OTTAWA -- A much-celebrated 1989 resolution approved by the House of Commons to end child poverty by 2000 has been a bust, says a national report on the state of the country's children.

The report, released Monday by Campaign 2000, said the national child poverty rate of 11.7 per cent, or about one in eight children, is the same as it was when MPs made that pledge 18 years ago.

Ann Decter, national co-ordinator of the anti-poverty umbrella group, called on the federal government to implement a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy that, among other things, would raise the national child benefit to $5,100 from the current $3,240 for a first child and raising the federal minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.

Decter said the group's annual poverty report card showed that child poverty rates declined only in the provinces of Alberta, Quebec and Prince Edward Island. Manitoba had the highest rate at 14.1 per cent.

"Federal savings from lower debt charges should be invested in poverty reduction," she said. "Let's not just get Canada out of debt, let's get poverty out of Canada. That's the vision of a great nation."