Child Poverty: 30 Years and Still Counting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Child Poverty: 30 Years and Still Counting
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of when all the parties present in the 1989 House of Commons
unanimously voted to end child poverty by the year 2000. Today, Campaign 2000 to End Child Poverty
released our updated analysis of child poverty by federal riding.
The findings show the following about Manitoba:
• More than one third (five) of Manitoba’s fourteen ridings (35.7%) are in the highest quintile of
child poverty. This is among the highest in Canadian provinces and territories.
• Manitoba still includes the riding with the highest child poverty rate, Churchill–Keewatinook
Aski (63.6%) and the third highest, Winnipeg Centre (40.5%), while the fifth highest is
Dauphin–Swan River–Neepawa (37.5%).
The Canada Child Benefit was introduced in July, 2016. By comparing the 2015 child poverty rate
based on tax filer data to that in 2017, the latest available, we can better understand the effect
to date of this federal program.
“A comprehensive measure on this large, inclusive data set, clearly shows that both our provincial
and federal government have jumped the gun in celebrating a significant decrease in child poverty”
Sid Frankel.
“No one is saying that the CCB isn’t helping or should be scrapped. It needs to be strengthened and
even more targeted to get to the families most in need.” Kate Kehler, “And our provincial
government should not be clawing back CCB gains in their programs. There was a notable cut to
families on Rent Assist in 2017.”
The report once again highlights that in Manitoba, as in all of Canada, the ridings with the
highest rates of child poverty are also home to the largest proportion of Indigenous people, recent
immigrants, racialized people and lone-parent families.
“Children are poor because their families are poor. We have poverty because we have an incredible
income imbalance.” Damon Johnston, “An Oxfam Canada report shows that in Canada billionaire wealth
grew by
$28 billion in 16/17, enough to pay for universal child care and lift 4.9 million Canadians out of
poverty. However, here we are in 2019 without either.”
“The CCB helped, but there is no instant solution to child poverty. 40.5% of children in Winnipeg
Centre continue to live in poverty. As a result, these children have a higher chance of developing
serious health issues, have limited success in school and suffer from low self-esteem. By
advocating to reduce child poverty, you’re advocating for better health and a better future for
these children. We need changes that support and empower all Canadian children.” Keren Taylor
Hughes.
Elimination of child poverty should continue to be a priority for the incoming federal government
and for the Manitoba government. There have been small gains, but the job is not done. The full
report is available on the Campaign 2000 national website.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Sid Frankel, report contributor, University of Manitoba, member of National Steering
Committee Campaign 2000 (204)-295-3749, Sid.Frankel@umanitoba.ca
Kate Kehler, executive director, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Campaign 2000 member, (204)-
590-8932, kkehler@spcw.mb.ca
Keren Taylor-Hughes, chief executive officer, Winnipeg Harvest, Campaign 2000
member, keren@winnipegharvest.org
Damon Johnston, president Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg, Campaign 2000 member, (204) 960-4782,
djohnston@abcentre.org
BACKGROUNDER:
The report defines poverty by the Low Income Measure (after tax). This is one of the indicators
identified by the federal government to evaluate its poverty reduction strategy. Research
demonstrates that relative measures like Canada’s Low-Income Measure are more comprehensive
measures of all aspects of poverty including material deprivation, exposure to harsh environments,
social exclusion and stress related to social comparisons and insufficient resources. The
Low-Income Measure is much more strongly correlated with the known health, developmental and social
effects of poverty.
The poverty rates are from the 2017 tax filer data, the latest available. Data on population
characteristics are from the 2016 census.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
• More than one third (five) of Manitoba’s fourteen ridings (35.7%) are in the highest quintile of
child poverty when all 338 federal ridings are divided into five groups according to their rate of
child poverty. This is among the highest in Canadian provinces and territories.
• Manitoba includes the riding with the highest child poverty rate, Churchill–Keewatinook Aski
(63.6%), the third highest, Winnipeg Centre (40.5%), and the fifth highest, Dauphin–Swan River-
-Neepawa (37.5%).
• The Canada Child Benefit was introduced in July, 2016. So, if we compare the 2015 child poverty
rate in 2015 to that in 2017 we can understand the maximum effect of the Canada Child Benefit.
• The Canada Child Benefit reduced child poverty only a small amount or not at all in the Manitoba
ridings with the highest rates:
o Churchill–Keewatinook Aski – A reduction of only 2.3 percentage points (65.9% in 2015 to 63.6%
in 201).
o Winnipeg Centre – A reduction of only 3.9 percentage points (from 44.4 % in 2015 to 40.5% in
2017)
o Dauphin–Swan River–Neepawa – A small increase of .6 percentage points (from 36.9% in 2015 to
57.5% in 2017).
• In Manitoba as in all Canada the ridings with the highest rates of child poverty are also home to
the largest proportion of Indigenous people, recent immigrants, racialized people and lone-parent
families.
Welcome & Election updates from SPCW!
