Dear Editor,
Day by day, month by month, year by year, Albertans have been allowing homelessness and food insecurity to become the norm.
With a frozen minimum wage of $15 per hour, for six years, in addition to skyrocketing food prices and the lack of affordable housing, more and more Albertans are feeling the crunch.
Some of us feel the crunch at the gas station, paying utility bills or making sure our home and vehicle are insured. Others have to choose between feeding their families or putting a roof over their heads.
Maybe you are one of those lucky ones who haven’t felt the crunch like many others have, but this reality is affecting thousands of Albertans out there, every day, and it's not getting better. The use of food banks has been growing steadily, and more and more people find it hard to afford rent. This reality should not be acceptable among Albertans.
Some may blame inflation, some the provincial government, others the federal government, but I believe we have to take accountability for not demanding what is best for Alberta and its people.
The people we elected to represent us do not seem to be acknowledging the needs of the people they represent. Quite the opposite, as new bills are introduced, they just keep on stripping our basic rights: the right to affordable housing, the right to affordable food, the right to higher wages, basic needs which would allow us to live a better life, because that is what all Albertans deserve, a better, healthier, happier life.
So, when Albertans are going to stand up and join under one voice to demand change from the government and demand the right to have a better quality of life? Because if things keep on going the way they currently are, it’s just going to get worse.
Or ask yourself these questions: Are you satisfied with how things have been going for Alberta in the past few years? Are you happy with the current Alberta we live in?
You know the answer.
Liliana Angulo
Okotoks
