Metro: ‘A nightmare’: Report ranks Manitoba’s child poverty rate highest in Canada
An annual report card that measures child and family poverty rates has given Manitoba a failing grade.
The Manitoba Child and Family Report Card 2017, produced by Campaign 2000, said Manitoba has the highest child poverty rate in Canada.
“The situation remains what we would call a nightmare,” said the report’s author and professor of social work at the University of Manitoba, Sid Frankel, on Tuesday.
The report notes that about one in 3.7 Manitoba children are living in poverty and makes five recommendations on how to improve that score.
According to Frankel, the province should set hard targets and timelines—like a 25-per-cent reduction in poverty over the next five years—increase minimum wage from $11 to $15 an hour and boost well-paying full-time jobs, improve income support programs, provide accessible and high-quality public services and decrease neighbourhood deprivation.
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Sid Frankel, professor, Faculty of Social Work is a member of the Campaign 2000 National Steering Committee working towards ending child/family poverty within Manitoba and across Canada.
Other media cover on Campaign 2000’s annual report card:
CBC: Manitoba gets failing grade for ‘nightmare’ rates of child poverty
Winnipeg Free Press: Coalition demands plan for child poverty