A group in Regina is looking to “share the credit.”
Members of the Share The Credit: Regina Equity Project are vowing to take the $500 Saskatchewan Affordability Tax Credit cheques they’re to get from the Saskatchewan government and donate them to organizations in Regina that help people dealing with poverty.
The cheques are scheduled to start arriving in November.
In a media release, the group’s members said they would donate some or all of their $500 to the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, the North Central Family Centre, Carmichael Outreach and All Nations Hope.
“We may split our donation equally among the four agencies,” the release said. “If we are donating the full $500, that would mean $125 each. Or, we might direct all of the donation to one or two of the agencies. It will be up to each person to decide.
“The purpose of the project is to collectively use our Affordability Tax Credit money to help address poverty in our city.”
The group said individuals can make donations directly to the agencies; those donations will be eligible for tax receipts. The link to each agency’s donation page appears on the Share the Credit group’s Facebook page.
In August, Premier Scott Moe announced the $500 cheques were a result of rising resource prices.
“You own the resources and you should benefit when those resource prices are high,” Moe said in a video posted on social media. “So this fall, we’ll be sending a $500 affordability tax credit cheque to everyone in Saskatchewan aged 18 and older to help with some of those rising costs.”
The group’s media release included figures from a University of Regina study done in 2021. It found that 19 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population lives in poverty, and 26 per cent of the province’s children live in poverty — the second-highest such rate in Canada.