If a parent or parents are in poverty, advocates say the children are also in poverty. Case in point is Sara, one of the people profiled in the report, who lost one of her part-time jobs during the pandemic and is struggling to pay her bills and support her son. Student loans is now threatening to take my income tax return because I missed reapplying for repayment delay. I had to come up with $500 to sort that out as I need my tax return, Sara said.
Staggeringly high rates
The 2018 data shows that across Canada, the child poverty rates are still staggeringly high, regardless of whether the child is in a one- or two-parent household. In Manitoba, poverty affected 16.3 per cent of two-parent households, compared to the national average of 9.8 per cent. In single parent households, the rate quadruples with 63.4 per cent of children living in poverty.