Question Period Note: Child Poverty

Child Poverty

• Supporting families and ensuring that every child gets the best possible start in life are priorities for the Government of Canada.

• Results from the Canadian Income Survey show that the poverty rate for children is decreasing, with 380,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2022 compared to 2015.

• The Canada Child Benefit (CCB) plays a big role in this success. The CCB alone provides support to over 3.5 million families and over 6 million children, putting close to $26 billion, tax free, in the hands of Canadian families each year.

• The Government of Canada is working with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners to build a Canada-wide, community-based system of quality child care, so all families have access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care.

• But despite the downward trend of the poverty rate among children, we know that some children continue to live in poverty. That is why the Government will continue to put in place key programs for families and children such as the early learning and child care and dental care.

The Government of Canada released Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2018. The Strategy offers a bold vision for Canada as a world leader in the eradication of poverty and is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty.
The Strategy also sets ambitious and concrete poverty reduction targets based on Canada’s Official Poverty Line: a 20 percent reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50 percent reduction in poverty by 2030, which, relative to 2015 levels, will lead to the lowest poverty rate in Canada’s history.
The Strategy brings together significant investments that the Government has made since 2015 to support the social and economic well-being of all Canadians. These investments include funding for key poverty reduction initiatives including the Canada Child Benefit. The CCB provides support to over 3.5 million families and over 6 million children, putting close to $26 billion, tax free, in the hands of Canadian families each year. Most families receiving the maximum CCB amounts are single-parent families, with approximately 90% of them being single mothers.

The large and timely increase in income support provided through COVID-19 emergency benefits prevented many Canadians from experiencing poverty and even contributed to a historic reduction of poverty in 2020, a year during which Canada faced a major crisis. The phasing out of these temporary initiatives in 2021 as well as sharp increases to the cost of living was a key factor in the poverty rate increase for that year.
The recent rollout of other new initiatives is expected to contribute to long-term reductions in poverty. The Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) System helps parents, especially women, to participate in the labour market, increasing net-income for many families. The Government of Canada made a transformative investment of over $27 billion over five years as part of Budget 2021 to build a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system with the provinces and territories. Combined with other investments, including in Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care, up to $30 billion over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care. The goal is that all Canadian families have access to regulated early learning and child care for an average cost of $10-a-day by March 2026.
In addition to targeted measures to support Canadians, Budget 2023 committed $13 billion over five years, and $4.4 billion ongoing, to implement the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP). The Plan’s phased rollout started in 2023 and provides dental coverage for uninsured Canadians with annual family income of less than $90,000.
As a first step, the interim Canada Dental Benefit was launched on December 1, 2022. The Canada Dental Benefit provides direct payments applicants of up to $650 per child and up to $1,300 over two years to eligible families with children under 12.
More recently, Budget 2024 announced further measures to help make life more affordable, including significant investments in housing, affordable child care, school food for children, and lowering everyday costs. Additional measures aim to grow the Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

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