CBC: Canada child benefit seen as fighting poverty
Next week’s rollout of the Canada child benefit has been billed as a significant move to fight child poverty.
But that move only succeeds if governments don’t give with one hand and take with the other.
That’s why anti-child poverty activists at Campaign 2000 were tracking confirmation from all provinces and territories that the payments low-income families receive under the new federal program will not be clawed back from existing social assistance programs.
“We know from international research that child benefits are absolutely an essential element in a child poverty reduction strategy,” said Sid Frankel, a member of the group’s national steering committee and an associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of social work.
“It would be hard for the federal government to meet its poverty reduction commitment if the provinces did claw back, because they would be neutralizing at least part of the effect of the benefit.”