Happily Ever After

I would not want to be a child or a low income working parent in Canada in 2007. I would want to be in a fairy tale where you have two parents, no poverty and an active, engaged extended family. The kind of fairy tale that our leaders are frolicking about in. But it is time to read some non fiction and realize this is not how it is anymore and children are paying the price. And we all will eventually pay for it through increased spending in health care, remedial education, foster care, mental health, addictions, and criminal justice.
One in six Canadian children live in poverty, an increase of 20% since 1989. In British Columbia it is worse at one in four. Many low income families have gross incomes that are thousands of dollars below the poverty line. Many working families cannot afford basics like food, housing, child care, transportation, utilities and health care and families well above the official poverty line still face hardships in managing basic necessities of life. If we are to address poverty, children from disadvantaged homes must have access to healthy learning environments in the crucial early years of life.
During this period of provincial and federal prosperity, where we are told unemployment is at all time lows, and that moving people, many of them single parents, from welfare to work has been very successful, why is it that our leaders have just cut us off at the knees, with many parents finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. They are now being forced to choose between leaving their jobs or abandoning their children during the day.
The success of the social and economic portfolios of the government does not stop once they obtain the favorable employment statistic. There is a role for government in helping working families meet their basic needs.The responsibility goes to ensuring the citizens do not have to miss meals involuntarily, do not have to live in housing that makes them vulnerable or ill, do not have to double up in housing with another family, do not have to habitually live with no heat or light, and do not have to use the emergency room as their main source of health care.
An impressive and ever-growing body of research indicates that the first six years of children's lives are crucial and determine in many ways what kind of people they will grow up to be. Study after study demonstrates that preschool children who attend high-quality early-childhood education and care programs are more likely to become productive contributing members of society as adults. Good childcare not only protects children's health and safety, but also helps them develop their full potential. Paying for good childcare should not mean missed meals, living in the cold and the dark, couch surfing or other indignities suffered by many who are working but working poor.
Our leaders are good at making propaganda at the expense of children. They lecture single parents and poor families not to depend on welfare, to get jobs and be "responsible" members of society. And the same time they never miss an opportunity to say that they are all for "family values." The B.C. Government's Children and Families website says they are committed to having healthy children and families living in safe, caring and inclusive communities. The Governor General's Throne Speech last year said that strong families ensure a bright future for Canada and the most important investment we can make as a country is to help families raise their children. If we are to believe this fairy tale, then why is it so many are not living happily ever after?