Campaign 2000 report card calls for more government action to reduce child poverty

Campaign 2000 has released its 2024 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, Ending Child Poverty: The Time is Now. This marks the 35th anniversary of the 1989 all party federal resolution to end child poverty by 2000. 

The results in the report card are alarming, with the report card showing an increase in child poverty rates between 2021 and 2022. The report card presents the latest available data on child and family poverty rates. In 2022, over 1.3 million children were growing up in low-income families, representing nearly one in five children. Notably, more children were in deeper poverty, with lone-parent families experiencing the largest poverty gap.

Child poverty increased in every province and territory, with the highest increase in Nunavut with a 6 percentage point increase, to reach 41.8% in 2022. Among the provinces, Manitoba had the highest child poverty rate at 27.1%, followed closely by Saskatchewan at 26.7%.Yukon and Quebec had the lowest child poverty rates at 12% each.

Racialized and marginalized groups are experiencing the highest levels of poverty. Statistics show that people with disabilities experience a disproportionately high rate of poverty in Canada, yet there is no recent data measuring the number, rate, or depth of poverty for children with disabilities. Racialized children experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, and they are “more likely to encounter barriers” when accessing programs and services.

Census data from 2021 show that First Nations children living on reserve had the highest rate of child poverty at 37.4%, while First Nations children living off reserve, Inuit children and Métis children had rates of 24%, 19.4% and 15.2%, respectively. This compares to a rate of 10.8% for children who are not Indigenous.

Implementation of the $10aDay Child Care Plan plays an important role in addressing child poverty

On ELCC the report states “priority must be given to ensuring public and non-profit services are accessible to low-income and vulnerable families as the system grows. This requires provinces and territories to adopt public planning and management of services to ensure more equitably distributed childcare rather than continuing to rely on individuals, community groups or commercial entities.”

The report recommends:

  • Implementing the public expansion strategies to ensure sufficient public and non-profit services expansion with equitable coverage in low income, high need and less densely populated communities.
  • Implementing set fees on an ability-to-pay scale from $0 to a maximum of $10/day per family
  • Honouring, funding and fully implementing the Early Learning and Child Care Framework
  • A Canada-wide process to develop an ELCC workforce strategy addressing wages and working conditions, credentials and training, career advancement and professional opportunities

“Government transfers must do more to reduce poverty”

One notable finding is that the Canada Child Benefit has “lost its power”, with the federal poverty reduction strategy failing children, families and all of society. “Campaign 2000’s research shows that in the first year of the pandemic, federal pandemic income supports reduced the child poverty rate by 7.3 percentage points, protecting nearly 550,000 children from falling into poverty during a global crisis.” 

The report makes an urgent call to action, providing “bold and achievable recommendations” to advance social and economic equity, income security, decent work, child care, housing, pharmacare and more.

Sector specific recommendations include 

  • broadening eligibility for Canada Child Benefit so that eligibility is not tied to parents’ immigration status.
  • Transforming the tax and transfer system to address wealth inequality
  • Implementing of a universal, singer-payer pharmacare system with a coherent national formulary
  • Ensuring that federally financed housing is affordable for low-income families and reflects the diverse needs of families with children
  • Ensure federal minimum wages are adequate and at a minimum bring employment incomes up to the Census Family Low Income Measure. Critically, the report asserts the need to improve the wages of care occupations that represent nearly one-fifth of Canada’s paid labour force, but who are devalued and under-paid.

As the last report card before the next federal election, the report concludes that “the time is now” to implement the “robust suits of policy solutions in the areas of equity, income security, fair taxation, decent work, and public services”.