System fails families engulfed in poverty, groups charge

from The Globe and Mail

TENILLE BONOGUORE

A rising tide of poverty is overwhelming Canadian families, but advocacy groups say Ottawa is failing to throw them a lifeline.

Income disparity, a lack of affordable housing, inadequate social assistance and low minimum wages create a financial barrier that National Anti-Poverty Organization executive director Rob Rainer says is digging deeper into society.

The comments followed the release yesterday of an annual report on Ontario's child poverty, showing that one in six children in the province is living in poverty, with almost half of all children in immigrant families living below the poverty line.

Elsewhere, Newfoundland and Labrador is surging ahead with effective public policy to counter poverty that was introduced last year, Mr. Rainer said, but British Columbia lags well behind with "somewhat notorious" barriers to social assistance that he says are "rather punishing and punitive" and some of the toughest in the country.

"The need for federal leadership is profound," Mr. Rainer said.

"Ultimately a lot of this comes down to the dollars that can be made available. Poverty reduction hasn't made it onto the top five priorities for this government and we're not hopeful for this budget [on March 19]," he said.

According to Statistics Canada's Income Trends in Canada 1980-2004, B.C. has the country's highest rate of child poverty, with 23.5 per cent of children living below the poverty line in 2004.

Newfoundland and Labrador had 23.1 per cent of children living in poverty, followed by Saskatchewan at 20.1 per cent.

Prince Edward Island and Alberta had the lowest levels of child poverty in 2004, at 10.8 per cent and 14.5 per cent, respectively.

Ontario was at 17.4 per cent. The Canadian average was 17.7 per cent.

The annual report on Ontario's child poverty was released by the anti-poverty coalition Campaign 2000.

It says the number of children living in poverty has risen by 15 per cent since 2001, and low-income families live in deeper poverty now than 12 years ago.

Food banks feed 132,000 children in Ontario each month, and 478,480 children live in families that are struggling to meet the rising costs of food, shelter and clothing.

Minority groups, immigrants and aboriginals are most heavily affected by poverty.

One-third of off-reserve aboriginal children in the province live in poverty, as do 47 per cent of children in immigrant families, according to the provincial report card.

Coalition 2000 co-ordinator Laurel Rothman said that without a national approach, Canada's "long-term grinding poverty" would be difficult to overcome.

"We talk about a national environment strategy," she said. "Why not an anti-poverty strategy? The United Kingdom is on track to meet its poverty-reduction goals. We need leadership at a national level."