Twenty-five years ago all parties in the Canadian House of Commons pledged to “end child poverty by the year 2000.” Five years later, they recommitted to the goal by voting to “develop an immediate action plan to end poverty for all in Canada.”
What a great initiative! Simple? Certainly. Successful? Not a chance: neither the promised elimination of poverty nor the action plan have materialized. Child poverty is worse today than it was in 1989.
The “2014 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada” from Campaign 2000, a non-partisan coalition of more than 120 organizations across Canada, tells the story most effectively. The latest statistics show that more than one in five children live in poverty — that’s more than 1.3 million children. Some 40 per cent of children in poverty reside in households with full time, full year employment; one in seven people in homeless shelters is a child; 37 per cent of Canadian households have difficulty maintaining housing.
Over the past 25 years, child and family poverty has increased, from 15.8 per cent in 1989 to 19.1 per cent in 2012. In fact, more children and their families lived in poverty as of 2012 than when we committed to ending child poverty entirely. Of special concern is the fact that in First Nations communities where the federal government has the major role in funding income support and community services, half of status children lives in poverty.
That poverty has become more widespread during these past two-plus decades is especially heinous because Canada experienced an unprecedented period of economic growth from 1998 through 2008 and the following economic recession and slow growth period which continues.
But that must be mostly in the rest of Canada? We’re doing pretty good in British Columbia. Right? Nope. BC is not doing very well in the child poverty challenge. With a national average level of child poverty in 2012 at 19.1 per cent, B.C. rates more poorly at 20.6 per cent. And that was an increase from only 15.5 per cent in 1989.
Though complex and multi-layered, the challenge of reducing child poverty is not without hope. There are things we can do as a country, and as a province. The recommendations of the 2014 Report Card provide some direction. We should start by enhancing the Child Benefit for low-income families to a maximum of $5,600 per child, and index that to inflation. Second, we need to create and implement a plan to prevent and reduce child and family poverty in indigenous families. Employment Insurance should also be enhanced to expand access, duration and levels of benefits. We should implement a comprehensive national housing strategy that reflects the needs of local communities starting with reversing the trend of decreasing federal investment in affordable housing.
The level of poverty for Canadians, especially among children, is shameful. It was important enough in 1989 for unanimous commitment, but not so much that we have actually slid backwards in the following quarter century.
The 2014 Report Card is subtitled “We can fix this,” and we can. But to do so, we need an economy that provides good jobs and decent wages, and to target income transfers to those most in need. We also need to bolster supports to families. If we can do these things, we will improve children’s futures, and improve Canada’s social and economic future.
Editor’s note: Dr. Paul Martiquet is the medical health officer for rural Vancouver Coastal Health including Powell River, the Sunshine Coast, Sea-to-Sky, Bella Bella and Bella Coola.
