A year is a long time in a child’s life. In childhood, the injustice of poverty leaves an indelible mark.

Rapid development within the first year of a child’s life is profound. Parents and caregivers strive to nurture learning and development and ensure children are healthy, safe, secure and thriving.

For families in poverty, the healthy development and safety of their growing children is paramount; yet far too many children are in peril as poverty impairs infant and child development and blocks parental and caregiver efforts. Child and family poverty is unnecessary and unconscionable in a wealthy country – Canada has the resources and policy tools to eradicate it. Instead, successive governments have failed to prioritize sufficiently the lives of children in policy and economic decisions. As a result, today over 1.3 million children (18.5%) live in poverty in Canada.

In order to meet its child poverty reduction target, the federal government must root out child and family poverty from every community in Canada by adopting a child and family poverty reduction lens on all spending, policy and program decisions. This report card provides a snapshot of child and family poverty today, outlines how poverty stalls children’s progress and potential and proposes policy solutions as a road map to guide eradication.

With nearly 1 in 5 children in poverty today, Canada’s work is nowhere near done.