How much would eliminating Aboriginal child poverty cost?

Graphic by the CCPA

This summer the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report about child poverty concluding that "to bring all children in Canada up to the poverty line would cost $7.5 billion." We reprint the introduction of the report with the note that some estimates for the new F-35 fighter jets now being discussed put the price tag at up to $71-billion.

Despite repeated promises from federal and provincial governments to address the issue — including a 1989 commitment by all Parliamentarians to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000 — Canada ranks 25th among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with regard to child poverty. Recent modest declines in rates cannot hide the fact that over a million children in Canada still live in poverty.

More troubling, however, is the reality facing Indigenous children in Canada.