Canada’s Very Real Child Poverty Problem

A new report is showing the severity of child poverty in Canada. Campaign 2000 broke down their report into federal ridings and it shows a very real problem.

Highest quintile rural ridings have higher average child poverty rates at 33%, compared with urban ridings at 28.2%.

For highest quintile rural ridings, 18.1% of households spend 30% or more of their income on rent.

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The riding with the highest child poverty rate is the northern riding of Churchill–Keewatinook Aski, Manitoba where nearly (64.2%) of children live in poverty.

The upscale bay-street urban riding of Toronto Centre, Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s riding, has two-fifths of children living in poverty.

Over 1.2. million Canadian children live in poverty

The ridings with the worst
child poverty rates are home to the highest proportions of Indigenous and racialized people, recent immigrants
and mostly mother-headed lone parent families.

The report was released Monday to highlight Canada’s poverty problem in the lead up to Canada’s first federal Poverty Reduction Strategy. Its authors paint a portrait of inequality in Canada stating; “with high- and low-income families living in close proximity while divided by wide social and economic gaps that leave too many children hungry, sick and stressed beyond their years.”