First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition (First Call) members were looking for a 2016 federal budget that put Canada’s children and youth first and tone that also ensured British Columbia’s children and youth have the resources they need to thrive.
We were heartened by a number of new commitments for families with young children, especially the Canada Child Benefit, but were disappointed in the delay and lack of concrete action on a national child-care plan.
The more generous Canada Child Benefit is the highlight of the 2016 federal budget for low- and moderate-income families with children. This investment is predicted to lift 300,000 children out of poverty across the country.
We don’t yet have a breakdown of how many children in B.C. will be lifted out of poverty, but with child poverty rates in B.C. above the Canadian average (20.4 per cent overall and 50.3 per cent for lone-parent families), we can assume it will be significant.
First Call was disappointed, however, the budget delays the indexation of the Child Benefit to inflation until 2020, which will undermine it’s effectiveness in the intervening years.
First Call had recommended scrapping the income splitting for families with children, as it disproportionally benefitted the wealthiest families in the country. The budget wisely commits to implement this change and redirect the tax revenue saved to the Child Benefit.
Knowing how important the early years are for children’s development, the biggest disappointment in the budget is the lack of urgency for investing more in critical social infrastructure for young children, such as child care.
There was no new money earmarked for this fiscal year, and it only offers $500 million specifically for the development of a national framework on early learning and child care, but not until next fiscal year (2017/18), $100 million of which is earmarked for Indigenous child care and early learning on reserve. Karen Isaac, executive director of First Call coalition member the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS) noted, “Despite the 2016 federal budget making some steps in the right direction, it appears that First Nations without child care infrastructure will have to wait at least a year to create programs for their youngest citizens, an especially long time during early childhood development.
"Research conducted by BCACCS in 2007 and 2014 found federal investment in early childhood development and child care for Indigenous children has remained stagnant since the mid-1990s. This budget does not show enough of an increase to support the kind of urgently required funding that would make a real difference this year.”
First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition is a non-partisan coalition of over 95 provincial and regional organizations that have united their voices to put children and youth first in B.C. through public education, community mobilization, and public policy advocacy. More information is available at www.firstcallbc.org.
Adrienne Montani is the First Call provincial co-ordinator.