Thursday, November 21, 2024

Child poverty increasing in Canada since 2020

Statistics Canada figures show that the percentage of Canadian children living in poverty has increased from 2020 to 2022 (the latest year for which statistics are available).

After years of decline, child poverty in Canada is rising swiftly: report | CBC News | Peter Zimonjic:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reading to children in 2019.

November 19, 2024  "Child poverty is rising swiftly in Canada ... says a new report from Campaign 2000. The anti-poverty group's annual report card on child and family poverty in Canada found that there are now 1.4 million children living in poverty across the country, with another 360,000 children falling into poverty over the last two years....

"Campaign 2000 has been issuing its annual report card on poverty since 1991. This year's report looks at the change from 2021 to 2022 and concludes that during that time, 'child poverty increased in every province and territory.'

"'The sharp increase in national child poverty rates from 2020 to 2021 was the first in 10 years and appears to signal a reversal in the downward trend that began in 2015,' the report said. 'Most alarming was the 2.5 percentage point jump from 2021 to 2022, the largest annual increase in child poverty [since 2000]. Federal strategies for poverty reduction are failing children, families and all of society....'

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government introduced the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) in its first budget. The CCB, which restructured several payments and tax credits into one benefit, came with a promise that nine out of 10 families would be better off.... 

"According to the Statistics Canada data used by Campaign 2000, 20.9 per cent of children under the age of 18 were living in poverty in Canada when the Liberals came to power. Over the next five years, that percentage gradually reduced — first to 19.6 per cent in 2016, then to 18.6 per cent in 2017.... The child poverty rate then dropped significantly to 13.5 per cent in 2020, when the federal government rolled out its pandemic support program. 

"But since pandemic benefits stopped flowing and inflation started rising, poverty among children and families has been on the rise, first to 15.6 per cent in 2021 and then to 18.1 per cent in 2022.... While that rate is still almost three percentage points lower than it was when the Liberals came to power, Campaign 2000 is concerned that the rate is now trending upward again.

"The anti-poverty group's report card found that in nine of 13 provinces and territories, the number of children under the age of 18 living in poverty was higher than the national average of 18.1 per cent. The percentage was lower than that average in Quebec, B.C., P.E.I. and Yukon.... 

"Nunavut had the highest child poverty rate in the country at 41.8 per cent, followed closely by Manitoba at 27.1 per cent and Saskatchewan at 26.7 per cent. Yukon and Quebec had the lowest child poverty rates in the country at 12 per cent each, followed by  B.C. at 16.7 per cent and P.E.I. at 16.8 per cent."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/campaign-2000-national-report-card-child-poverty-1.7387176

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