It’s December. It’s dipping below freezing at night. The stores are blaring Christmas music. And the United Way’s annual National Report Card on Child and Family Poverty has found one in five children in Canada is now living below the poverty line. For the umpteenth consecutive year, B.C. has topped the federal average.
For the social Darwinist among us who’d advise that their parents simply “get a job,” it’s worth noting almost 40 per cent of those children have a parent who works full time. Wages just aren’t keeping up with the cost of living.
The report makes a number of sadly familiar recommendations that include increasing the minimum wage and providing access to affordable child care.
Not surprisingly, housing cost is one of the biggest factors. According to another study released this week, 45 per cent of renters are spending more than 30 per cent of their gross household income on rent. Almost a quarter now spend more than 50 per cent. The average rental rate in B.C. is $988 but good luck finding anything under $1,000 in Burnaby that can house a family. People in foodbank lines now, are not homeless and jobless, they are the working poor who can’t feed their families.
Single moms, First Nations and immigrants tend to have it the worst.
For the most part, at all three levels of government, our elected leaders have chosen to stand back to oohh and ahhh as rental rates for limited stock have climbed ever higher and home ownership has gone well out of reach of even decent wage earners.
Also, for the umpteenth time, the NDP in B.C. has proposed that the provincial government devise an actual poverty reduction strategy – which, of course, the Liberals ignored. B.C. is now the only province in Canada to not have such a plan
The NDP’s proposal would see targets set to reduce child poverty in B.C., including having a lead minister in charge of the plan.
The Liberals may not agree with all facets of the plan, but there is simply no excuse for not coming up with a plan of their own.
Aside from calling itself the “Families First” government, it is simply not acceptable to ignore children in poverty.
If there is one thing we are sure of, it’s that adults are responsible for children.That is job number one. And when we, and we elected this government, as adults continue to let children go hungry, we have abdicated our responsibility and should be ashamed of ourselves.
