First Call: 2024 BC Child Poverty Report Card
Photo by Kelli McClintock
The First Call 2024 BC Child Poverty Report Card, released in December, reveals a continuing sharp and troubling rise in child poverty across British Columbia, with 1 in 6 children—147,570 kids—living below the poverty line in the latest 2022 information from Statistics Canada.
In 1989, the federal government pledged to end child poverty in Canada. This has proven to be a difficult promise to keep. For the past 28 years, First Call and SPARC BC have released a report alongside Campaign 2000’s national report card, highlighting child and family poverty in BC.
Reflecting the ending of short-term COVID pandemic supports, the 2024 BC report indicates a 16.8% increase from 2021 and highlights the ongoing struggles of families facing economic hardship since COVID pandemic payments ceased.
Among the most vulnerable are children in lone-parent BC households, 45.5% of whom are living in poverty.
"BC’s child poverty rate has not only rebounded but worsened," said Adrienne Montani, Executive Director of First Call
"These figures are the evidence behind our calls to action in the report’s recommendations. Behind every statistic is a child whose potential is being constrained by circumstances beyond their control."
The report reveals a continuing sharp and troubling rise in child poverty across BC, with 147,570 children – 1 in 6 of all children in BC – living below the poverty line in the latest 2022 information from Statistics Canada.
The key findings of the report include:
· Widening inequality: The income gap between BC’s wealthiest and poorest families continues to grow, with the top 10% earning 24 times more than the bottom 10%.
· Indigenous children disproportionately affected: The poverty rate among children on a sample of BC First Nations reserves is an alarming 34.8%, rising to 42.2% in the rural reserves with data this year.
· Rising costs deepen struggles: The ‘poverty gap’ – the shortfall between family incomes and the poverty line – now ranges between $14,000 and $16,000 annually.
The report notes that, while only 19% of BC children lived in lone-parent families in 2022, these households represented more than half of all children in poverty. Affordable, quality child-care remains out of reach for many of these families, restricting single parents, the majority of whom are women, from accessing paid employment.
The report also notes: “Employment alone is no guarantee of escaping poverty. Many BC parents remain below the poverty line despite having paid work, a reflection of low wages and the precarious nature of much available work.”
The impacts of deep poverty risk collapse of families, with direct impacts on meeting costs of rent and deepening food insecurity for families.
The report highlights the importance of government assistance to low-income families. “Since its inception in 2016, the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) has proven to be the most effective government transfer for families with children. For BC families, since October 2020 the amount of the benefit includes the BC Family Benefit. This combined federal and provincial benefit contributed 58% of the reduction of child poverty in BC for 2022, lifting 57,350 children out of poverty.”
The recommendations are grouped under:
· Tax Fairness and Income Support
· Targeted Initiatives for Groups Over-Represented in Poverty Data
· Lower Barriers and Improve Lives through Universal Programs
· Measurement of Poverty: Replace the Market Basket Measure with the Census Family Low Income Measure After Tax (CFLIM-AT), calculated with annual taxfiler data, as Canada’s and BC’s official measure of poverty.
The report’s recommendations for change urge policymakers to take bold action, including:
· Raising incomes through living wages and increased income supports.
· Expanding access to affordable housing, child care, and public transportation.
· Prioritizing targeted supports for Indigenous, racialized, and lone-parent families.