‘Kids in this province are not OK’: B.C. youth representative alarmed with data

British Columbia’s representative for children and youth is extremely concerned with recent data revealed by a child poverty report.

Around 14.3 per cent of children in B.C. were living in poverty in 2021, which equates to more than 126,000 kids, according to a recent report done by the First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society. The annual report highlights statistics from a few years previous.

Jennifer Charlesworth, the province’s Representative for Children and Youth, said increasing poverty rates, deepening vulnerabilities of children and an inability to access affordable childcare are preventing (kids) from thriving.

“These numbers are far too high,” she said.  “We need tangible action, and we need it now. Key priorities must include affordable and accessible childcare, strengthening supports for children and youth with special needs, and meaningfully working with groups that are over-represented in poverty data.”

Child poverty rates for Indigenous groups in B.C. are substantially higher than the provincial average. In 2021, the child poverty rate in 67 B.C. First Nation reserves were 31 per cent — twice the rate of the provincial average.

“We are seeing recent results of three separate surveys that tell us very clearly that many kids in this province are not ok,” she said. “This frankly alarming data is highlighting that we urgently need to be doing more to support the health and wellness of our young people.”

1:54 Child poverty rate back on the rise in B.C.

The report said the statistics for child poverty are expected to increase next year, as well, due to falling incomes for low-income households and increases in necessary expenses.

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Comparing the recent data with stats from two decades ago, B.C. had 22 neighbourhoods where childhood vulnerability was below 15 per cent, and now, B.C. has just two.

The society has been doing the reports for 27 years and noted a slight rise in the child poverty rate in B.C., after a sharp decline, while families received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) during the pandemic.

Research done by the Human Early Learning Partnership, a UBC research initiative, found that 33 per cent of children struggling in areas of vulnerability are at higher risk of suffering in social, emotional, physical, language and communication areas.

“Taken together this information should make us all sit up and take notice,” said Charlesworth. “Our young people need us all to do more for them. That means government, communities, schools, parents, friends need to come together and step up to prioritize children and youth in this province.”

The report makes more than two dozen recommendations, nine of them focused on raising family incomes through paying family-supporting wages or improving income support.

The national average for child poverty was at 15.6 per cent for 2021.

BC United party leader Kevin Falcon said the new budget for the province and the report on child poverty go hand in hand.

“They introduced this budget, this reckless inflationary spending budget, (that will) not only double the debt but increase that a further 64 per cent over the next three year … What do we get for that? We get the worst outcomes in terms of child poverty, worst health care outcomes and worst safety we’ve ever seen in our streets,” he said on Thursday.

— With files from Canadian Press