Recently I joined the Social Determinants of Health
listserv, as a 'complement' to the CLICK4HP list for
information, resources and ideas related to poverty
and health. There have been some interesting
discussions and resources offered in its first week of
activity. Currently the listserv archives are
available for public viewing at
http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html, (although
you will need to get a password for accessing the
archives).
I thought that the CLICK4HP list might be interested
in a compilation of comments responding to a question
about the minimum annual cost of raising a child in
Canada. The following is organized by the question
asked then the replies with links.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Sara Farrell
Hello All,
Can anyone tell me how the minimum annual cost of
raising a child in Canada is determined and who is
responsible for doing this?
Plus, in terms of the CCTB and the NCBS, has there
been a formal evaluation on either of these to see if
and how effective they are in reducing child poverty?
Last question... is there a gov't endorsed group
working on child poverty? Thanks so much in advance
for your help.
Sara Farrell, RN, BScN
Community Health Officer-North Region
Toronto Public Health 5100 Yonge Street, 2nd Fl
Toronto, M2N 5V7
416-338-0021 [log in to unmask]
-------------------
Replies :
--------------------
From: Joanne Roulston
[[log in to unmask]]
The National Council of Welfare has a website with all
our publications, mandate, etc.:
http://www.ncwcnbes.net
For National Child Benefit analyses, there is a
federal government site with official evaluations:
http://www.nationalchildbenefit.ca/home_e.html
The Council has analyzed the NCB in our reports on
welfare.
Richard Shillington also has comments on it on his
site: http://www.shillington.ca/cbs/ctb.htm
------------------------------------------
From: Laurel Rothman [[log in to unmask]]
There is no actual determination of the cost of
raising a child in Canada. The most precise tracking
of this, widely acknowledged, is done for Manitoba by
MB Agriculture and Food. See
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/homeec/cba28so2.html#three.
This data is in easy to read format in Campaign 2000's
report Diversity or Disparity: Early Childhood
Education and Care in Canada (ECEC), Second Report,
Community Indicators Project. November, 2003. It is
on our website at http://www.campaign2000.ca.
HRDC does an annual report on the CCTB and NCB that
includes data on poverty rates, depth of poverty and
draws some conclusions. It is widely acknowledged
that it is very difficult to evaluate the impact of
the benefit alone since there are many other factors
that affect the reduction of child poverty. Have a
look at our most recent report card on child poverty
in Canada (Nov. 2003)that identifies many of the
labour market-related issues.
I am not sure I would characterize the National
Council of Welfare as government endorsed. They are a
citizen advisory body to the Minister. Appointments
are orders in council, I believe, and thus the
individual members could be described as endorsed.
However, they hold dear to their ability to take an
independent point of view on issues, including the
CCTB and NCB.
Laurel Rothman, Director
Community Building and Social Reform
And National Coordinator, Campaign 2000
Family Service Association of Toronto
355 Church Street Toronto, ON M5B 1Z8
416 595-9230 ext. 228
www.fsatoronto.com
www.campaign2000.ca
---------------------------------------------
From: Richard Shillington [[log in to unmask]]
The minimum cost of raising a child...
There is no one 'responsible' for estimating this. The
consensus is in the range of $4,000-$4,500 published
in the past by myself (at CCSD), CCSD, some Winnipeg
group, Campaign 2000 and the Caledon Institute.
An evaluation of the Child Tax Benefit has been
published (funded and published by HRDC so guess what
it found?!?!?!?) -
http://www.csls.ca/reports/nctb.pdf.
I've read it and know some of its "opportunistic
assumptions" in order to ensure a positive finding. If
you care - I am willing to share them with anyone
interested who has read the evaluation.
There really is no gov't endorsed group working on
child poverty. The major policy research groups are
the Caledon Institute, Campaign 2000, National Council
on Welfare and CCSD. Note that these groups are
studying poverty (the poor are subject matter) -
they do not represent the poor. The National
Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), I would argue, is
the only national group which can speak FOR the poor.
Did you know that 67% of poor children are on welfare
and therefore lose the CTB in their clawed-back social
assistance? For poor single parent's the figure is
85%. For more visit my web-site
(http://www.shillington.ca/cbs/ctb.htm).
You should also listen to the forum on child poverty
recently hosted by IRPP (www.irrp.org press the button
for web-cast). The first 2 hours is on child-poverty
but an excellent snap-shot of where the policy elite
is these days...
------------------------------
Richard Shillington
Box 1086, Manotick Ontario, K4M 1A9 613-692-1551
[log in to unmask]
www.shillington.ca
------------------------------
Torture the data long enough and it will do your
bidding...
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