Child Poverty in Canada - Essay Example

? Running head: CHILD POVERTY IN CANADA Child Poverty in Canada Canada lags on fighting child poverty, report finds –The Star Summary The article presented by Monsebraaten (2012) lays emphasis on the position of Canada in the context of child poverty index in relation with the other countries. The country’s position is at 34 out of the 35 industry oriented countries with a rate of 13.3 percent according to a report of UNICEF. US (23 percent) and some south European nations ranks highest in terms of child poverty while countries like Netherlands ranks lowest. The same report notes that considering the gap between child poverty and poverty, Canada ranks at 18 as child poverty percentage is two points more than overall poverty rate of the country. The report recommends that equal attention should be paid to child poverty eradication in the good times and also in times of crisis undergone by a nation. Identifying the tax and transfer policies, the article comments that Canada’s tax and benefit strategies are more effective than other developed nations. The statistics of 24.1 percent child poverty rate before tax and benefits as compared to that of 25.1 percent in case of US while a rate of approximately 12 percent child poverty after tax and transfers for Canada (as against the 25.1 percent for US in the same situation) support the above point to some extent. Therefore investments in social and health care services for children do make a difference with respect to child poverty. UNICEF therefore suggests Ottawa a policy of prioritizing child budget and therefore recommends Canada to increase the Child Tax Benefit to a minimum of $5000 annually from the present amount of $3485 and mark the amount to the inflation rate. Also, parents with children below 18 years should be permitted to hold back a greater share of their earned income. Adoption of an official child poverty eradication policy with an initial target of 5 percent would help. Point of view The article serves as a starting point in having an overall idea about the situation of child poverty in Canada and provides a crude guide for framing of social policies in eradicating child poverty effectively with the help of a tax-benefit approach to the problem. However in my opinion, effective and consistent implementation will surely depend on the other economic parameters like inflation, GDP etc. Hence economic policies to improve these parameters are also significant in addressing the problem of child poverty. Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says ---- The Star Summary Monsebraaten (2011) in his article presents the stagnant nature of the children living below poverty in Canada. The article refers Campaign 2000 a coalition devoted to eradicating the same problem that over 1989 to 2009 the progress of the Canadian government to abolish poverty is far from satisfactory. This becomes evident from the fact that in 1989 the poverty rate was 11.9% and that in 2009 was 11.9%. Again this meager improvement was not always uniform and rather subject to business cycle fluctuations. In sharp contrast the nation has experienced staggering and almost uniform growth rate for the past 11 years that proceeded the year 2009. A growing inequality in terms of income distribution in Canadian economy was first time noticed in the Campaign 2000’s first ever report published long back in 2001. Not only the gap between haves and have not has widened over the year; the middle income group was not spared at all and has to devote more and more hours to work to keep their standard of living at the same level. Despite the governments’ extensive effort to fight back poverty that reflected through two reports from the Senate and the House of Commons Committee in recent times; the pivotal point seems to be misjudged. The strong correlation between economic growth of the country and reducing poverty level that is apparently obvious through high level of employment creation seems to overlook an important social factor. This factor gets revealed through the life of Becky McFarlene. The case of Becky McFarlene highlights the fact that the concept that a good job that can fight back poverty is well knitted with the availability of adequate child care, proper housing and substantial education at an affordable price. However, all these are missing in present Canadian environment. Considering these three utmost important issues the article refers Campaign, 2000’s report for the following policy prescription - inflationary adjusted National Child Benefit up to a maximum of USD 5400, proper and adequate easily accessible child care for all the children over 0 to 12 years, developing a poverty eradication policy in connection with “aboriginal child welfare, education and community health centres”, special attention for the students hailing from low and middle income groups along with aboriginal families through added provincial grants. Point of view After reading the article, I can opine that a national housing policy needs to be developed to strengthen the fall back position of the inhabitants of Canada, especially those in need. If the aforementioned policies can be implemented then only the effort of the Canadian government to eradicate poverty with increased employment rate will be fulfilled. “B.C. child poverty rate continues to climb” –CBC News Summary The article published by CBC News in November, 2011 focuses on the case of child poverty in British Columbia as presented by the report of First Call and Youth Advocacy Coalition. The article essentially presents some statistics showing the status of child poverty in BC and finally comes up with recommendations for the province for reduction of child poverty and thus presents the role of the government in this regard. BC has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada and this is true for the eighth year as per the 2009 report of Statistics Canada. In fact the percentage of child poverty in BC increased from 2008 to 2009 by 1.9 percent. The low income cut offs before tax is a strong indicator of poverty. The article brings out the evidences to prove that the province has failed in satisfying the needs of the most economically backward strata of the society. Even the government no more claims that it is the best place to live. Out of the different statistics, the report revealed that for the poverty gap for BC was $3.872 billion in 2009 and the condition of single mothers’ cases was the worst. The recommendations for BC as extended by the Coalition were “increases in the minimum wage; increases in welfare rates and child tax benefits; enhanced Employment Insurance benefits and eligibility; universal access to high-quality, affordable child care and improved access to post-secondary education”. According to Premier Christy Clark, the government has been trying to bring down child poverty but hesitating to launch an elaborate program as its remedy. He suggests an alternative to this strategy in terms of implementing any program in terms of creating new jobs which could yield better results than any one plan. The Liberal government in words of Clark has rendered its efforts in terms of raising the minimum wage, job creation, assisting in terms of rents and eliminating health premiums for the people with low income. Point of View I agree with the views of Clark as presented in the article regarding the new job creation plan but the benefit side should also be stressed upon in order to initiate an all round approach towards eradicating child poverty in British Columbia. This is true not only for a single province but the recommendations can be a lesson for entire Canada. Final point of view: The campaign against child poverty therefore stresses on full employment thus ensuring steady income of poor families. According to me, what needs to be done in addition to this is to ensure availability of child care services to all children below the age of 12 and proper education. I believe that with creation of new job opportunities, it is also required to focus on perquisites of jobs like insurance and child tax benefits along with affordable child care facilities. Conclusion: The above articles focus on the child poverty issue in Canada. The need is to look at the causes of child poverty from social point of view. Since children in general have no income of their own, their well-being depends upon the income of their parents or the other elder members of their family. To eradicate child poverty government needs to emphasize on the tax structure below a minimum level of income. Tax benefits are needed to be given to poor families having children below the age of 18 and special emphasis should be given on child care budgets. This same perspective is reflected in Campaign 2000 which is concerned with eliminating child poverty from Canada. It’s report showed that inequality of income has widened over the years thus proving that government’s effort to eradicate poverty has been futile so far. References B.C. child poverty rate continues to climb (Nov 23, 2011), CBC News, retrieved on October 22, 2012 from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/11/23/bc-child-poverty.html Monsebraaten, L. (May 29, 2012), Canada lags on fighting child poverty, report finds, The Star, retrieved on October 22, 2012 from: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1202030--canada-lags-on-fighting-child-poverty-report-finds Monsebraaten, L. (November 23, 2011), Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says, The Star retrieved on October 22, 2012 from: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1091130--ottawa-lacks-plan-to-fight-child-poverty-coalition-says Read More