There are innumerable things that people will say are necessary for them to live happy and healthy lives ñ from the internet to Tim Hortons ñ but, in truth, it really all boils down to a few things.
There are innumerable things that people will say are necessary for them to live happy and healthy lives - from the internet to Tim Hortons - but, in truth, it really all boils down to a few things. In the Athabasca region, we're kind of having issues the cost of one thing in particular: food.
Northern communities have never been well known for having the cheapest food prices. It only takes a quick Google search to find pictures of $10 jugs of milk and $100 flats of water. Those, though, have always seemed to be a distant worry of the far northern climates - like Iqaluit. That's not really true anymore.
Something that we all have to do at least twice a month - more if you have children - has become a game of balancing checkbooks and, for some, choosing between vegetables and paying your rent this month.
Granted, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it - the value of the Canadian dollar is so horrible that everything coming from the United States has almost doubled in price. That doesn't make it any easier as you stand in front of the meat department wondering if you can make what's in your freezer last another couple weeks - or if you want to go vegetarian (also not recommended, because of the price of vegetables).
And, truthfully, the predictions for 2016 are saying that food prices will continue to rise and rise.
Although there's never really a good time to realize your salary may not quite cover buying vegetables this week, this is definitely one of the worst. With Millar Western closing and non-oil related workplaces cutting back staff, many people of the Athabasca region have no choice but to look unemployment in the eyes.
As the price of ìnon-essentials î - like celery - rise so high, and the food banks are crying a shortage, it is hard to imagine the issues that so many people who are on unemployment through no fault of their own are facing. And there's no real solution.
Help those we can, yes, but when even people who are employed are questioning the necessity of buying groceries that week, then what can really be done?
