In 1989, the House of Commons pledged to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Obviously, that didn’t happen.
Campaign 2000 has released an annual report on child poverty, with a province-by-province breakdown.
Miguel Sanchez, the associate dean of the University of Regina social work faculty, is the author of the Saskatchewan report.
According to his report, the province has the second highest child poverty rate among the provinces, behind only Manitoba (29 per cent) and Nunavut (34.8 per cent).
“Compared to last year’s report, the rate of child poverty has increased by almost three per cent. Today it sits at 26.7 per cent. Last year, it was 24.1 per cent,” Sanchez said.
The national child poverty rate is 19.6 per cent, according to the report.
The Campaign 2000 report uses The Census Family Low Income Measure, After Tax (CFLIM-AT) to calculate poverty.
Using Statistics Canada income tax data, this measure establishes poverty levels for a variety of family make-ups.
This includes single person ($20,424), lone parent with one child ($28,884), lone parent with two children ($35,375), couple with one child ($35,375) and a couple with two children ($40,848).
Based on the CFLIM-AT, 72,850 children aged 0-17 years in Saskatchewan live in poverty. More than 70,000 children have lived in poverty in Saskatchewan since 2007. The amount fell from 74,580 to 70,740 between 2007 and 2011.
However, it has been trending upward since 2013.
Using this data, Sanchez also found that 29 per cent of children under the age of six lives below the poverty line.
“There are numerous studies indicating the negative effects of child poverty,” Sanchez said. “You will see that the repercussions are going to be felt in the future with larger involvement with children involved in the justice system, with the healthcare system and also there is a waste of human potential that we cannot afford to lose.”
Market Basket Measures
Earlier this month, the government of Canada officially introduced market basket measures (MBM) as the means to establish poverty lines. MBM establishes a poverty line by factoring in the cost of essentials like food, clothing, shelter and transportation in a jurisdiction.
Sanchez argues that MBM is a flawed system as it lowers the bar of poverty. Under MBM, he found Saskatchewan’s child poverty rate would be 10.7 per cent.
“That’s why we use the low-income median, because the low-income median can also track movement when there is economic growth,” Sanchez said. “That is reflected because the poverty measure also rises.”
With the MBM system, Ottawa is promising to reduce Canada’s poverty rate by 50 per cent of 2015 levels by 2030.
Social Services strategy
Earlier this year, Saskatchewan’s Social Services ministry needed a $20 million funding influx to better address demand for child and family services.
Social Services Minister Paul Merriman said that the ministry is aiming to put resources to work in “hotspots.”
The minister added that poverty is a priority, and they are seeing signs of improvement through various social programs.
“We have some initiatives in place, but it’s going to take time. We can’t fix this problem within a couple of years because it took us years to get here. So we need to be able to slowly move,” Merriman said.
The most recent data the province has for poverty reduction is the change from 2015 to 2016. In that year, the province saw the overall poverty rate drop from 10.7 per cent to 9.2 per cent.
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