We Can Do It! Report Provides Anti-Poverty Roadmap

Almost 1.4 million children (approximately 1 in 5) are living in poverty in Canada. Last week, as our colleagues at Campaign 2000 released their 2015 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, people across the country were struck by the stark statistics found within the report.

In 2013, Canada’s child poverty rate was 19%. Quebec was the only province with a rate below 15%. The rate was 25% in Saskatchewan, 29% in Manitoba, and in Nunavut, the rate was an alarming 37.7 %.

Perhaps most concerning is the persistent finding that nation-wide, 40% of Indigenous children live in poverty. That is almost half of all First Nations, Inuit and Metis children in Canada. In fact, for status First Nations children the numbers are even higher with one in two children living in poverty.

The adverse effects of low-income incidence among children are well known, including hunger, deprivation, discrimination, social alienation, and poor health outcomes. The report confirms that these consequences continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous, racialized, and immigrant communities, children with disabilities, as well as single parent families.

In a country as wealthy as Canada, child poverty “is not inevitable” but is a preventable consequence of government inaction and lack of commitment. After all, it’s been 26 years since the government unanimously passed a motion to end child poverty in Canada. The persistence of child poverty is a systemic failure of Canada’s social safety net.

The Report Card notes that Canada lags 5% behind the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average in social assistance spending (even lower when healthcare transfers are excluded), and UNICEF now ranks Canada 17/29 on child well-being.

The report calls the promise of an improved and streamlined Canada Child Benefit a “monumental policy shift” for low-income families; however, it points to continued failures in the provision of unemployment benefits, universal childcare and education, and affordable housing as critical gaps that must be addressed in any long-term poverty reduction strategy. The report also noted that a key step for poverty reduction in Canada is the establishment of an official poverty line for Canada through the LIM-AT (Low Income Measure After-Tax) measuring method. By creating an official poverty line, anti-poverty advocates will have accurate tools to measure progress.

Campaign 2000 announced their enthusiasm in response to the government’s commitment to work towards a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy for Canada, while recognizing that there is still much work to be done. And we agree! The recent commitment to a national anti-poverty plan is a big step forward.

It’s so important that, while working toward a national anti-poverty plan, the government embrace the need to entrench these recommendations in legislation that recognizes the human rights of everyone living in poverty. Among the statistics, policies and numbers, we can’t forget, those 1.4 million children are real people deserving rights.

Only when we’re truly accountable to those living in poverty – when we recognize our human rights obligations – can we truly capitalize on the current “climate of hope and optimism”.