Chronic poverty rate highest for pre-schoolers, says NWC. (Child & Family).

OTTAWA -- Pre-school children showed the highest rate of chronic poverty over a six-year period covering 1993-98, according to the National Council of Welfare.

Its Poverty Profile 1999 showed a one-year improvement of 0.7 per cent in the poverty rate, a far cry from the almost five per cent economic growth in the same period.

Canada needs political leadership to improve the plight of young children, said council Chair Allyce Herle, who wondered how those who spend their critical early years in poverty have a chance in life. Nothing in the patchwork of social programs helps the infant whose mother must choose between welfare and a labour market that requires her to work 60 hours a week to make ends meet--if she can find childcare, Herle said.

Herle called on premiers and territorial leaders meeting in Halifax in July to take a hard look at how the Social Union Framework Agreement is working. The Council has been concerned for some time that the fight against poverty and exclusion has been slipping off the public agenda in Canada. In contrast, European countries are looking to the future and placing children, women and social inclusion high on the agenda, she said.

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