The Editor,
Re: "Offshore dollars pose possible cause to poverty rates," Letters, Nov. 30.
I agree with Julie Halfnights's letter on Richmond Poverty Statistics. We do have poverty in Richmond, particularly young people who have lived in Richmond with their families and are now on their own, but cannot find affordable housing.
However, I do not believe that 31 per cent of children under 18 in Richmond live in poverty.
A few years ago, in the Vancouver Sun, there was a map of Metropolitan Vancouver. The Terra Nova area in Richmond was at the same poverty level as the Downtown Eastside area. The houses in Terra Nova are probably at least 1.5 million dollars.
We file our income tax every year and we pay tax on the money we have earned here. So if all of a family's money is made elsewhere and is not declared as income, Statistics Canada naively says that a family is poor and living in poverty.
No one checks on what kind of property you own and how many cars you have in your three car garage. I do know that there are families in Terra Nova to whom all this does not apply.
I would like to know how these poverty statistics are compiled, and I would like something done about rich people who "live at the poverty level," but of course this will not happen.
Marge Symons
Richmond
