Once again, we in British Columbia should hang our collective heads in shame.
A report by the child and youth advocacy group First Call has released a report that says B.C.'s child poverty rate is the highest in Canada.
B.C.'s child poverty rate is 18.6 per cent compared to the national rate of 13.3 per cent.
That's almost one in five children in this province.
The group's provincial co-ordinator, Adrienne Montani, says B.C. has done the least of all provinces to try and bring down child and family poverty through government supports and programs. She points out that the number of poor children in B.C. was 153,000. That's enough kids to fill the Canucks' stadium more than eight times.
This in a province where our premier was elected on a 'families first' campaign slogan. It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.
The province essentially ignores the issue hoping someone else will step in. To say this is a doomed non-plan of a plan seems rather obvious.
First Call's report makes 16 recommendations, including increasing the B.C. minimum wage and welfare rates and adopting a $10-a-day child care program to cut the child poverty rate to seven per cent within the next seven years.
Not surprisingly, most of the children are found in single-mom homes who exist in low-income homes or on social assistance. Single moms who, if they can't get help with child care, may be doomed to a life on welfare. And, even if they can get a job, it's likely to be at the minimum wage which, again, puts them at a poverty level.
Our premier continually tells us that we live in one of the richest and most bountiful provinces in the country. If that is true, how can we justify this incredible injustice forced upon our children.
'Families first.' We only wish it applied to the kids in poor single-parent households.
