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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 in 10 Halton Children Live in Poverty
Report Card 2000 Child Poverty in Halton
November 20, 2000 - Today is the official release date of Campaign 2000's National Report Card 2000: Child Poverty in Canada. Child poverty now affects 1 in 5 Canadian children.
On November 24, 1989 the House of Commons passed a resolution "To seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000." A decade later, the number of poor children in Canada has increased by 402,000.
Campaign 2000 is a non-partisan, Canada-wide network of national, provincial and local community partners. Each year Campaign 2000 releases a national Report Card as part of its declaration "committed to promoting and securing the full implementation of the House of Common's Resolution."
The National Report Card documents what has happened in Canada since 1989: In 1989, 936,000 children, or about 1 in 7, were poor; by 1998, 1,338,000 children, or 1 in 5 was poor. National Report Card highlights include:
- poor children - up by 43%
- children in working poor families - up by 55%
- children in families with incomes less than $20,000 - up by 27%
- children in families receiving social assistance - up by 18%
- children in families experiencing long-term unemployment - down by 7%
- poor children in two parent families - up by 35%
- poor children in single parent families - up by 49%
As a community partner of Campaign 2000, the Halton Social Planning Council and Volunteer Centre releases: Report Card 2000 Child Poverty in Halton.
The Halton Report Card documents that despite the growth in the economy and a decrease in unemployment child poverty levels are high.
In Halton, 7,675 children aged 0-14 and 4,585 youth aged 15-24 are poor. This translates to 11% of children and 11% of youth living in poverty.
Children are poor because their families are poor. In Halton, 7,140 families are poor, which translates to 8% of all families living in poverty and 21% of single parents living in poverty.
(The definition of poverty used in this report is Statistics Canada's low income cut-offs. The most current Statistics Canada Census Data is 1996.)
A copy of the full Halton Report Card is available online and a copy of the National Report Card is available at www.campaign2000.ca
For More Information Contact:
Lynne Russell, Social Planner
Community Development Halton
860 Harrington Court, Burlington, ON L7N 3N4
Tel: 905-632-1975, 905-878-0955
FAX: 905-632-0778
Email:
office@cdhalton.ca
