Connect with us

Canada News

Ontario fails to meet 5 year child poverty reduction target; blames Ottawa

Published

on

shutterstock_77880784

TORONTO—The Ontario government admitted Wednesday that it has failed to meet a five-year target of reducing child poverty by 25 per cent, laying the blame for the unmet goal at the feet of the federal government.

The Liberals promised in 2008 to lift 90,000 children out of poverty within the next five years by providing increased benefits for low-income families and improved public education programs.

Deputy premier Deb Matthews, who is also the minister responsible for the poverty reduction strategy, said Ontario did its part.

“We knew that one level of government could not achieve that ambitious goal all by itself so we laid out a very clear plan on how to meet that target,” she said.

“We did everything we said we would do when we released that strategy in 2008 and had the other elements of the strategy, particularly the responsibilities we believe lie with the federal government, had the federal government done its part we would have come very close, if not had achieved, our goal of a 25-per-cent reduction in child poverty.”

In 2008, Ontario had asked the federal government to increase both the amount of the Working Income Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement.

In its new plan, the government said it will continue to call on Ottawa to make those changes, as well as urging the federal government to “return to the table as a long-term housing funding partner” and highlighting the need for a national child care program.

Matthews said the economic downturn also hampered efforts to meet the poverty reduction target.

Though the target was not met, Ontario made “extraordinary progress,” Matthews said, pointing to an increase in the minimum wage and the Ontario Child Benefit, as well as breakfast programs and health services for children and youth in low-income families.

The original strategy helped reduce child poverty from 15.2 per cent in 2008 to 13.6 per cent in 2011, lifting 47,000 children out of poverty, the government said.

The NDP’s Cheri DiNovo suggested poverty rates have actually increased.

“Poverty is at appalling rates,” she said. DiNovo cited numbers from the Ontario Association of Food Banks that at least 375,000—including 130,000 children—people rely on food banks each month, an increase of 18 per cent since 2007.

“I was homeless and slept in Queen’s Park when I was a kid,” she said. “You don’t need an inquiry to look at the roots of homelessness, you need to do something about it and they’ve missed many key opportunities.”

The government is now pledging to meet the target anew, but this time it is not setting a deadline, Matthews said.

“I for one will not lose my ambition because we have not achieved that ambitious target,” she said.

In fact, Ontario is setting an even loftier goal alongside child poverty reduction—ending homelessness “in time,” said Matthews.

“When it comes to ending homelessness, we can do it,” she said.

The government is investing $42 million in a community homelessness prevention initiative, creating 1,000 new supportive housing spaces to help people with mental illness and addictions, and is committing $50 million over five years to local poverty reduction, it said in a news release.

A spokesman with the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, a group of agencies that advocates for poverty reduction, said it’s a good “big picture” plan, but to succeed, particularly with a goal of ending homelessness, the government needs to set mid-term targets and timelines for itself.

“It’s a strategy that’s going to have a strategy on ending homelessness beyond child and family poverty and really, if they put all the pieces together to make a significant dent in homelessness, it will help continue to reduce poverty among children and families,” said Greg deGroot-Maggetti.

The Progressive Conservatives’ critic for the poverty reduction strategy called the Liberal government’s pledges “hollow words.”

“It’s just the same old story, the Liberals making promises they can’t keep,” Jim McDonell wrote in a statement. “We’ve had some roundtable sessions with a number of agencies and they haven’t seen increases in more than five years. When you listen to this government there’s more and more spending being announced, but where is it going? Obviously it’s not getting to the front lines where people actually need the help.”

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest

Health1 day ago

Lessons from COVID-19: Preparing for future pandemics means looking beyond the health data

The World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 5, 2023. In the year...

News1 day ago

What a second Trump presidency might mean for the rest of the world

Just over six months ahead of the US election, the world is starting to consider what a return to a...

supermarket line supermarket line
Business and Economy1 day ago

Some experts say the US economy is on the up, but here’s why voters don’t think so

Many Americans are gloomy about the economy, despite some data saying it is improving. The Economist even took this discussion...

News1 day ago

Boris Johnson: if even the prime minister who introduced voter ID can forget his, do we need a rethink?

Former prime minister Boris Johnson was reportedly turned away on election day after arriving at his polling station to vote...

News1 day ago

These local council results suggest Tory decimation at the general election ahead

The local elections which took place on May 2 have provided an unusually rich set of results to pore over....

Canada News1 day ago

Whitehorse shelter operator needs review, Yukon MLAs decide in unanimous vote

Motion in legislature follows last month’s coroner’s inquest into 4 deaths at emergency shelter Yukon MLAs are questioning whether the Connective...

Business and Economy1 day ago

Is the Loblaw boycott privileged? Here’s why some people aren’t shopping around

The boycott is fuelled by people fed up with high prices. But some say avoiding Loblaw stores is pricey, too...

Prime Video Prime Video
Business and Economy1 day ago

Amazon Prime’s NHL deal breaches cable TV’s last line of defence: live sports

Sports have been a lifeline for cable giants dealing with cord cutters, but experts say that’s about to change For...

ALDI ALDI
Business and Economy1 day ago

Canada’s shopping for a foreign grocer. Can an international retailer succeed here?

An international supermarket could spur competition, analysts say, if one is willing to come here at all With some Canadians...

taekwondo taekwondo
Lifestyle1 day ago

As humans, we all want self-respect – and keeping that in mind might be the missing ingredient when you try to change someone’s mind

Why is persuasion so hard, even when you have facts on your side? As a philosopher, I’m especially interested in...

WordPress Ads