We wanted to take a quick minute to thank everyone who signed up for membership for the first time and, of course, all of you who have stuck with us through the years. As promised, we will not bombard you with notifications but just the occasional update when we think there is something you really need to know about in the world of social justice. We do share regularly on social media so please do like and follow us on our social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!
With the two elections coming up, we will be working to encourage as many people as possible in the inner city to vote. We will release updated riding specific voting guides as soon as the candidacy dates have passed. These will be easy to follow to demystify voting as much as possible. We have also produced a series of one page issue information sheets. We have also updated our Poverty Profiles based on 2016 Census Data. These all indicate the level of inequity that is out there. The sheets are meant to give people some facts on social justice issues so they can understand which level of government is responsible for what and give them some info to quiz any and all candidates who come knocking! Please read through to the end of this message for information on election forums we are partnering on and some petitions you might be interested in signing on to!
There is a lot happening in the City. While Council did commit to developing a poverty reduction strategy, there have been other concerning actions taken: The rushed approval of the sale of Portage Place Mall from both the City and Province, new security measures at Millennium Library, on going discussions on how to help people experiencing homelessness on public land and a drug strategy that does not recommend a safe consumption site. All of these are related as they demonstrate why a poverty lens on actions taken, one that emphasizes harm reduction as best practice, is needed.
Finally, our 100th AGM is coming up – September 23rd, 2019 at the Met, 6pm. The financial news for 2018-2019 is good! There are some minor by-law changes to be discussed and a few key areas to report back on. We will be premiering our documentary from local award winning filmmaker Ervin Chartrand on just some of SPCW’s long history and more importantly where we see our work going in the future. To vote at the AGM, you have to have been a member by July 25th, 2019 but whether you were a member by then or not, we hope you will come celebrate with us!
Kate Kehler,
Executive Director
Social Planning Council of Winnipeg
SPCW Summer Update!
Hello everyone,
We just wanted to send out a quick update on some of what we have been up to, our summer plans but most importantly a note of thanks for your continued support for the work we do.
Our last update was about our April 26th, 2019 panel discussion – Sorry Not Sorry: Unapologetically Working for Social Justice. It was a wonderful event, sold out, and the word attendees most often used to describe it was “inspiring”. The controversy around one of our speakers, Linda Sarsour, did sadly demonstrate that we still have a lot of work to do on building inclusive movements across cultures. We need to be able to have the difficult conversations on what we disagree on so we can move on to common ground. Here is part of how our board president, Tyler Blashko opened the evening’s discussion:
“In this time of reflection around SPCW’s centennial and the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike, it’s important that we recognize and honour the fact that the struggle for social justice didn’t start 100 years ago. We live in a region with a history of displacement, broken treaties and violence but also one of resilience, creativity and communities pulling together. We need to hold these histories close to ensure we do better as we move forward in our work for social justice.
In trying to recognize our centennial, SPCW didn’t want to be overly retrospective. Clearly, there is still work to be done around social and economic inclusion, we want to take this moment to look forward, where are we now and where does social justice work have to move in the next 10 and 20 years. Social justice is necessarily disruptive. The status quo is comfortable for some but marginalizing for too many. If social justice is our objective, people’s comfort cannot be prioritized when it sits on a foundation of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Homophobia or any other forms of marginalization and violence. The conversation we’re hoping to have tonight and continue beyond this evening are, how to build these movements for social justice across communities, across generations and continue to effectively push forward for a just community.”
We will be continuing this work in the next few months. With both the provincial and federal elections, we will be working to educate people on not only the logistics of voting but also on the facts around key social justice issues. If people feel empowered and informed, they are more likely to vote. Too many feel their vote does not matter but “decisions are made by those that show up. This quote is attributed to everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Woody Allen. What’s important to know is that the politicians pay attention to those that vote!
The end of July will see us involved in a series of events that will develop good, evidenced based, informed discussion on Meth and effective community based responses. The task force has released their report. It has some good recommendations but no consensus was reached on a safe consumption site. In the Winnipeg Street Health Report, the majority, 60%, of those surveyed (people experiencing homelessness) were in favour of one. You may have also read that the City has rescinded the RFP to hire a private contractor to remove the belongings of those experiencing homelessness in public spaces. They are looking to develop a better response and we will be looking for opportunities to address that along with the ongoing issues with security at the Millennium Library.
Immigration Partnership Winnipeg is going strong with all sorts of community events. On National Indigenous Peoples Day alone, 100s came out to a community event, co-hosted with Circles of Reconciliation and the City of Winnipeg, at Freight House. Newcomers to Canada and Indigenous community members came together to share food and cultural practices. We also then hosted a group of new Canadians, in partnership with the Treaty Relations Commissioner, in a discussion on treaties and Indigenous history in Canada, just before they took their Citizenship oath.
We are just finishing up our full annual report and that will be available at our AGM, September 23rd at The Met. We will be showing a short documentary on just some of our history. The formal agenda will be sent out with the full notice closer to the date. Hope to see you there!
I hope your summer is as restful and/or exciting as you wish it to be!