Vital Signs report unveiled Thursday

By Gillian Slade on October 6, 2017.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

A family of four is spending between $850 and $1,100 a month on food, according to Medicine Hat’s 2017 Vital Signs report, released Thursday.

This year’s report includes the personal stories of the people included in the statistics.

“We don’t impress people with nothing but statistics, it’s that story of how lives are impacted,” said Chris Christie, executive director for the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta.

This year is the last of a three-year national theme about “belonging” and about “acceptance.”

The majority of people using the local foodbank, 918, are from one-person homes. That number drops to 389 for two-person homes and 219 for three-person households. In homes with 10 or more people, the number is seven.

Income for a couple in Medicine Hat falls short of the provincial average. In 2015, a couple’s average income in Medicine Hat was $98,060 while the provincial average was $109,270. Compared to the previous year, the average couple’s income in Medicine Hat has actually declined. It was $100,340 in 2014 and then dropped about $2,000 in 2015.

Vital Signs reports help to determine the needs of the community and also measure the impact of grants given by the Community Foundation, said Christie. The report is no longer issued every year. It will probably be produced every three years in future.

“It takes more than one year to move the needle on an issue in our community,” said Christie. “Look at homelessness. That’s been a significant change but it has taken a number of years to get there.”

The level of poverty among seniors in Medicine Hat for 2014 was 2.1 per cent compared to the provincial average of 5.1. Poverty among children was 15.2 per cent, with the provincial average being 15.5.

A personal story in Vital Signs records the journey of a 57-year-old who’d been living on the street. He had a wake-up call and was determined to stop drinking. He is now established in a place of his own thanks to the Housing First program.

“This is the first place (I’ve been) that they ask how they can help you, and drive you around, take you to your appointments even. They’re really helpful because I couldn’t make it,” he says in the story.

Recreational trails in Medicine Hat have increased significantly over the years. In 1992, there were 58 km of trails and that had increased to 115 km by 2017.

Property taxes can be a contentious issue in most cities. Using a 1,300 square-foot, three-bedroom bungalow with a full basement as an example, the property tax in Medicine Hat in 2015 was $2,176, in 2016 it was $2,263 and in 2017, $2,345.

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