Child poverty rate unchanged in nearly 2 decades.

In spite of the commitment to end poverty passed by the government in 1989 the rate remains unchanged. Instead we have tax cuts and a much larger military expenditure. Surpluses are not used to reduce poverty but to reduce debt or taxes.
Liberals and Conservatives share a bipartisan silent agreement not to make this commitment a priority except for occasional rhetorical flourishes that do nothing to reduce child poverty but simply add to global warming.


Child poverty rates unchanged in nearly 2 decades: report
Last Updated: Monday, November 26, 2007 | 2:40 PM ET
CBC News
The rate of child poverty in Canada is the same as it was in 1989, an advocacy group reported Monday while calling on the federal government to skip a planned GST cut to help tackle the issue.

As Campaign 2000 released the results of its annual report card on child poverty at a news conference in Ottawa, it called for the federal government to cancel the next one percentage point GST cut and use the money instead for efforts to eliminate child poverty.

The report says that, in 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to end child poverty.

Eighteen years later, despite a 50 per cent increase in the size of the economy, the child poverty rate remains unchanged at 11.7 per cent in 2005, according to the report, citing after-tax income data from Statistics Canada.

When income was measured before income taxes, the number rose to one in six children, or 16.8 per cent.

"Child poverty is a national shame," New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said at the news conference.