500,000 more children are living in poverty in Canada today than
in 1989 - a 58 percent increase. This brings the number of
children considered to be living in poverty to a record 1.5
million. The latest information on this was released in a report
by Campaign 2000, a coalition of 60 agencies lobbying for an end
to child poverty. The report also says that the number of
children living in families whose parents are experiencing
long-term unemployment is up 47 percent, while those living in
families requiring social assistance is up 68 percent. The number
of children living in unaffordable rental housing is up 48
percent and the number of families living in families earning
less than $20,000 a year has increased 45 percent.
According to the report, a child is considered to be living
in poverty if its family must spend more than 55 percent of its
income on food, shelter and clothing. This is the limit known as
the "low-income cutoff."
The report says that it would take $7.1 billion to lift
Canada's children out of poverty. This is almost 10 times more
than the Liberal government has pledged to spend "sometime during
its mandate" on its "National Child Benefit Strategy." This is a
far cry from the Liberal government's November 1993 pledge to
eliminate child poverty by 2000.
This report goes a long way to bring out the
double-standards and double-dealing of the Chretien government.
It has a policy and plan when it comes to eliminating the
deficit; it has a "policy objective" which "it is working hard to
achieve," when it comes to eliminating child poverty.
Canadians know exactly what the Chretien Liberals are all
about. Canada has more than enough resources to eliminate child
poverty immediately. The issue facing the working class and
people is to empower themselves to take over the affairs of
government so that they, not the financial oligarchs, can set the
priorities.
TML DAILY, 11/29/97
Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
