Canada's child care systems can vary dramatically from province to province and city to city, but two things hold true in nearly all places: child care is expensive and regulated spaces are hard to find. In our latest report, we examine median unsubsidized child care fees in Canada's biggest 27 cities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as the different subsidization regimes that reduce costs for low-income families.
Inequality and poverty
The study reveals the most and least expensive cities for child care in Canada. It examines median unsubsidized child care fees in Canada's biggest 27 cities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as the different subsidization regimes that reduce costs for low-income families. It finds Canada's child care systems can vary dramatically from province to province and city to city, but two things hold true in nearly all places: child care is expensive and regulated spaces are hard to find.
OTTAWA—A new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reveals the most and least expensive cities for child care in Canada.
The study examines median unsubsidized child care fees in Canada's biggest 27 cities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as the different subsidization regimes that reduce costs for low-income families. It finds Canada's child care systems can vary dramatically from province to province and city to city, but two things hold true in nearly all places: child care is expensive and regulated spaces are hard to find.
It has recently been claimed in the media that nothing is working in the fight against poverty.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ State of the Inner City Report 2015: Drawing on Our Strengths, shows that this is not the case. Important poverty-related indicators are improving. After decades of decline, public investment in community-led initiatives is making a difference
Poverty is deeply-rooted, spatially-concentrated, complex, often racialized, and not quickly solved. It damages, and in some cases ruins, the lives of those who it affects. We all pay the price for this. But is it true that nothing is working in the fight against poverty?
Appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press December 4th, 2015.
I teach in the department of Urban and Inner City Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Our program is located on Selkirk Avenue in Winnipeg’s North End. A large number of our students have grown up poor. Some have not known anything but poverty. Others come from the suburbs to learn about urban and inner city issues from a different perspective. The diversity in our classrooms leads to some very interesting discussions.
It’s been seven years since the Ontario government announced its commitment to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent between 2008 and 2013.
That same year marked the beginning of the 2008-09 recession, which hit Ontario hard.
Yet even in the face of these struggles, data showed that early poverty reduction efforts were making a difference. By 2010, child poverty had fallen by 8.7 per cent.
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.
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 was encouraging news in Manitoba’s 2015 Speech from the Throne for people working to end poverty in Manitoba. In several areas, the Manitoba government announced a commitment to invest in the social determinants of health. Make Poverty History Manitoba’s top five priorities – housing, mental health, child care, minimum wage and EIA – were each addressed, though with varying degrees of specifics.