Area Medical Health Officer Nelson Ames is joining with the Health Officer's Council of B.C. in calling on the government to address child poverty after a report card on the issue indicated that our province has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, for the fourth consecutive year.

"I think it's an important health issue and in our desire to make this the healthiest jurisdiction -- as stated by the government -- in the world for the time of the Olympics, I think this is an important component that needs to be addressed," said Ames, adding that child poverty is a big problem impacting the health of our community.

The report was issued by First Call BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition and report fact sheets may be found at www.firstcallbc.org <http://www.firstcallbc.org> . According to the report card, the proportion of children living in poverty in B.C was 20.9 per cent, "well above" the national rate of 16.8 per cent. In 2005, this province had an estimated 174,000 poor children, more than the combined populations of Victoria, Nanaimo, and Comox.

B.C. is the only province where the child poverty rate was actually higher in 2005 than in 1997 despite increases in child benefits. The report indicates that B.C. child poverty rates rose from 18.2 per cent in 1998 to a record high 24.2 per cent in 2002 and down to 20.9 per cent in 2005, well above the 14.3 per cent rate in 1989. In 1997 -- the year before the federal government introduced the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the year after the provincial government introduced the BC Family Bonus, the B.C. child poverty rate was 19.5 per cent and the national rate was 22.1 per cent.

So, why is B.C. so far behind?

According to Richard Chambers, communications director for the B.C. Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, the poverty rate has to do with the recession the province experienced in the mid-90s and he explained that it has taken time for the economy to recover.

"It [the mid-90s] was a time when one in 10 British Columbians were on income assistance. It was really high. It was 10 per cent. Income assistance is there as a safety net. The number of children on income assistance at that time I believe it was in one out of seven in 1996. That's when it peaked. It was because of an economic situation. Today the number of children on income assistance is less than one in 30," said Chambers, adding that the poverty rate is declining each year. "If you look at the trend line and you look in the report where they've got graphs and charts, you can see where the numbers peaked in B.C. but the B.C. curve down is much sharper than the national average."

The report further shows the gap between the richest 10 per cent and the poorest 10 per cent of families in the province. In 2005, the wealthiest 10 per cent of BC's families with children had an average income of $224,665 up from $146,492 in 1993. The poorest 10 per cent of families with children on the other hand had an average income of $16,520, up slightly from $15,50 in 1993..

"B.C. has the highest proportion of working poor families because of inadequate hours of work and too many low-wage jobs," reads the report. "A person working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks would have to earn $9.99 an hour in 2005 to reach the poverty line for a single person in Vancouver."

In 2006, there were more than 245,000 employees in B.C. earning less than $10 an hour and more than 185,000 paid between $10 and $12.

The consequences for children living in poverty in terms of health are significant, Ames explained.

"In the case of children, they don't choose to live in poverty, they're born into the circumstance so the context becomes really important in their early child development and has a lifelong trajectory impact and so that's why it's a big issue and there's lots of evidence that supports that healthier in earlier life leads to less issues whether they be diabetes, cancer, heart disease, any of them in the longer term so that's why it's important," said Ames, adding that growing up in poverty becomes a cyclical problem for children who can become adults in poverty.

Chambers explained that there are income supports in place in B.C. including having the lowest provincial taxes in Canada that allow people -- particularly, he said, on the lower income side -- to keep more of the money they earn. The province has also recently introduced the rental assistance program that helps working British Columbians with an income of $28,000 or less.

However, when asked about the rising housing costs and how it would help people who earn incomes just above the threshold, Chambers indicated he could not give his personal opinion on the matter while speaking on behalf of the government.

"The point of the matter is when people have choices with the income that they have, they're going to be making some tough choices about what they can afford and the Stats Canada one would show that people with low income would tend to pay a lot less," said Chambers. "The reality is low-income people pay a lot less for their shelter costs than the dieticians report would indicate." …

That's why we are recommending to the government that the see it as a priority and set targets for actually reducing it," said Ames.