The Grande Prairie Vital Signs report earlier this month shone a light into several shadowed places not many of us usually think about – the number of foreclosures, for example, or bicycle collisions.
Or the disturbing fact that almost 27% of 18-and-overs in the region are obese – and we don't mean just overweight. It's going to kill more of us than smoking ever did.
The compact in-a-nutshell report by the Community Foundation of Greater Grande Prairie was included in an issue of the DHT and is available online at buildingtomorrowtoday.com/vital signs.
The DHT has already discussed some aspects. It is sparking welcomed debate in board rooms, living rooms and on coffee row.
For example, the report says Grande Prairie is one of two cities in Alberta that has yet to see a decline in homeless shelter use. The city's multi-year plan to end homelessness, which council implemented in 2010, is currently under review. The goal is to have 550 new affordable housing units made available over the next five years. There is progress being made.
The issue, according to one City Hall official, is not necessarily how many places are vacant, but the affordability. The city has been working with the province and developers on this aspect.
Grande Prairie was one of 22 Vital Signs participants this year. The snapshot of people's perceptions of our community involved just 489 survey participants, two-thirds of them women, 81% city residents, most of them living here more than 10 years. You have to take that into consideration when looking at the findings.
The most important issues cited were access to a physician, the time it takes to see a doctor, the cost of living including utilities, and taxes. Those have been with us for years.
Far down the list was poverty, undoubtedly due to the demographics of survey participants.
But a discomfiting factor is child poverty.
In 2009, in the city and county, the child poverty rate was 17.3%, up 1% from eight years earlier. A city report that Vital Signs cited said while poverty decreased for all ages in 2006, it "remained exceptionally high for children."
It is no surprise who the bulk of Grande Prairie's poor are: Single-parent families with kids under 18.
There are several agencies aware of this and who do what they can to assist, including schools and churches. But most of us do not see it as we trundle along on our comfortable, merry way.
Of the 22 participants in Vital Signs 2011, Grande Prairie and area's child poverty rate was third-lowest on a percentage basis, equal in fact to Calgary's. That's nothing to be smug about. How many children does this mean?
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