Report on child poverty in Canada has good and bad news

By Suzanne Coolen

BELLEVILLE – The child poverty rate in Canada has dropped two per cent since the start of the recession, according to a report released Tuesday by UNICEF Canada.

But it’s not all good news.

The report entitled Report Card 12: Children of the Recession by The UN Children’s Fund says the number of children living in poverty went  from 23 per cent of the child population in Canada to 21 per cent.

That means that during the recession from 2008 to 2011 approximately 180,000 children in Canada moved out of poverty, meaning family earned more than $25,400.

Communications specialist Tiffany Baggetta, of UNICEF Canada, said although this decrease represents a large number of Canadian children coming out of poverty, the gap between the median income of poor children and the the poverty line has increased by two percent.

“Overall, child poverty in Canada has decreased but children who were the most poor to begin with have slipped further into poverty,” she said.

The report adds,”poor children today are further away from average living conditions than poor children were at the start of the crisis.”

It goes on to say that families with more than two children, indigenous children and migrant children were more likely to be poor and children continue to be at greater risk of poverty and more unemployed than the broader population.

QNet is looking into this story. More to come.