Towards Justice

Tackling Indigenous Child Poverty in Canada
July 16, 2019
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This report provides the third installment in a series of papers that track the gap between Indigenous children and other children in Canada, using the after-tax Low-Income Measure (LIM-AT). That snapshot provides a disturbing picture of child poverty in Canada: one where First Nations children are far and away the most marginalized and economically disadvantaged. Tracking Indigenous child poverty and non-Indigenous child poverty trends between Census 2006 and Census 2016, it’s clear that these differences have not markedly changed over that 10-year period.

Broadly speaking, child poverty on reserves has remained almost unchanged for a decade. Little improvement has been registered for Inuit or non-status First Nations children either. Comparing urban areas, poverty rates have fallen for Indigenous children in the western cities of Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and, particularly, Saskatoon. Nevertheless, more than half of status First Nations children in Regina, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon continue to live below the poverty line. Poverty rates amongst Métis children have improved, however, these improvements may be influenced by changes in self-reporting and require further study.

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