THE MESSAGE:

Will we ever get back together?

''Together again" is an old song!

THE MESSAGE:

This blog presents no quick fixes or simple solutions. The solving of poverty requires compassion, understanding, open-minded thinking, knowledge of the myriad facts and situations, and the political and social resolve on the part of a truly free democratic majority to seek resolution.

In Canada there are two important factors to realize.

Our nation has no official poverty measure. It is the position of Statistics Canada stance that it is not their role to determine what constitutes a necessity. Until political entities express a social consensus on the definition of poverty and make it their intention to run on such a platform, no measure can be implemented.

There is some debate on whether an absolute or relative measure is more useful. An absolute measure of poverty can provide insight on deprivation, or the inability to provide for basic needs, while a relative measure of poverty encompasses the issues of social exclusion and inequality.

TONY TODAY:

Recent studies in Canada (2003) show that marital status plays a significant role in establishing a LOW INCOME CUT-OFF (LICO) line. The study reports the following findings regarding poverty, welfare and single parents.

8.2 per cent of 'couple' households with children are in poverty (as measured by the Low Income Cut-Off, LICO)
16.0 per cent of single father households live below the LICO
32.2 per cent of single mother households live below the LICO (almost four times more likely to be poor than a couple household).
29 per cent of all single parents live below the LICO (Source: 2006 Census)
On average across Canada, single-parent families are 8.8 times more likely to depend upon welfare than couple households. Among the provinces, the multiplier ranges from a low of 5.1 in Quebec to a high of 16 in Newfoundland and Labrador. (Source: Human Resources Social Development Canada welfare data with calculations by authors)
Single-parent households derive more of their income from government transfers than do two-parent households, in both relative and absolute terms. Nationally, the average two-parent household collects $1476 less than the average single parent household in government transfers. In British Columbia this gap is the smallest at $484. It is the highest in Alberta at $2164. (Source: 2006 Census and HRSDC statistics with calculations by authors)

THE CHANGING CANADIAN FAMILY (2006 Census data)

25.8 per cent of families with children are single parent families in Canada today
20.7 per cent of families with children are female lone parent families
5.1 per cent of families with children are male lone parent families and 11.3 per cent of families with children are cohabiting couples
In most Canadian provinces, married parents remain the norm. 68.6 per cent of all families are married parent families. In Quebec, cohabitation is more common: 54.5 per cent of Quebec families are married parent families
72.3 per cent of families are married parent families in the rest of Canada excluding Quebec. Conversely, 28.8 per cent of families in Quebec live common-law, where the average for the rest of Canada excluding Quebec is 11.7 per cent. (Source: 2006 Census with calculations by authors)
Children with cohabiting parents are 5 times more likely to experience a parental split than kids of married parents. (Source: Osborne, C., Manning, W.D., Smock, P.M. (2007, December) Married and Cohabiting Parents’ relationship stability: A focus on race and ethnicity. Journal of Marriage and Family vol. 69, no 5, p.1345.)
The total divorce rate in Canadian couples today (for those married 30 years ago) is 38.3 per 100 marriages (2003). (Source: Lambert, Anne-Marie (2005) Divorce: Facts, Causes and Consequences. Ottawa: Vanier Institute of the Family. Table 2.)

Marriage protects against child poverty. There is a correlation between family breakdown and poverty. Long term plans to eradicate poverty should include a discussion of family and marriage. Marriage confers stability on children.

THE MUSIC: