Child poverty and health in Canada

Recently, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, released the 2009 Report on the State of Public Health in Canada, Growing up Well–Priorities for a Healthy Future.

The report looks at a variety of indicators for measuring the state of child public health, as well as priorities for improving health. At the top of the list is the connection of socio-economic status to the state of health. Children born and raised in low income families are often impacted by inadequate access to food, affordable housing and other necessities. This can often lead to long-term health problems.

In order to tackle this problem, the Chief Public Health Officer recommends broad national poverty strategies. The report argues that there are some initiatives already in place, such as the Universal Child-Care Benefit, and investments in programs like Employment Insurance, to tackle poverty. But so much more could be done, especially when looking at provinces like Newfoundland and Ontario that have wide ranging poverty reduction strategies.

Nevertheless, the report concluded that compared to “some” countries, Canada is doing pretty well in terms of fighting child poverty. But which countries are these?

Last fall the Conference Board of Canada released their Report Card on Canada, which included an evaluation of our record on child poverty in the past decade, compared to 16 other similarly developed countries. In terms of child poverty, Canada ranked 13th out of 17.

The Conference Board offered a couple of suggestions for improving Canada’s child poverty rate, looking at countries with the lowest rates, particularly the Nordic countries. First, they recommended the government invest more in job training programs for unemployed or underpaid Canadian adults. Better EI is very important, as mentioned in the health report, but creating and maintaining good jobs is a more permanent solution. Employment is an issue that impacts entire families. If parents cannot find jobs or do not have adequate assistance when they are unemployed, the children suffer as well.

In addition, the Conference Board recommended more funding to childcare. They did not advocate for a national childcare plan for children, but they did recognize that the lack of available quality childcare forces many single parents, especially, to take lower paying part time jobs so they can care for their children. As a result, many of these families live in poverty. Childcare was not even addressed by the Chief Public Health Officer, even though it is very much connected to child poverty.

Overall, the report from the Chief Public Health Officer provided some interesting insights about the different factors that determine the health of children in Canada. Some of the other factors included abuse and neglect, mental health, prenatal concerns and childhood obesity. However, in terms of child poverty, there is much more work to be done in Canada.