Question Period Note: Child Poverty in Manitoba

Media outlet reports on Campaign 2000 poverty report card highlighting higher child poverty rate in Manitoba

• Our Government believes that, in a country as prosperous as Canada, all Canadians, and especially children, should have a real and fair chance to succeed. This is why our Government introduced the first Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2018 and has taken actions to tackle poverty.
• And the government actions are working. According to the most recent Canadian Income Survey, the poverty rate decreased by 30% from 2015 to 2019, lifting over 1.3 million Canadians out of poverty over that period and allowing the Government to meet its interim target to reduce poverty by 20 percent by 2020.
• Our Government is committed to giving families more money to help with the high costs of raising their kids and this is why we introduced the CCB in 2016. The CCB is simple, generous, and targeted. It provides increased support for low- to middle-income families with children and has played a key role in reducing the number of children living in poverty, which has declined by 435,000 between 2015 and 2019.
• To ensure that the CCB continues to help Canadian families over the long term, the Government began indexing the CCB, starting in July 2018, to keep pace with the cost of living. Enhancements were also made to the CCB to provide temporary support for Canadian families facing hardship as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Despite the downward trend of the poverty rate among children, we know that some children continue to live in poverty. The Government is committed to ensuring that these children and their families receive the support they need.
If pressed on deep income poverty
• Because the CCB is tax-free and based on income, it provides more support to families who need help the most, including those that live in deep poverty. In the 2021–2022 benefit year, the maximum annual CCB is $6,833 per child under 6 years of age and $5,765 per child aged 6 through 17. Families with less than $32,028 in adjusted family net income receive the maximum benefit.

• Close to 65 percent of families receiving the maximum CCB amounts are single-parent families, more than 90 percent of which are led by single mothers.

Campaign 2000 Report

• Campaign 2000, a national coalition that advocates for Canadian children and families released a report on November 24, 2021, on child poverty in Canada. Amongst other things, the report claims that at the current rate of poverty reduction it will take another 54 years to eradicate child poverty. Campaign 2000 recognizes that policies such as the CCB had positive impacts, however, they believe progress has stalled in recent years and are calling on the government to implement bolder policies and expand existing benefit programs.

• Media outlets have reported on the Campaign 2000 report claiming that Manitoba continues to have the highest child poverty rate among Canadian provinces. More than one in four children in the province would live in poverty.

Canada Child Benefit

• The Canada Child Benefit (CCB), which is delivered by the Canada Revenue Agency, is:
‒ Simple—families receive a single payment every month;
‒ Tax-free—families will not have to pay back part of the amount received when they file their tax returns;
‒ Targeted to those who need it most— low- and middle-income families receive more benefits, and those with the highest incomes receive lower benefits; and
‒ Generous— on average, families benefitting from the CCB received about $7,300 in CCB payments for the 2020-21 benefit year.

• The CCB helps almost 3.7 million families and about 6.5 million children, putting about $24 billion, tax free, in the hands of Canadian families each year. Close to 65 percent of families receiving the maximum CCB amounts are single-parent families, and more than 90 percent of these are led by single mothers.

• To ensure that the CCB continues to help Canadian families over the long term, since July 2018, the CCB has been indexed to keep pace with the cost of living.

• Indexing the CCB means Canadian families will have more money to help keep up with rising costs for things like healthy food, sports programs and music lessons. With this increase, in the 2020–2021 benefit year, the maximum annual benefit will be $6,833 per child under 6 years of age, and $5,765 per child aged 6 through 17. Families with less than $32,028 in adjusted family net income receive the maximum benefit. Both the maximum benefits and the income thresholds will be indexed in future years.

• To provide support for Canadian families facing hardship as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Government provided additional temporary support, including:
o A one-time enhancement to the CCB payment amounts of up to $300 per child for most families, in May 2020; and,
o Up to $1,200 in 2021 for each child under the age of six for families already receiving the CCB, in the form of the CCB young child supplement.

