Research on household poverty in Canada and its impact by Youran Jia

Introduction

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 04:38:04 UTC

In Canada, poverty significantly impacts family life, detrimentally affecting the health and future opportunities of both parents and children. A significant percentage of children face poverty, which hampers their educational development and health and traps them in a cycle of hardship. Additionally, economic struggles contribute to housing instability, increasing the risk of homelessness. Addressing these issues is crucial for enhancing the quality of life and breaking the cycle of poverty within families. Therefore, our group chose poverty as our topic and tried to understand this issue in depth.

The definition of the poverty in Canada

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 05:13:02 UTC

According to the Report released by the National Advisory Council on Poverty, MBM is the Canadian government's basic indicator for measuring whether a family is poor(2023).

Facts about poverty in Canada--overall

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 05:24:37 UTC

Overall, 7.4% of Canadian lived in poverty 2021, and 9.8% of Canadian was estimated living in poverty 2022. After six years of continuous decline, the number and percentage of persons living in poverty increased again (National Advisory Council on Poverty, 2023).

Facts about poverty in Canada--vulnerable groups

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 06:26:13 UTC

According to the report of National Advisory Council on Poverty, we can easily percieve that the poverty in Canada is feminized. Aboriginal people are recorded higher than average poverty rate. Indigenous people living on reserve and 2SLGBTQ+ persons are still marginalized whose poverty data are not collected by government (2023) .

Reasons why they are vulnerable--for women

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 06:52:19 UTC

There are still some degree of discriminal legacy exsits in the labor market. For example, National Advisory Council on Poverty points out that "[i]n 2018, of those working in minimum wage jobs, 58.8% were women"( 2023). Besides, as Employment and Social Development Canada points out that "88% women typically earn 88% of what men earn, on an hourly basis in full-time jobs" (2018).

Why they are vulnerable--for indigenous people

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 07:26:02 UTC

As the report "On the Margins: a glimpse of poverty in Canada", published by the orgnization named Citizens for Public Justice, points out, "The legacy of colonialism and exploitation, including forced relocation and residential schools, has done damage that has been deep and intergenerational" (2015). Therefor, Canadian indigenous "experience the highest levels of poverty: A shocking 1 in 4 Indigenous peoples (Aboriginal, Métis and Inuit) or 25% are living in poverty and 4 in 10 or 40% of Canada’s Indigenous children live in poverty" (Canada poverty institution, n.d.).

Reason why they are vulnerable--for 2SLGBTQ+

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 07:52:19 UTC

They are still struggling for mainstream's acceptence. According to the report of National Advisory Council on Poverty, 2SLGBTQ+ people had a lower sense of belonging (33.4%) compared to those who did not identify as 2SLGBTQ+ (46.4%) (2023).

The impacts of poverty to families, from the perspective of children

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 07:59:31 UTC

As an ECE in the future, we care more about the children than any other demographic group. So, we look deeply the impact of the poverty from children's point of view.

Poverty has negative impacts on families because it affects the health and well-being of both parents and children.

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:08:06 UTC

Evidence indicates that individuals from low socioeconomic families often engage in behaviors that make them vulnerable to poor health outcomes. For example, poverty makes people lack adequate and affordable access to quality food, which subjects them to malnutrition (Vogel, 2019). These conditions increase the risks of developing acute and chronic illnesses, which contribute to poor health outcomes that mostly affect children. Statistics indicate that 12% of children in Canada grow up in poverty, which is among the threats that determine their health and general well-being (Vogel, 2019). This statistic underscores the profound role that poverty plays in compromising family health, with children often bearing the brunt of these negative outcomes.

Another impact of poverty on families manifests in the growth and development of children.

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:10:52 UTC

Homeless Hub (2021) notes that poverty has adverse impacts on children’s ability to build skills, learn, and access employment. In this case, poverty deprives families of the ability to educate children, which makes them grow up with low education levels. Children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds have three times the rate of education problems than their counterparts from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Homeless Hub, 2021). With limited education, children from poor families remain trapped in poverty since they lack qualifications that can allow them access better job opportunities. This scenario underscores the critical role that education plays in enabling individuals to escape poverty and underscores the broader societal implications of economic disparities on educational outcomes.

Poverty also subjects families to homelessness, which can result in the separation of children from their parents.

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:13:45 UTC

Evidence indicates that most Canadian families are facing the risk of homelessness because of poverty among other challenges like the inability to access affordable housing (Forchuk et al., 2022). People from poor economic backgrounds can barely support themselves, which means they cannot access quality and affordable homes because of the high rental costs. Since Canada is experiencing an unaffordable housing epidemic, about one in five households face the risk of becoming homeless because they spend almost 50% of their income on house rent (Homeless Hub, 2021). Under such circumstances, poverty acts as a factor that plunges people deeper into homelessness. Such a scenario underscores how poverty diminishes quality of life as well as actively propels individuals and families toward homelessness, creating a cycle that is challenging to break.

Poverty affects mental health and well-being since it contributes to a child’s psychological trauma, which limits their imagination.

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:15:49 UTC

Through poverty, children are exposed to adverse environmental experiences such as household chaos and frequent conflicts among members of the family (Blair & Raver, 2016). These conditions subject children to chronic stressors, which affect their brain development by altering executive functions and self-regulation. Traumatic experiences change the volume and capacity of the brain area that regulates emotion regulation and executive function (Blair & Raver, 2016). These effects result in reduced imagination and inadequate stimulation for learning.

How to address? Canada's policy to reduce poverty population

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:37:59 UTC

In order to address poverty in Canada, Canadian government launched a program named Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2018, included a bunch of investments aimed to reduce the number of Canadians living in poverty to about 10% by 2020, and to 6% by 2030 – an historic low (Employment and Social Development Canada, 2018).

The investments committed by the government 2023

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 08:46:48 UTC

Including five categories (National Advisory Council on Poverty, 2023):

1.Poverty reduction with First Nations, Inuit and Métis people

2.Establishing an income floor above the poverty line

3.Reducing poverty by at least 50% by 2030 for populations made most marginal

4.Early intervention and prevention of child and youth poverty

5.Increasing awareness of, access to and availability of government benefits and supports

Poverty Reduction in BC

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-19 09:10:35 UTC

BC also has its own poverty reduction strategy with a goal of " the reduction of both the overall poverty rate (25%) and the poverty rate for children (50%) by 2024" (Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, 2023).

National resources/supports

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-20 02:22:50 UTC

The Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)

Canada Workers Benefit

Guaranteed Income Supplement

The National Housing Strategy

Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program

Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care

Provincial Resources/Supports

jyr202309_ — 2023-11-20 02:55:48 UTC

Rental Assistance Program (RAP): Families in need

now can now get an average of $472 a month to help them with rising rents

Building BC: Community Housing Fund: Non-profit co-operative, and municipal housing providers can apply

Affordable Child Care Benefit: is a monthly payment to help eligible families with the cost of child care

Prototype sites: $10 a Day ChildCareBC Centres; for some low-income families, child care at these sites costs nothing.

Fair PharmaCare: has 12 plans that help B.C. residents pay for prescription medications and supplies

BC Hydro Customer Crisis Fund: offers support for people and families who are facing disconnection of their BC

Hydro service, due to a temporary financial crisis