Child poverty rate falls to single digit

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

“The 2008 release of Income Trends in Canada shows a continuing trend in the decline of the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia,” says Pauline Raven, the principal author of Nova Scotia Child Poverty Report Cards for the last decade.

The Delhaven analyst noted, “the rate of low-income among children from birth to 18 years has dropped each year from 2003 to 2006, which is the most recent year for which data is available.”

The 2003 before-tax child poverty rate of 21.3 per cent dropped to 12.8 per cent by 2006. Similarly, the 2003 after-tax rate dropped from 14.4 per cent to 8.7 per cent, she said.

Average rates of child poverty in Canada are generally proving to be more stubborn. Laurel Rothman of Campaign 2000 says, “Canada’s after-tax child poverty rate appears stalled at 11.3 per cent.”

Creating an accurate picture of how things have changed for Nova Scotia children living in families headed by a female lone-parent is also proving difficult.

Raven said, “Statistics Canada is noting that much of the data for lone-parent versus two parent families is to be used with caution and for some recent years much of this data has been too unreliable to be released at all.”

Requires analysis

Raven is calling on the government to provide an analysis of reasons for the reduced levels of child poverty in Nova Scotia. “As this government moves toward a poverty reduction plan it would be helpful to know which factors most contribute to the falling rates experienced between 2003 and 2006.”

Raven points to several possible factors that can have positive or negative impacts on the social fabric and future well-being of Nova Scotians. For example, she said, the out-migration of young families to other jurisdictions could be a factor that, while reducing current child poverty rates, would also rob Nova Scotia of the young workforce needed to replace baby-boomers heading toward retirement.

In addition, parents working outside this province’s jurisdiction for higher pay, yet listing Nova Scotia where their family and children reside as home, Raven suggested, can greatly increase family income and reduce child poverty rates, but may have a negative impact on parenting.

On the other hand, recent increases to subsidized child care spaces and/or recent increases in minimum wage rates may be allowing more young families to escape poverty. Raven says, “the government of Nova Scotia has a responsibility to provide an analysis of what is occurring with regard to low-income trends for families with children in Nova Scotia.”

In 1989, federal politicians promised to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. The latest report card from Campaign 2000 suggests that 760,000 children are still living in poverty in Canada, despite a decade of prosperity.

"Canada has enjoyed more than a decade of strong economic growth yet child poverty is essentially the same, based on the latest data available, as it was in 1989," Rothman said. "As Canada heads into a period of economic uncertainty, the most strategic decision the federal government could make would be to lower the poverty rate."

Countries in Northern Europe have child poverty rates less than five per cent. The United Kingdom has a Poverty Reduction Strategy in place that cut their child poverty rate.

A recent Environics poll shows an overwhelming majority (92 per cent) of Canadians say that if nations like the UK and Sweden can make significant progress on reducing poverty then Canada can too.