Since 1999, Nova Scotia Child Poverty Report Cards have recorded changes in child poverty rates to track progress on the House of Commons' 1989 pledge to end child poverty by the year 2000. This year’s report—now 15 years after the pledge deadline—takes an in-depth look at child and family poverty in Nova Scotia and finds that both are still on the rise.
Children and youth
HALIFAX— Child and family poverty in Nova Scotia has increased. The most recent data reveal that 37,650 children, more than 1 in 5, were living in poverty in 2013. According to the 2015 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia, 22.5% of Nova Scotian children were living in families with low incomes. Many families, especially those with very young children, are struggling to make ends meet with incomes well below the poverty line.
There are unsung heroes in Winnipeg’s inner city, especially in the Aboriginal community, and few of them have a list of accomplishments as long and as significant as does Kathy Mallett. Winnipeg’s inner city today is an exciting place, bursting with positive change. Kathy Mallett has been a key person in laying the foundations for these changes.
Thirteen federal elections ago, in 1970, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommended a national childcare program. Fast-forward to 2015, and Canadian parents are more desperate than ever for affordable, quality childcare.
A key outcome of last year’s teachers’ strike was increased understanding of the phrase “class size and composition.” The public came to appreciate that teachers were fighting not just for better wages, but for improved teaching and learning conditions.
Striking teachers explained how classroom conditions had deteriorated since the BC government gutted their contract in 2002 — removing the limits on class sizes and the number of special needs students per class, while at the same time cutting funding for special education teachers and assistants.
This issue of Our Schools / Our Selves takes stock of where we are and where we need to be in the child care debates, in the lead-up to a national election that is very much about how we care for our children and how we support families in that task.
People are food insecure when they do not have access to, or enough money to buy safe and nutritious food, preventing them from enjoying a healthy diet. Food insecurity is major concern for many low-income Winnipeg families. Aboriginal and Newcomer refugee families are among the poorest in Winnipeg, and have very high rates of food insecurity, which is closely related to poor nutritional health. Too many children have diets that are too high in sugar, fat and salt from eating an abundance of highly processed and fast foods, which can be less expensive than healthier alternatives. This c
For families with school-aged children, summer is one of the most stressful and expensive times of the year as they scramble to find and pay for child care.
But for parents of younger children, that’s a year-round struggle. At about $10,000 a year, four years of child care can easily add up to more than the cost of a university degree. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a spot, since BC only has enough regulated child care spaces for 27% of children under six.
This study shows how BC can implement a $10 a day child care plan, either as a federal-provincial partnership or as a BC-only program. The province can easily afford it, and it will provide huge benefits for families, communities and the economy.
The study uses the $10 A Day Plan, developed by BC child care experts, as its basis. More information about the plan here: 10aday.ca.
(Vancouver) A $10 a day child care program in BC would largely pay for itself through the considerable boost to provincial and federal government revenues from more women participating in the workforce.
“Universal child care is entirely affordable for BC, either as a federal-provincial partnership or a BC-only program like the one in Quebec,” says Iglika Ivanova, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of Solving BC’s Child Care Affordability Crisis: Financing the $10 A Day Plan.