Poverty Reduction Key to Canada’s Economic Recovery

Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Jacquie Maund is the Coordinator for the Ontario Campaign 2000.


Canada’s economic recovery hinges on federal leadership to pull recession victims out of the poor house and prevent Canadians from plunging into deeper poverty, hunger and homelessness, says Campaign 2000’s new report card on child and family poverty.

Keep the Promise: Make Canada Poverty-Free looks at the nation’s most recent child and family after-tax poverty rate compared to 20 years ago, when Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty by 2000, and finds today’s after-tax rate is 9.5 per cent, a slight budge from 11.9 per cent in 1989.

“If Canada were a student, she would be in danger of dropping out,” says Campaign 2000’s Laurel Rothman. “Following an unprecedented period of growth since 1998, the small change in the rate of child and family poverty is shocking.

“As Canada develops strategies to foster economic growth and recovery, the most strategic decision the federal government could make would be to take leadership and set a target to lower the poverty rate.”

The report card’s key findings, available at www.campaign2000.ca, show Canada has far to go to prevent and reduce poverty:

·         One in 10 children still live in poverty in Canada today. It’s worse for children living in First Nation’s communities: one in four grow up in poverty;

• There are more working poor: 40 per cent of low-income children live in families where at least one parent works full-time year round, up dramatically from 33 per cent in the 1990s;
• Child poverty is persistent across Canada: rates of child and family poverty (LICO before-tax) are in the double digits in most provinces.
• The gap between rich and poor has widened:  On average, for every dollar the families in the poorest 10 per cent had, families in the richest 10 per cent had almost 12 times as much ($11.84) in 2007.

“Canada could succeed if our federal government used public policy resources to improve labour market options and make our tax system more progressive,” says Ed Broadbent, the former New Democratic Party leader who moved the 1989 motion to end child poverty by the year 2000.

“All Canadians will benefit from less poverty,” says Peggy Taillon, President of the Canadian Council on Social Development. “As a society we either share the collective responsibility to prevent child and family poverty or we face rising costs in health care services, criminal justice and education.”

“Now that seven out of 10 provinces have committed to poverty reduction, it’s time for the federal government to exercise leadership and develop a clear plan with targets and timetables,” says Sid Frankel, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.