Friday, April 07, 2006

[Canada] Manitoba's child poverty rate improving

CBC Manitoba

One in five children in Manitoba lives in poverty, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada – an improvement over years past in the province.

About 49,000 Manitoba children – 19.2 per cent – were living in families with incomes below the low income cut-off in 2004, according to the statistics. That's down 8,000 compared with the previous year, when the 22.3 per cent of children lived in poverty.

Wayne Helgason with the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg says families in some communities have seen income improvements – for example, he says, many members of the aboriginal community are benefiting from job training initiatives.

However, he says the face of poverty is beginning to change as groups such as new immigrants struggle to make ends meet.

"Many of the families have come from war-torn countries or refugee camps and unlike immigration of years past – [when] people moved into the work force, moved up relatively quickly – that's not happening to the same degree with this group," he said.

Still, the number of children in poverty in the province is still greater by 9,000 than the entire population of the city of Brandon.

While the specific amount of money one must earn to be considered in "poverty" is up for debate, Helgason says it is generally thought of as about $25,000 per year for a family of three.

Thousands of families live on much less, he says.

"In those circumstances, two-thirds of those families have somebody working full-time, full-year in the home, probably earning in and around minimum wage," he said.

Minimum wage in Manitoba was raised to $7.60 per hour April 1. A person working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year at that wage would earn just under $16,000 before taxes.

Nationally, 17.7 per cent of children lived in low-income families in 2004. Manitoba has the fourth-highest percentage of children living in poverty in the country, behind B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan.

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