This short animation about child poverty in
Canada and British Columbia was created for First Call by Peter Romich
of Diametric with music by James Andean.
The facts highlighted in the animation video and discussed below are a
reminder that addressing child poverty and inequality is an urgent issue.
Children are only young once. This is a call to action to all First Call
partners, supporters and other champions for children to use this video
and the BC
Child Poverty Report Card to raise awareness in local communities
and through face-to-face and virtual social networks about this continuing
problem and what our governments can do about it – with our support.
First Call has been raising the alarm about
the unacceptable levels of child poverty in BC for over a decade. Using
the most recent statistics, BC’s child poverty rate is 10.4% - that’s
87,000 children living in poverty (Statistics Canada, After-Tax Low-Income
Cut Off, 2008). This rate is even higher for certain vulnerable groups:
children in female lone-parent families, in Aboriginal families, in recent
immigrant families, in racialized or ‘visible minority’ families,
and children with disabilities.
This is a serious problem because children who grow up in poverty are
significantly more likely to experience a wide range of problems and poor
developmental outcomes. Significant associations between poverty and children's
immediate and long-term health, cognitive development, behavior problems,
emotional well-being, and problems with school achievement have been studied.
Poverty undermines children’s ability to reach their full potential.
It also excludes them from participation in many activities, such as sports
and arts, that other children and families take for granted.
Seven provincial and territorial governments – Newfoundland and
Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the
Northwest Territories – have committed themselves to poverty reduction
plans. Yet British Columbia, which has had the worst child poverty record
of any province for seven consecutive, pre-recession years (2002-08),
has no comprehensive plan for reducing poverty.
The vast majority of BC’s poor children live in families with some
income from paid work, yet their earnings are not enough to lift them
and their children out of poverty. In 2008, one third of them –
40,600 children – lived in families with at least one adult working
full-time, full-year.
Despite our relative wealth, a UNICEF study ranks Canada ranks 17th out
of 24 developed countries on measures of children’s material well-being¹.
This is related to our high levels of income inequality and our underinvestment
in critical early care and learning supports and services for young children.
The gap between the rich and poor in Canada and BC is widening. Between
1989 and 2008, the richest 10% of BC’s families with children saw
an average gain in their annual income of $84,713 or an astonishing increase
of about 52%. Meanwhile the bottom 40% saw their average annual income
drop by more than 4%, or an average loss of $6,909².
Polls show most people in BC don’t realize our federal and provincial
governments spend significantly less money to support families with young
children than other developed nations. In fact, in one international study
Canada is ranked as spending the least on young children’s services
out of 14 developed countries. BC’s rate of investment is even lower.
We are also ranked last out of 19 countries on young children’s access to early childhood care and education programs³.
Respondents to a 2010 Angus Reid poll
commissioned by YWCA Vancouver showed overwhelming public support in BC
for more affordable, quality child care spaces, increased financial support
for low income families and significant government spending to dramatically
reduce the number of vulnerable children in BC4.
Reducing levels of child poverty is one of the most effective ways to
reduce vulnerability in children.
With elections likely happening this year at all levels, political leaders
and candidates have an opportunity to respond to this overwhelming desire
for action, and voters have an opportunity to choose politicians they
think are most committed to making this happen.
Child and family poverty is a scourge and a shame in this province. For
a list of proposed public policy solutions see Fact Sheet #8 in the First
Call 2010 Child Poverty Report Card.
Footnotes:
1. UNICEF, Innocenti Report Card 2009 www.unicef.ca/portal/Secure/Community/502/WCM/Get%20Involved/Advocacy/RC9-%20Eng.pdf
2 . First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, 2010 Child Poverty
Report Card, www.firstcallbc.org/pdfs/EconomicEquality/3-reportCard2010.pdf
3. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006, Starting
Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. Country Profiles.
4. YWCA Vancouver, 2010, "BC-wide pollings results show overwhelming
support for significant spending on children at risk", www.ywcavan.org/content?id=1207