Child poverty is B.C.'s endless shame; Year after year, B.C. ranks worst among all the provinces in Canada
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Jan 7 2010

Byline: Paul Martiquet, medical health officer for rural areas served by Vancouver Coastal Health, including Powell River, the Sunshine Coast, Sea-to-Sky, Bella Bella and Bella Coola

In any endeavour, six years of identical results pretty much means you deserve that placing. Unfortunately, when the category is child poverty and you're coming in last it's a very unbecoming statistic.

For British Columbia, that is exactly the situation: We have, for the sixth year in a row, come in dead-last in Canada in the category of child poverty.

First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition produces an annual report card on child poverty to compare B.C.'s situation to the rest of the country's.

The current report (with 2007 data) ranks B.C. last yet again. In 2007, B.C. had 18.8 per cent of its children living in poverty. Though tied with Manitoba, this rate compares poorly to every other province; the Canadian average is 15 per cent….

While the risk of poverty is highest for female single-parent families, about half of all poor children live in two-parent families. And 55.7 per cent of poor children live in families where at least one member had a full-time job.

Hidden in the overall statistics are subgroups of children who are particularly susceptible to poverty.

Statistics Canada reports that the national poverty rate for First Nations children under the age of six living off-reserve was 49 per cent. The comparable figure for non-aboriginal children was 18 per cent.

There are public policy solutions that will help reduce child poverty in B.C. Unfortunately, we are not seeing movement on many of these.

Federally, the Canada Child Tax Benefit (1998) has helped, but little has been done to provide substantial new child-care and housing programs or to fix holes in Employment Insurance.

B.C. has abandoned efforts to expand the B.C. Family Bonus to make it an important income supplement for families with children. It has also steadfastly refused to raise the minimum wage for the past eight years.

First Call B.C. makes specific and actionable recommendations. The provincial government should appoint a cabinet minister with the authority and responsibility to set and achieve poverty-reduction targets. It should raise the minimum wage to $10.80 an hour and index it to cost of living increases. Certainly, the "training wage" of $6 an hour must be abolished.

Furthermore, First Call B.C. recommends raising welfare rates to meet the Market Basket Measure calculated by the federal government. Ensuring universal access to high quality childcare, enabling parents with young children to remain in the labour force, would benefit not only the families and children, but also ensure a strong start in their early years.

British Columbia is a rich, resourceful province and should not be at the bottom of the child-poverty pile. We must do better.