lives they deserve.

But this is only a start.

What city hall really needs to address is the lack of well-paying blue-collar jobs.

The city needs to create a long-term strategy to bring those jobs to Thunder Bay and it has to happen now.