Canada's ranking plunges on international scale measuring children's outlook
News 11:30 - all news radio
May 8, 2007
By: PAT HEWITT
EXCERPT

TORONTO (CP) - On the eve of Mother's Day, a new report from an international charity shows Canada is plunging on a scale assessing the outlook for children in the world's countries.

The report from Save the Children, based in London, has Canada dropping over the past year to 25th place from 5th on the Children's Index. The humanitarian group's index ranks 140 countries on measures such as children's mortality under the age of five, enrolment in day care, nursery school and secondary school.

The United Kingdom is ranked 21st while the U.S. is at No. 30.

"I think we are slipping," said David Morely, president and chief executive officer of Save the Children in Canada. "We have been cutting back on our social programs and we start to see that happening."

Morely said while Canada's economic indicators have been getting stronger, social indicators have not.

"I think if we're going to have a discussion in the country, perhaps it should be about what are the indicators that are going to drive us. Is it going to be economic or going to be social? Or how do we get a mix of the two so that we can move forward as a society?"

He said the main reason for Canada's drop can be attributed to the fact that it lags far behind the Europeans in early childhood education.

"We know that's really key for child development and societal development. We're just not up to the same rate as other countries who are as wealthy as we are," he said.

Canada spends 0.25 per cent of its GDP on early childhood programs while other developed countries spend up to two per cent.

A statement late Tuesday from the office of Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg said the government is investing three times what the previous Liberal administration devoted to early learning and child care - nearly $5.6 billion in 2007-08 in support of early learning and child care through transfers, direct spending and tax measures.

That includes $2.4 billion annually through monthly payments to parents for every child under the age of six through the Universal Child Care Benefit.

In an interview from Ottawa, Ruby Dhalla, the Liberal social development critic, said Canada has been ranking "dead last among the developed nations in terms of our spending as a country for early childhood education. I think that's... a very clear signal that this Conservative government is really failing Canadian families."

"I think Stephen Harper needs to show some leadership, they need to have an action plan and they owe it to Canadian parents and children to ensure that we invest in early learning and child care and that we actually create child care spaces," said Dhalla....

In Canada, the report suggests six out of 1,000 children won't reach their fifth birthday. That's up from five out of 1,000 in a previous report issued at the same time last year.

"It has gone up a bit, but it still is comparable to other countries. We are certainly seeing an increase and it's certainly a very disturbing increase to see that happening here in Canada," Morely said.

While he didn't provide figures, Morely said there are higher mortality rates among First Nations children....

"Here in Canada, where we do have a strong public health system, it tends to be accidents, except for some of the remote indigenous communities where health care is harder to get at."

Factors contributing to children dying young in industrialized countries, the report found, include single parenthood, low levels of maternal education, teenage motherhood, substandard housing, large family size and parental drug or alcohol addiction. And death rates are higher for male children.

"With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, and we're always talking about how we want to celebrate and honour our mothers, this report is trying to take a look at the situation of mothers and their young children all around the world and have all of us think as a society, well, what are we doing as a society to make sure that mothers and children are well cared for," said Morely.

"It's not only what governments can do. It's what all of us as a society want to do to be sure that mothers and children are well cared for. That's what this report is for."