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Advocacy Update
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A Special Thanks to Advocates,
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As the holiday season is approaching and with the recent release of Campaign 2000 and Partners 2010 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, the CCAAC would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the status of children and families in our country and to reaffirm our commitment to advocacy in the next year to come.With the weight of 1 in 10 children living in poverty in Canada, let us all challenge ourselves to give a little more, care a little deeper and speak out. Our friends at Dignity for All have put out the call to action below. You can also show your support by signing on to their campaign for a poverty free Canada on their website.As this year comes to a close, a special thank you to you, child care advocates and other social justice advocates across the country who are working tirelessly to let our governments know that we need better policies, such as universal access to quality child care, in order to lift and keep families with young children out of poverty.We wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season and look forward to the possibilities that the New Year can bring!
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A Call to Action from Dignity for All
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An all party committee of parliament has just put forward a report that could change the face of poverty in Canada. The report, Federal Poverty Reduction Plan: Working in Partnership Towards Reducing Poverty in Canada, is the result of an extensive three-year study on the federal role in addressing poverty by the Parliamentary Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development (HUMA). They support the key goals of the Dignity for All campaign by recommending that the federal government immediately commit to a federal action plan to reduce poverty in Canada. Key components of a poverty reduction plan the committee recommends the federal government take action on include: - Raising the Canada Child Tax Benefit and supplement to $5000 within 5 years;
- A long-term national housing and homelessness strategy;
- Measures to help the most vulnerable - a refundable Disability Tax Credit, easing EI qualifications, increasing adult literacy, increasing and indexing GIS for seniors, implementing an early learning and child care strategy; and
- Major help for Aboriginal People for housing, education and social services, including elimination of the two per cent cap on federal funding.
We can't let this excellent parliamentary report just be ignored and sit on a shelf to gather dust. Send a message now to the government that we need immediate action to end poverty in Canada. And send a copy of your message to your Member of Parliament asking her/him to support the recommendations in the HUMA Report.
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Poverty in Canada from an International Perspective
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For insight on the possibilities that come from better policies, please consult The UNICEF Innocenti Report Card series which monitors the performance of industrialized countries towards securing the rights of their children. You can find out very quickly how Canada fares in this series by visiting the UNICEF Canada website. UNICEF Report Card 8 (RC 8) (published in December 2008) provides a comparative analysis of the status of early childhood education and care in the 25 most affluent countries and states that "Canada is one of the most affluent industrialized countries (by GDP) but invests relatively little in the earliest years - a critical period of development that lays the foundation for each child's potential. Canada invests about 0.2 per cent GDP in early child care and education (for 0-6 years) according to the OECD Canada Review (2006). Investing in quality services available to all children who need them would cost about 1 per cent of GDP."UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 9, The Children Left Behind, (published in November 2010 ) examines the material, educational and health well-being of children in 24 of the world's richest countries. It is the first attempt to compare the gap between children struggling at the bottom of their societies and the average child in "normal" childhood conditions. The disadvantaged children fall - unnecessarily - further behind in some countries than in others. The critical question is: How far behind? Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable, but policy susceptible - and unacceptable?For a summary of the report, check out this video: The Children Left Behind. New report and an interview with author Peter AdamsonFind out what UNICEF Canada says about:How does Canada measure up?A closer look at Canada's childrenWhat Canada should do
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