Shipping in refugees, shipping out the homeless in Saskatchewan

Back in the good old days in Alberta, when oil prices fell and government revenue dropped, part of the solution of the day was to cut the welfare cheques of single mothers, and buy the single unemployed males a one-way bus ticket to B.C.

I couldn't find out how many tickets were issued under then-premier Ralph Klein, but it was enough for the B.C. government then to pass a law saying any newcomers arriving to their province needed to establish residency for 90 days before they could access social services.

For the females (mostly) the 20-per-cent cut in welfare payments and the increased barriers to application for Aids to Daily Living dropped Alberta's roster of 3.1 million cases to around 2 million between 1994 and 2000.

On paper, both policies were a great success. Not so much for the poor and homeless, but the Tory base loved it.

It appears that the Saskatchewan government has learned a thing or two from the Alberta experience, at least as far as shipping homeless people to B.C. is concerned.

Not with the same result, one would hope, though.

Once the story broke, it took scant hours for the whole nation to learn that at least two homeless men, Charles Neil-Curly, 23, and Jeremy Roy, 21, were put on a Greyhound with one-way tickets to Vancouver.

Neil-Curly was staying at the Lighthouse homeless shelter in North Battleford, but his provincial funding was cut so he had to find someplace else to go. So he accepted a ticket to ride with his friend Roy who had also lived at the shelter.

Neither had any supports waiting for them once they stepped off the bus. One of them had never been outside the province before. That's the rub.

Governments often buy poor and homeless people bus tickets to somewhere else in Canada. But there are supposed to be case plans for family, friends or other agencies set up to meet them. Getting a new start in a new place is not always a bad idea, if you have supports lined up.

Shipping your problems out of town is not. Vancouver city counsellor Kerry Lang correctly calls it “inhumane.” “It's not good health policy. It's not good public policy,” he said in an interview with CBC News.

Now, there are always multiple views of a news story. The Lighthouse shelter is currently in a funding dispute with the province. A social services employee bought the tickets, as far as is known, contrary to “official” policy (scare quotes intended).

Social services minister Donna Harpauer says there will be a review of the bus-ticket policy — if the Saskatchewan Party is re-elected next month.

Oh, and both the two bus riders are First Nations (as if that should make any difference — but it does).

As much as social agencies and government agencies seem reluctant to go public when problems arise, something good did arise from that happening here.

Jason Stennes is the CEO of a construction company, 360 Crane Services, in Vancouver. When he heard of the men's plight, he immediately offered them a job.

Stennes said after growing up without much himself, he's now in a position where he can help. "I'm one of those guys that if I'm at a red light and there's somebody begging for change and he's 20 years old, I offer him a job. I give people a chance. It's just what I do."

A new start, indeed. Not enough of that to be found in Canada, that's for sure.

But here's the real sticking point: Saskatchewan has pledged to take in 2,000
Syrian refugees. They will be fully funded for a year, and housed in the province's four largest cities.

Nobody needs reminding that those four largest cities also house (or fail to house) large First Nations populations, with a myriad of social problems. A persistent homeless contingent is but one symptom of the cultural and cross-generational problems they face.

These two men are only the ones we've heard about, because somebody did go public. But it would appear they are as much displaced off their land — refugees, if you want to use the term — as the people who once lived in the now-bombed-out homes in any number of other countries, but coming to our shores.

New starts for them, too.

It's a sad irony that I'm sure will be lost in the tumble of a provincial election campaign.