Statistics Canada - Statistique Canada

Maintenance Enforcement Survey: Child and spousal support

Jan. 25, 2006

2004/05 Previous release

The report Child Spousal Support: Maintenance Enforcement Survey Statistics, which is available today, provides data on the collection and enforcement of child and spousal support payments for cases registered with maintenance enforcement programs.

These programs were created in each province and territory during the 1980s and 1990s to help recipients obtain their support payments without having to go before the courts. They handle an estimated 50% of all support orders and agreements in Canada. More ..

This website addresses the issue of all sources of financial support for Canadian children and youths.

Child Poverty In Canada

The Government of Canada

Although Canada is a wealthy country, one in six children, or 1,071,000 children, still lives in poverty.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

"This house seeks to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000."

House of Commons unanimous all party resolution, November 24, 1989.

The Canadian Government is ultimately the legal guardian of all Canadian children.

The Canadian Government admittedly has the financial resources to provide child financial support for all of our children living in poverty. In effect, all political parties admitted they owed this child support in the unanimous all party resolution of November, 1989.

"They are the biggest deadbeat support payers in Canada."  - the president of the Canadian Children' s Rights Council, May, 2001.

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The UN currently ranks Canada 17th out of 23 industrialized countries seventh from the bottom when it comes to child poverty

Child Financial Support

Government of Canada

• The National Child Benefit

• Income Tax benefits and Credits

• Other programs

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Governments of Provinces / Territories

• The National Child Benefit

• Social Assistance Programs

• Child maintenance (child financial support) collection agencies

• Housing Assistance

• Youth Shelters

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• Student Loans

• Other programs

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Municipal Governments

• Social Assistance

• Shelters

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Food bank use by B.C. children up 42 per cent

CTV, Canadian Press, various media throughout Canada, November 11, 2004

VICTORIA A national report on the use of food banks by children in Canada has put British Columbia on its trend watch.

The B.C. Liberal government said it' s concerned about the results which found 41.7 per cent more children needed emergency food in B.C. in 2004 over 2003 - some 8,000 more kids. Human Resources Minister Susan Brice, however, said the conclusions in the Canadian Association of Food Banks' annual report reflect a North American problem.

The association' s annual national HungerCount survey also found that in Saskatchewan nearly 2,000 more children needed food banks in 2004, an increase of 24 per cent from 2003. More ..

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Report on child poverty urges $18B in spending
Canadian Press, May. 4, 2004, The Toronto Star and various other newspapers

Call to fight child poverty
Report urges $18 billion boost Also recommends
raising taxes
The Toronto Star, LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN, STAFF REPORTER, May 5, 2004.

York teachers learn signs of child poverty
Program addresses growing income gap in affluent board
High school students without money face special challenges
TESS KALINOWSKI, EDUCATION REPORTER, Toronto Star, page F5, January 16, 2004

Moms Can Be Deadbeats Too
Single dads are sick and tired of being labelled "deadbeats" when it comes to paying child support. And data suggest they have good reason to be upset.
Fox News, U.S. By Liza Porteus, Friday, August 9, 2002

Don' t cut child welfare, Premier urged
Toronto Star, Caroline Mallan, Queen' s Park Bureau Chief, January 16, 2004.

Read other articles on Child Poverty

Campaign 2000
The network of over 85 national, regional and community organizations fighting poverty in Canada.  The name came from the Canadian  Government' s 1989 commitment to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.  That  hasn' t happened and in fact, there are today about 402,000 more children living in poverty than in 1989.

Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD)
CCSD is a non-profit social policy and research organization focusing on issues such as poverty, social inclusion, disability, cultural diversity, child well-being, employment and housing.

National Council of Welfare (NCW)
The National Council of Welfare (NCW) is a citizens' advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada on matters of concern to low-income Canadians.

This site has the reports with stats on poverty in Canada.  Here are a few of the reports:

Complete List of Publications

• The Cost of Poverty (Winter 2001-02) Report The Cost of Poverty was developed to draw the attention of the public and policy-makers to how expensive poverty really is and how all Canadians, not just those living in poverty, pay the price. The cost of poverty is one that Canada can ill afford. This publication challenges our assumptions and illustrates how we could improve our quality of life, in economic and human terms, by investing differently.
• Justice and the Poor (Spring 2000)
  The report notes the huge gap between the realities and public perceptions of crime, and it calls on governments and politicians to stop using crime as a political weapon. Canada is one of the safest countries in the world, but it has a very poor record when it comes to the huge number of people it sends to jail, often for very minor offences or non-payment of fines. The report contains 21 recommendations for improving the criminal justice system.
• Children First (Autumn 1999)
  This report describes the items the National Council of Welfare believes should be part of the next budget. It is based largely on the work done by the Council since 1989 - the very year that the House of Commons passed a unanimous resolution to eliminate child poverty 2000. The proposal are outlined in the main part of the report and are restated in the 29 recommendations in the final chapter. The report is organized around the six main themes put forward in the discussion paper on the National Children' s Agenda.
• Child Benefits: Kids are Still Hungry (Autumn 1998)
  A further critique of the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the clawback of benefits from families on welfare. The report estimates that only 17 percent of poor single-parent families and 59 percent of poor two-parent families with children are better off financially because of the new federal benefit. The rest of the families have the increase in benefits clawed back by provincial or territorial governments.

Canadian Government
            Publication: Poverty and Child Well-Being in Canada and the United States: Does it Matter How We Measure Poverty? September 2000

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