Child poverty in Canada: A cross-comparision of Manitoba and British Columbia

On November 24th, 1989 the House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution to eliminate childhood poverty by the year 2000. Nearly two decades have passed since this resolution was made and child poverty in Canada is no closer to being eliminated than it was in 1989. This blog serves to examine the state of child poverty in two provinces that have had some of the highest child poverty rates in recent years, Manitoba and British Columbia. Further, this blog will touch on some of the characteristics of low-income groups, including family structure in relation to child poverty in the cities of Winnipeg and Vancouver. However, it should be noted at this time that studies of child poverty differ greatly between provinces and between municipalities, which complicates the task of cross-comparison and, among other things, undoubtedly enables the problem of child poverty to persist.

Although there is no official measure of poverty in Canada, a family is generally determined to be living in poverty if the household’s annual income falls below the Low Income Cut-off (LICO) poverty line, established by Statistics Canada. This poverty line is calculated for both pre-tax and after-tax annual incomes. Annual incomes are then adjusted to reflect the family size (e.g. number of adults and children in a dwelling) as well as the population of the area (e.g. <> 500 000).[1]

The percentage of families living below the poverty line has been fairly high in the past twenty years for both Manitoba and BC. Overall, Manitoba has consistently ranked above 20% for child poverty since 1989 and has frequently placed 5% or more over the national child poverty rate within that same period. The only year when Manitoba fell below the twentieth percentile was in 2004 when the rate fell not even a full percent below this mark.[2] Comparatively, the child poverty rate of BC has fluctuated within a few percent of the national rate over the years. However, since 2002, the child poverty rate for BC has jumped to the highest provincial standing (20.9% in 2005).[3]

In both Manitoba and BC, children from lone-parent, female-headed households are more likely to live in poverty than any other type of family structure (Manitoba 50.2%,[4] BC 48.1%).[5] On a positive note, the poverty rates for children in this type of family structure have decreased below 1989 levels in both provinces. Unfortunately, though the percentile of lone-parent, female headed households living in poverty has decreased the gap of poverty has increased. On a national level, the average female lone-parent, low-income family would need $9,200 more per year in order to reach the poverty line for this family type (National Report Card, 2007, p.2).[6]

For both Manitoba and BC the majority of low-income households with children are concentrated in the inner cities of both Winnipeg and Vancouver. These areas are characteristic not only of low-income, single parent households, but of higher concentrations of low-income immigrant families as well as low-income aboriginal families. Minority groups such as these face a number of social inequalities that often segregate them as low-income classes. In fact, census figures show that Aboriginal children have a poverty rate that is almost twice as large as for non-aboriginal children.[7]

One of the greatest barriers to overcoming poverty is finding employment that offers a living wage; a wage at which an individual working full-time, full-year would be able to obtain necessities in life without assistance and would generally maintain a good quality of life. For BC it is estimated that at least half of the provinces poor children live in families where at least one person had some full-time, full-year employment.[8] Similarly, in Manitoba nearly 60% of all poor children live in families where the combination of workers in the household had a full-time job for the full year.[9] Despite growing economies in both provinces having a full-time, full-year job is no guarantee of a liveable income.

Many low-income families rely on assistance from governments and other sources to supplement their income. An annual study of food bank users across Canada entitled Hunger Count 2007 found that 47% of food bank users in Manitoba and 36% of food bank users in BC were children.[10] For Vancouver, this translates to approximately 1/3 of food banks clients in the city being children, which equals an estimated 7500 children and youth a week.[11] The study also revealed that in Manitoba there was an increase of immigrant families seeking food assistance,[12] not at all surprising since new immigrants are two to three times more likely to experience poverty than those who were born in Canada.[13]

As mentioned earlier, information on child poverty in Canada lacks general cohesion between different levels of government. In particular, the absence of information on this issue from municipal governments is a cause of concern for it shows a general disregard and unwillingness to tackle child poverty at this level. Indeed, both Winnipeg and Vancouver could take lesson from some of their fellow Canadian cities who have met the child poverty challenge. Just one such example is the City of Hamilton, which is working on drafting a poverty reduction plan for the city.[14] In saying this I do not mean to imply that these two cities have not attempted to reduce child poverty, nor do I wish to imply this of the two provinces. Clearly, however, the issue has not been resolved and therefore other tactics are necessary. Perhaps one of the first steps should be a true assessment of child poverty at the municipal level.

[1] Canadian Council on Social Development, The Canadian fact book on poverty 2000, chapter 2: Working definitions of poverty, 15.

[2] Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 2007 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report Card, 5.

[3] First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, BC Campaign 2000: 2007 Child Poverty Report Card, 5.

[4] Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 2007 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report Card, 7.

[5] First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, BC Campaign 2000: 2007 Child Poverty Report Card, 7.

[6] Campaign 2000, 2007 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, 2.

[7] Ibid., 4.

[8] First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, BC Campaign 2000: 2007 Child Poverty Report Card, 12.

[9] Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 2007 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report Card, 11.

[10] Canadian Association of Food Banks, Hunger Count 2007, 25.

[11] Metro Vancouver’s Vital Signs 2007, Regional indicators by population group: Children, 25.

[12] Canadian Association of Food Banks, Hunger Count 2007, 25.

[13] Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 2007 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report Card, 10.

[14] Ibid., 10.

Bibliography

Metro Vancouver’s Vital Signs 2007. 2007. Regional Indicators by Population Group: Children. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://www.vancouverfoundationvitalsigns.ca/?q=node/4#children.

Canadian Council on Social Development. (2003). The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 2000, chapter 2:Working Definitions of Poverty. Retrieved February 28, 2008 from http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2000/fbpov00/chapter2.pdf

First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition. 2007. BC Campaign 2000: 2007 Child Poverty Report Card. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://www.firstcallbc.org/pdfs/EconomicEquality/3-2007%20report%20cards.pdf.

Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. 2007. 2007 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report Card. retrieved February 28, 2008 from http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/pdf/MB_childpovertyreport2007.pdf.

Campaign 2000. (2007). 2007 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/rc07/2007_C2000_NationalReportCard.pdf.

Canadian Association of Food Banks. (2007). Hunger Count 2007. Retrieved March 20th, 2007 from http://www.winnipegharvest.org/HungerCount%202007.pdf.



Other Works Consulted

City of Vancouver. 2003. Community web pages downtown: Community statistics census data. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Census2001/Downtown03.pdf.

City of Vancouver. (2003). Local area statistics – maps: Average household income (in 2000 $) and Single Parent Families. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Census2001/local.htm.

Statistics Canada. Composition of Family Income for Lone-parent Families with Children Under 18 Years of Age and Lone-parent with Earnings, for Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/highlight/Income/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=CMA&View=1b&Code=0&Table=5b&StartRec=126&Sort=2&B1=Family5&B2=Spouse2.

Statistics Canada. 2008. Community Profiles: Vancouver, British Columbia Census Metropolitan Area. Retrieved on March 20th, 2008 from http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/profiles/community/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CMA&Code1=933__&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=vancouver&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=.