Skip GST reduction, divert tax money to alleviating child poverty: report

from Canoe

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - A social action group is calling on the federal government to cancel the next one percentage point cut to the goods-and-services tax and divert the money toward efforts to eliminate child poverty.

In releasing its annual report, Campaign 2000 says the level of child poverty in Canada has not improved since 1989, despite repeated promises by governments to tackle the issue.

The group says government undertakings have lacked specific targets, timetables and other specifics, undermining political will to take effective action.

The group says 788,000 children - 11.7 per cent of children in Canada - live in poverty.

It says jobs are not always the answer - 41 per cent of impoverished children live in families where at least one parent works full-time all year.

And the group says the risk of living in poverty is higher in racialized, First Nations and recent-immigrant communities.