'Persistent poverty' crippling Canadian children
Last Updated Mon, 04 Nov 2002 12:23:06

OTTAWA - The Canadian Council on Social Development released a grim report
Monday that details societal damage done by child poverty and what the
council calls "persistent poverty."


Although the number of children without enough to eat has decreased
slightly, the new study says families in need are having more trouble
escaping from poverty.


The council's sixth annual Progress of Canada's Children suggests child
poverty is deeper and more entrenched in Canadian society.


The report says children in families described as "persistently poor" tend
not to be as healthy as other children. Children in poor families do not do
as well in school as other children.


Other points:



*    Children living in poverty are three times more likely to have a
parent suffering from depression.

*    Some 300,000 children in Canada rely on food banks every month.

*    Children in poor families are much more likely to become runaways.

*    Children growing up in poverty are more likely to become foster
children.

*    Between 1984 and 1999, the average net wealth of the top 20 per cent
of couples with children increased by 43 per cent. For families at the
bottom of the income scale, net wealth fell by more than 51 per cent.

*    Children living in persistent poverty are twice as likely to live in
dysfunctional families, and twice as likely to live with violence.


  <http://cbc.ca/gfx/photos/hanvey_louise021104.jpg>
Louise Hanvey

"When we look at the depth of poverty... those numbers aren't going down in
a significant way, so kids are really poor," said Louise Hanvey, who wrote
the report.


The report says children who live in communities with plentiful resources -
parks, libraries - score better on tests of physical, emotional, social and
intellectual development.


In the case of poor children, the opposite is the case. The report cites a
study in Edmonton that says poor children worry more about the safety of
their neighbourhoods than about lack of food.


"Despite the economic boom of the mid- to late-1990s, too many Canadian
families and their children are barely scraping by and are just one problem
away from economic disaster," Hanvey said.


"The fact that so many kids are heading off to school on empty stomachs is
not the reality one expects to see in a G-7 country like Canada that is
consistently ranked among the best places in the world in which to live."




Written by CBC News Online staff <http://cbc.ca/bios.html>

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