SASKATOON -- Saskatchewan has some of the highest child poverty rates in the country, according to a report by Campaign 2020.
“It’s a huge problem. Child poverty in Canada is a problem that we should be ashamed of,” national coordinator Leila Sarangi told CTV News.
Nationally, one in five children grow up in households struggling every day, she said.
“Canada is a wealthy country and we have the resources, we know what to do and this problem can be fixed, we just need the political will and the right investments to fix that.”
According to the report, 26.2 per cent of children in Saskatchewan lived in poverty as of 2017, the third-highest number in the country behind Manitoba and Nunavut.
Between 2015 and 2017 Saskatchewan experienced one of the smallest decreases in childhood poverty at 0.7 per cent.
“We know that poverty has scarring effects on people in the future,” said Charles Plant, Houston Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan who specializes in child poverty.
“Poverty today and letting children grow up in poverty today is going to cost us in the long run. It cost us in terms of services. It costs us socially and it hurts our economy too. People growing up in poverty are going to be less prepared for the labour force.”
One positive identified in the report is the effect of the Canada Child Benefit. The authors say 9.5 per cent of families receiving it since 2015 were lifted above the poverty line.
“We are definitely gaining momentum, if we continue the path that we are on and follow the advice on the report we can continue to make improvements,” said Plante.
Campaign 2000 is a non-profit and non-partisan organization that aims to ends child poverty levels throughout Canada. The group conducts child poverty reports each year.
