400 Years To End Child Poverty Unacceptable
Last week Campaign 2000 released their reports on ending child poverty in Canada and child and family poverty in Manitoba. This follows the release of Manitoba's Poverty Reduction Strategy earlier in 2026 & we are now at the halfway point of Winnipeg's last 10 year poverty reduction strategy covering the years of 2021-2031. In 2023, the data we have most available, Manitoba has a child poverty rate of 26.9% and Canada has a child poverty rate of 10.7%. Poverty in Canada has risen for the 3rd straight year in a row, meaning there are 30,000 more kids experiencing poverty across Canada (Campaign 2000 National Report 2026). In Manitoba, we are looking at “85,790 children and their families who did not have enough to meet even the most basic needs” (Campaign 2000 Manitoba Report 2026). In simple terms, this means that 1 in 4 kids in Manitoba and 1 in 10 across Canada are living in poverty.
At this rate, it would take us 400 years to end child poverty, and that is unacceptable.
When you examine the data the evidence is clear: targeted government interventions can be successful at impacting the rates that children experience poverty. In 2016 and immediately afterwards, the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit reduced poverty for children you can see the gradual decline over the next few years in the charts. The next time the dip happened was 2020 during CERB when child poverty was reduced by what is the largest amount in recent history. However, due to CERB repayments for low income earners, pandemic related programming coming to an end and higher costs of living we are seeing poverty return to pre-pandemic levels and then continuing in the wrong direction.
The federal government introduced a national school food program in April 2024 and Manitoba’s Universal School Nutrition launched in September of 2024 - hopefully we will see in next year’s report that those programs are beginning to make a significant impact. While those initiatives are positive, Manitoba still remains the second worst province when it comes to child poverty. There are 27 out of every 100 kids experiencing poverty in Manitoba with Winnipeg Centre being the urban riding with the highest rate with over 45% or just under 9,000 kids. That’s too many children that are hungry, too many kids that don’t know where they will sleep and too many kids that will experience poorer health and education outcomes because of it. Free breakfast helps, but it wont solve poverty. We need much larger ideas to be developed or if they are already developed, simply applied and funded in this area.
I was hopeful when I learned that Manitoba’s new poverty reduction strategy would have an emphasis on kids under 6, youth aging our of care and seniors however when the actual report came out I was underwhelmed. There are no actions or timelines outlined here. The government says its because they want to remain flexible but I wish they would have at least listed some of their ideas for starting points or some actions they are beginning with. The measurement includes Canada’s Market Basket Measure (like Campaign 2000 reports) but also includes 7 other metrics. These metrics are described verbally, but none of the specific numbers as they relate to Manitobans experiencing poverty are included which is frustrating. It is harder to measure progress and hold the government accountable this way. Canada’s Strategy was released back in 2018 and has not been adjusted to a post pandemic world, so not sure how helpful of a reference it is.
27 ways to help in Manitoba
Please read the reports and see if there are any of the recommendations that you can support in your own sphere of influence. We are going to need many people pushing from many levels if we are going to be successful and so I would like to lift up those organizations involved with Manitoba’s Campaign 2000 and the many others who work quietly for better policy that can help kids live a happy and healthy life. In Manitoba, having such challenging numbers means we can take bold moves, and have dramatic progress that has a material impact on the lives and homes and bellies of kids and families in our community. The Manitoba report has 5 top recommendations and 22 more after that, for a total of 27 actions we can collectively work on together, so take your pick! For me, I am going to continue to advocate for unconditional basic income guarantee program and increases in service coordination/navigation for youth aging out of care. When it comes to targets, I agree that a reduction of child and family poverty by 50% in Manitoba by 2028 should be a minimum. Wouldn’t it be great if we could surpass that?
We have a lot of work to do to end poverty; so let’s get reading these reports and then do what we can make sure all kids have a place to sleep and food in their belly.
You can click below to read any of the reports I mentioned:
1 pager courtesy of Manitoba Campaign 2000