• The Children’s Special Allowance (CSA) is a tax-free monthly federal benefit paid in respect of children under the age of 18 who are in the care of federal, provincial/territorial or First Nations agencies and institutions. The CSA is equivalent to the maximum (unreduced) amount of the CCB, plus the Child Disability Benefit, where applicable. The one-time enhancement of $300 to the CCB also applied to the CSA – that is, the CSA was increased by $300 per child for the 2019-20 benefit year, delivered as an increase to a CSA payment for a child for the month of May.

• To ensure that all eligible families are able to access the CCB, and other federal benefits, Budget 2018 provided $17.3 million over three years, starting in 2018–19, to expand outreach efforts to Indigenous communities, and to conduct pilot outreach activities for urban Indigenous communities. In 2020, ongoing funding was provided to make these initiatives permanent and, in 2021, the Government worked to make simplified credit and benefit returns and CCB forms more widely available to Indigenous peoples.

• The Department of Finance is the policy lead on the CCB, and the Canada Revenue Agency administers the benefit. ESDC contributes to ongoing policy development by working collaboratively with them and with provincial and territorial governments, to help ensure that the CCB continues to result in strengthened systems of support for all low- to middle-income families with children across Canada.

Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy
• On August 21, 2018, the Government of Canada released Opportunity for All: Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy.

• Opportunity for All includes a target to reduce poverty by 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030 relative to 2015 levels. These targets are legislated under the Poverty Reduction Act.

• The Government met its interim target of reducing poverty by 20 percent by 2020. In fact, according to the Canadian Income Survey, the poverty rate decreased by 30 percent from 2015 to 2019. This underscores the progress being made towards the Government’s goal to cut poverty in half by 2030.

• According to the 2019 Canadian Income Survey (CIS), the latest data available, the official poverty rate in Canada decreased steadily between 2015 and 2019 (moving from 14.5% in 2015 to 10.1% in 2019). This means that during this period, over 1.3 million Canadians were lifted out of poverty, corresponding to a 30.3% decrease in the national poverty rate. This exceeds the Poverty Reduction Strategy’s interim target of a 20% reduction in poverty by 2020.

• The official poverty rate for children under 18 decreased between 2015 and 2019. There were approximately 680,000 children in poverty in Canada in 2019 (10.8%), meaning that approximately 435,000 fewer children were living in families in poverty in 2019 relative to 2015.

• Campaign 2000, a national coalition that advocates for Canadian children and families released a report on November 24, 2021, on child poverty in Canada. While recognizing the positive impact of programs such as the Canada Child Benefit on child poverty, the report claims that at the current rate of poverty reduction it will take another 54 years to eradicate child poverty according to their findings.

• On December 1, 2021, the Winnipeg Sun reported on the Campaign 2000 report card on child poverty that claims Manitoba continues to have the highest child poverty rate among Canadian provinces. In this article, advocates and provincial government critics call for more action to address child poverty from the federal and provincial governments.

• There was a decrease in the overall poverty rate in Canada in 2019. According to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, there were approximately 3.74 million people in poverty in Canada in 2019 (10.1 percent), meaning that approximately 1,344,000 fewer Canadians were living in poverty relative to 2015.

• There was a decrease in the poverty rate for children under 18 in 2019. According to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, there were approximately 680,000 children in poverty in Canada in 2019 (9.7 percent), meaning that approximately 435,000 fewer children were living in families in poverty in 2019 relative to 2015.

• While Manitoba has one of the highest child poverty rates according to Canada’s Official Poverty Line, the child poverty rate in the province went from 19.2% to 14.4% between 2015 and 2019. This represents 11,000 fewer children in poverty.

• While the child poverty rate declined more steeply during the first two years after the Canada Child Benefit was introduced, in July 2016, the number of children and child poverty rates have continued to decline in 2018 and 2019.