The M-P for Windsor West believes there are immediate steps that can be taken to fight child poverty in his riding but the federal government needs to provide funding.
A report by Campaign 2000, looking at child poverty rates in all 338 federal ridings, found Windsor West had one of the top 15 highest rates in Canada at 32.1%.
Brian Masse says there are programs 'ready to go' to tackle child poverty issues in his riding. He's calling on the Liberals to release money from the Community Benefit Fund, set-up as part of the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, to pay for those poverty reduction programs.
"Millions of dollars are being kept away from poverty initiatives that generally involve children, in Sandwich Town and other parts of west Windsor, from basically an ideological decision to wait for a multi-national corporation to make a contribution to the Gordie Howe project."
As part of the bridge project, the company selected to build the crossing must provide funding to the Community Benefit Fund.
Masse wants the federal government to loosen the chains on the process to get that investment immediately. "So why the federal government can't front that money, if we can front over $6-billion dollars for a leaky pipeline, why can't we front a few million dollars for Sandwich Town and poverty?"
The child poverty rate is 22.7% in Windsor-Tecumseh while the riding of Essex posted a rate of 7.7%.