Child poverty pulls down ratings for quality of life
Vancouver Sun/Canwest News Service
By Tiffany Crawford
September 18, 2009

Canada's growing poverty rates are dragging down the country's grades when it comes to quality of life, according to an annual report card ranking the social performance of 17 developed countries.

In the report, released Thursday by the Conference Board of Canada, the nation ranked ninth overall, an improvement of one place over last year. It concluded that Canada's "middle-of-the-pack ranking means it is not living up to its reputation or its potential."

Driving down Canada's score is the alarming number of children living in poverty, as defined by the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report card gives Canada a D grade, placing it near the bottom of the list at 15th out of 17 countries, ahead of Japan and the United States.

The top-ranked countries are Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Lead author Brenda Lafleur says the child poverty rate in Canada rose to 15.1 per cent in the mid-2000s from 12.8 per cent in the mid-1990s, according to the latest data available from the OECD and the United Nations, which look at poverty relative to social inclusion.

"So there are children who don't have enough food, shelter . . . but then (the data) looks at how much it costs to go to school," she said. "What does it mean for a kid who can't go on a field trip or join a book exchange or have runners to take gym? All these things add up."…

"The numbers show Canada is doing so poorly compared to other countries. So we should be looking at what we can do better," said Lafleur….