Honourable senators, I’d like to draw your attention to the eighteenth UNICEF Innocenti Report Card on child poverty, released on December 6. I want to congratulate UNICEF Canada and partners for their ongoing partnership and advocacy.

Colleagues, this is an important report, and it does give us some good news. In terms of child poverty reduction, up to 2021, Canada’s child poverty rates had fallen substantially in recent years. In fact, only 6 of 39 high-income countries have done better than Canada in the past few years. Nevertheless, this report tells us that Canada’s work to protect children from the scarring impacts of poverty is far from done.

When we compare our child poverty rate to other OECD countries, Canada is not doing quite so well. Despite our progress, we currently rank nineteenth among 39 OECD and EU countries. That means, colleagues, that if we use the EU standard for measuring children’s monetary deprivation, almost 18%, or more than a million children, are growing up in poverty. And for children in lone-parent families, the poverty rate is higher: up to 40%. Compare that, colleagues, to the best-performing countries, which achieved child poverty rates of less than 10% and set the bar for what is achievable.

We also learned from the report that Canada ranks twenty-fifth out of 38 countries in social protection investment for children and that child poverty is beginning to rise again. It rose in 2021. Noting that the cost of living and that food bank usage have both risen significantly, and taking into accounted recent housing data, it seems likely that in 2023 the trend will have gotten worse.

Ending child poverty in a wealthy nation like Canada is entirely feasible. Child poverty is a choice governments make. Improving the adequacy of the Canada Child Benefit and providing more inclusive and better-paid parental leave are examples of two policies that would help us lower the rising rate of food insecurity and achieve better health and developmental outcomes for all children. This would also fulfill the commitment made more than 30 years ago to end child poverty.

We are not short on ideas, colleagues, but we must be committed to the vision of a Canada where every child has the supports needed to achieve their full potential.

Thank you, meegwetch.