According to a new report 17.1 per cent of children in the Parry Sound-Muskoka riding live in poverty.
The numbers come from Campaign 2000. The group describes itself as a non-partisan that works to get elected officials to stick to a 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Its report, which was released this morning, lists the childhood poverty rates for every federal riding. For Parry Sound-Muskoka, that 17.1 per cent represents 2530 kids.
For comparison, the riding with the most impoverished children in Canada is Manitoba’s Churchill-Keewatinook Aski with 21,870, representing 64.2 per cent of all children in that region. The riding with the lowest percentage of children living in poverty is Quebec’s Montarville, at 4.1 per cent.
Campaign 2000 says ridings with the highest child poverty rates have the highest unemployment and lowest labour market participation rates. They also have the highest proportion of renters and people spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The report also showed that the ridings with the worst child poverty rates are home to the highest proportions of Indigenous and racialized people, recent immigrants, and mostly mother-headed lone parent families.