By Yasmeen Mohiuddin
It appears that child poverty is as acute as ever in Canada, but Ottawa Centre’s new MP is optimistic that the problem can be alleviated in the near future.
Fifteen years ago, Ed Broadbent, then national NDP leader, introduced a motion in the House of Commons urging the government to take steps to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000.
It was passed unanimously, but a recent report indicates that the child-poverty level has grown 0.7 percentage points to 15.6 per cent — the first time it’s been up in six years.
Now, Broadbent is trying again.
Broadbent, says he sees an opportunity to work with MPs from all parties at the committee level to lower the rate of child poverty by one per cent a year over the next 10 years.
To reach this goal, he says, the country needs to adopt a mix of social policies similar to those of northern European countries.
“You have to deal with the supply of affordable housing, and an increase in the number of child-care units. The whole range of social policy items have to be brought to bear if you want to deal with child poverty,” says Broadbent.
“That’s exactly what happened in the 1990s in the (European) countries where half a dozen of them have virtually eliminated child poverty by approaching it by this multifaceted point of view.”
The report spurred Broadbent to organize a conference on child poverty that he says will be the most significant meeting of its kind in the past 20 years.
Called “Child Poverty in Canada: Too Many, Too Long,” the conference was postponed due to U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit and has been rescheduled for Jan. 25.
In the 10 years she’s been working at the Snowsuit Fund, an Ottawa-based charity that distributes snowsuits to underprivileged children, administrator Joanne Andrews says the number of parents using the organization has increased.
“You can’t predict if more kids will come this year,” she says. “But people know that we’re here to help them so there’s definitely a need for our service.”
Maryam Hassan been using the fund for years to outfit her five children.
“It’s been a big help for people with low income,” says Hassan,
Broadbent says children’s welfare is only one issue within the larger problem of social policy. He said he hopes to work with the government and called Social Development Minister Ken Dryden a “committed man” in dealing with child-care and social policy.
“Of course you have to deal with children in the family context, no matter what kind of family. Whether it’s a single parent family, or a traditional two-parent family, or families who are working, or families who may be on welfare,” says Broadbent.