Advocates for B.C.’s youth have released a report card today detailing the problem of child poverty in this province.
The First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition says B.C.’s child poverty rate is the highest in Canada — at almost 19 per cent.
It says B.C.’s rate is five points above the Canadian average, which sits at 13.3 per cent.
One out of five, or 153,000, B.C. children are poor.
BC had the worst poverty rate of any province for children living in single mother families — 49.8 per cent, and the worst poverty rate of any province for children living in two-parent families at 14 per cent.
Almost 32 per cent of the poor children in B.C. lived in families with at least one adult working full-time, full-year.
The group is making 16 recommendations to the government, including raising minimum wage and adopting a $10-a-day child care program to cut B.C.’s child poverty rate to seven per cent by 2020.
To read the full report, go here.
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