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The headline was bleak: No progress on child poverty. Canada ranks 19th out of 26 OECD nations.
But behind the bad news headline lies a good news story waiting to be written.
In one way, the recent UNICEF report, Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005, tells us what we already knew. Between 1990 and 2000, Canada made virtually no progress on reducing child poverty.
But the report puts Canada's experience in international context and thus provides useful lessons for how to rewrite that story.
One key is strong national leadership, the kind shown by the Blair government in Britain. "The basis of recent progress has been a government commitment, at the highest levels, to halving child poverty by 2010 and eliminating it by 2020." Britain has decided on a number of clear poverty indicators by which to judge progress in reaching those goals. The UNICEF study reports that independent evidence suggests Britain has reached its interim target of cutting child poverty by 25% by 2004-05.
The second is an enduring national commitment, the kind shown by a country like Norway. Norway was already a world leader. And during the 1990s they successfully reduced child poverty even further, despite a difficult economy.
Canada, by contrast, comes in for criticism for our dithering. The report notes, for example, that Canada has plenty of candidates for official poverty measures &em; the government is just unable or unwilling to choose one. "Amid these definitional uncertainties," the authors conclude, "Canada's target year 2000 came and went without agreement on what the target means, or how progress towards it is to be measured, or what policies might be necessary to achieve it."
So how do we rewrite this story? First and foremost, we need the Prime Minister to lead. Heartfelt rhetoric about child poverty in Canada being a national disgrace just won't do. He needs to mobilize national support to develop and implement a strategy for achieving a sustained reduction in child poverty.
International experience offers some direction for developing a national strategy. A first target would be to cut Canada's child poverty rate in half by 2015 -- from the 15% and higher where it has been stuck. The Martin government supports the UN Millennium development goal of cutting global poverty in half by that date. We need to make that same commitment to our children. To do this we need to focus both on the labour market and public programs.
The employment insurance system fails too many Canadians. The rise in low-paid, precarious work undermines the premise that a job can be a sustainable route out of poverty. Clearly part of Canada's national strategy to reduce child poverty has to include a focus on improving labour market outcomes.
Child Poverty in Rich Nations reveals that no country which spends more than 10% of national income on social spending for families with children has a child poverty rate above 10%. Canada devotes a little over five percent.
Equally important is how those funds are spent. The UNICEF report cautions against supports narrowly targeted to low income families. "Highly targeted social expenditures focus limited government resources on those most in need, but may mean that beneficiaries have little to gain by moving from welfare to work…. Benefits universally provided, though apparently more expensive, avoid this trap."
Such advice confirms the Martin government's recent budget commitment to build a universal national child care system. In most provinces, where limited child care subsidies are available to only low income families, a move to slightly higher paid work often means a loss of child care subsidy. Quebec stands out. Its universal, $7 a day child care program ensures that low income families who see a modest improvement in their pay realize that benefit without jeopardizing their children's access to affordable child care.
One area where Canada has shown some progress has been in child benefits. Canada's child poverty rate would be 23% if families depended only on market income. But programs like the Canada Child Tax Benefit cut that to about 15%. All the more reason why the federal government should boost the maximum child benefit to $4,900 per child &em; and to ensure that families on social assistance keep the full benefit.
In short, there is no good reason why the next UNICEF report on child poverty in rich countries should have a bad news headline about Canada. The pathways to progress are clear. They simply await decisive political leadership and effective national commitment. That story is ours to write.
- reprinted from the Globe and Mail