OTTAWA – After five years and more than $100 million of investments, advertisements for Canada’s Economic Action Plan have succeeded in becoming the material of choice when homeless Canadians build their shanty towns.
“It’s much better than the traditional cardboard,” said Stephen Theobald, who has been living in a shanty town underneath an underpass since losing his job in 2008. “They didn’t cheap-out on these signs, that’s for sure. The heavy duty coroplast signs are waterproof and keep more warm during those cold winter nights when I’m thinking about how I’m going to get my life back together again.”
Theobald uses a 10’ x 6’ Action Plan sign from an arena upgrade as his roof and twelve “Creating Jobs” Action Plan signs for walls that were found littered across a construction site. The full colour digital print gives his shack a more modern look while the arrows on the Action Plan logo appeal to the community’s sense of optimism that one day they will leave this place.
“I’m glad to see the government’s Action Plan helping people like me,” Theobald added.
