Ontario’s proposed $15 minimum wage, legislation to address precarious work and a plan to double the number of licensed child-care spots for young children represent promising progress in the battle against child poverty, a new report says.But with a provincial election just over six months away, any gains could be swept away at the ballot box unless all parties make ending child poverty a key platform, warns Ontario Campaign 2000 in its annual report card being released today.“Children and families in Ontario need commitments from all parties to say enough is enough,” says the network of advocacy groups dedicated to eliminating child poverty. “It is time to work together to ensure ending child and family poverty is a top priority.”More than 475,000 Ontario children — or 17.2 per cent — are living in poverty, says the report, which uses 2015 taxfiler data, the most current available.That is slightly below the Canadian average of 17.4 per cent, or 1.2 million children, according to the network’s national report, also being released Tuesday.Read more:Toronto child poverty divided along racial linesCanada falls behind other rich nations on child issues, UNICEF report findsThe $15-an-hour minimum wage emerges as key in 2018 electionOntario’s child poverty rate dropped by almost 2 percentage points from the previous year and is the lowest since 2008 when Queen’s Park pledged to cut the rate by 25 per cent in five years. (In 2008, one in five, or 20.1 per cent of children in the province were poor.)The report defines poor children as those in families living below the Low-Income Measure after taxes, or 50 per cent of the median family income. That was about $24,500 for a lone parent with one child or about $36,400 for a couple with two kids in 2015.Ontario’s introduction this fall of free tuition for families with incomes below $50,000, free prescription drugs for children and youth under age 25 startin ...
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