Confronting the Cost of Living Crisis: From PEI to the World

Henry Luyombya has always seen the power to change the world in people forced to the margins of society: young people, refugees, immigrants, queer people, or people using drugs or without homes. 

"If we work together, social change can happen," he says. "Change of mindset, change of heart-set, change of health-set, and change of soul-set."

Luyombya works with PEERS Alliance as a clinical social worker on P.E.I. and his role is to help those people make that change, especially people from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and their families. He also founded New African Canadians to bring mental health support and settlement services to people moving to the Island from Africa. In 2024, he will bring the Global Mental Well-Being and Substance (Mis)Use Conference back to the University of P.E.I.

Katherine Aske runs an agroecological new farmer training program at UBC Farm in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam territory. Her academic work has focused on researching the impacts and implications of the concentration and financialization of farmland. She is a proud member of the National Farmers Union and Co-Chair of its Farmland Committee, and a proud Maritimer (originally from Halifax!).

Dr. Jim Sentance obtained his PhD in Economics (Carleton University) in 1989. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Over the past three or four decades the Island economy has been the focus of much of his research and to some extent his teaching. Islanders are also familiar with his work in the media, as Dr. Sentance is often called upon to comment on economic issues, and is a frequent contributor in radio, television and print. His research on the Island has focused on the Island’s economy and labour market and on its public finances.

He also has a longstanding interest in inequality, a topic touched upon in his early research and thesis, and one which surfaces in much of his teaching, including a special topics course on the economics of inequality.

Rosalind has been a member of Trade Justice PEI since 2017 when it came together to provide a community- based critique of CETA - the Free Trade Agreement with Europe. Trade Justice PEI is made up of 17 local organizations including  labor and trade union organizations, environmental organizations, farmers, international solidarity groups, the PEI health Coalition and other social justice groups. It has organized several community forums on trade related issues involving guest speakers from on and off the Island.   It has also presented briefs to the federal government, the Standing Committee on Trade and the Senate on a number of proposed trade agreements - always representing the interests of PEI.

Marie Burge lived and worked in PEI all her life except for 5 years in the Dominican Republic, working in community education, and one year in Guelph doing her Masters degree in Sociology. She is a founder,current member, and staff of Cooper Institute (1984); founder and current member of the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income (WGLI) since 2003; represents WGLI on Coalition Canada basic income - revenu de base (2019) and Basic Income NOW, Atlantic Canada (2021). Marie has spent over 50 years working with others for systemic change toward the elimination of poverty, and also for the eradication of excessive concentration of wealth.

Susan has spent a lifetime working as a clinical psychologist, an educator and human rights advocate. She has served in leadership roles in the professional, political, and not-for-profit sectors locally, nationally and globally. From 2011-2017, Susan was a national director of the not-for-profit organization, Right to Read Afghanistan (formerly Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan) and established the Atlantic Canadian Chapter of this organization in 2009. In 2014 she was awarded the Psychological Association of PEI Humanitarian award for this work.

In 2016 Susan was awarded a fellowship at the Rotary Peace Centre at Chulalongkorn University at Bangkok, in the Peace and Conflict Studies professional development program and returned to teach Gender and Peace in 2017. At the local level, Susan is an advocate for poverty elimination, safe shelter, and healthy and resilient communities - all work that she considers to be building peace at a community and societal level.. She is a member of the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income (WGLI), a Director with the Atlantic Summer Institute for Health and Safe Communities, Chair of the Advisory Committee for the PEI Project implementing the ASI Policy Brief calling for upstream investment in population health, and co-founder of a community group: Community Action for Safe Shelter.

Choyce Chappell has a Bachelors of Environmental Studies and a Masters of Science focusing on Environmental Sciences both from UPEI. The Masters thesis included research and understanding of disaster management and what individuals or households can do to understand how various types of weather may affect them and what they can control during these types of weather. Choyce also works as ACIC's Provincial Coordinator for PEI.

Ryan MacRae was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. He graduated with an Economics degree from Mount Allison University in 2017 and continued his studies at the University of Prince Edward Island where he received his Masters in Global Affairs in 2020. Ryan has worked for various small NGOs in Canada and the Dominican Republic. He currently works as a Program Coordinator for the Migrant Worker Program at Cooper Institute in Charlottetown.