"Face what's going on," said 13 year old Sophia Perlman. "You can't cover (child poverty) up anymore because people are aware of it, and the kids aren't afraid to speak up anymore. We're going to start saying, 'No, this is wrong.'"
Perlman said this at the launch of the first annual report on the state of Toronto's children.
In 1989, the federal government pledged to end child poverty by the year 2000. This should be a reasonable goal for a country that the United Nations calls the "best in the world."
But since then, the number of children living in poverty has increased 66 per cent, while the number of children in working poor families has risen 45 per cent.
There are a staggering 1.5 million children in this country -- one in five -- living in poverty.
In Ontario, the richest province in this "best country", the situation is getting worse. Between 1995 and 1997, an additional 32,000 children fell below the poverty line, in spite of an improving economy.
And in Toronto, the richest city in the richest province, the situation is worse still.
A new study has shown that 38 percent of children under 10 are living in poverty in Toronto, an increase of 66 per cent since 1991.
In Toronto -- 40,000 children are on waiting lists for affordable housing and 1,000 children are living in shelters or hostels.
In the space of one year, the use of school breakfast and lunch programs has grown by 53 per cent, to 46,000 children from 30,000.
The situation is bad enough that the Liberals were forced to make children the centre of their throne speech this month.
But their promises amount to little more than hot air.
The Liberals say they will double the national child benefit -- but this won't happen until July 1, 2001.
And it will do little to deal with the cumulative cuts in children's benefits over the last decade. For children in families without earned income, support from different levels of government has fallen by about $200 a year since 1988.
They say they will allow up to one year's paid leave from work for parents to look after newborns.
But the poorest families are those whose parents work part time or put together a series of short term contracts. Paid leave means nothing for them.
And again, the Liberals are taking no action on the childcare crisis in the country.
They are "challenging" the provinces to work with them to establish a network of early childhood development centres. But this on its own will not add one new childcare space.
In 1993 the Liberals promised to add 150,000 new licensed child-care spaces across the country.
It was one of the first promises they broke.
In Toronto alone, there are 13,000 on the waiting list for childcare.
The Liberals are sitting on a projected $9-billion budget surplus. Business and the rich are drooling to get their hands on this money through tax cuts for the rich.
This is nonsense. We should demand that the Liberals spend the surplus to feed the children.
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