No end to child poverty in Canada
February 7, 2020
More than 1.35 million Canadian children live in poverty 30 years after a unanimous all-party promise to end child poverty, according to a new national poverty report card from Campaign 2000, a non-partisan coalition of 120 groups and individuals co-ordinated by Family Service Toronto.
The report, 2020: Setting the Stage for a Poverty-Free Canada, was released Jan. 14 and provides strong direction to government for ending child and family poverty.
“Despite multiple commitments to end poverty, we still have exceptionally high rates of poverty and unjustifiable levels of income equality for a country as wealthy as Canada,” says Campaign 2000 National Co-ordinator Leila Sarangi.
“As we begin a new decade under the mandate of a new minority government, we are provided with the opportunity for collaboration on the shared goal of ending poverty for all,” she says. “We cannot afford to miss another generation of children.”
Campaign 2000 was formed in the early 1990s to urge governments to deliver on an all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty by year 2000.
Six Campaign 2000 provincial partners also released their annual report cards on child and family poverty on Jan. 14. The Ontario report will be released in late February.