CCPA senior economist Armine Yalnizyan recently wrote a post on the Progressive Economics Forum blog noting that the Great Recession may undo the "success story" of declining poverty rates over the past decade for lone parents.
Armine's post is cited in Carol Goar's column in today's Toronto Star. The post was a response to John Richards' C.D. Howe Institute commentary, which celebrated the "tough love" of welfare cuts in the mid 1990s as the main factor in the story.
Armine notes Canada's job juggernaut from 1997 to 2007 propelled falling poverty rates, for lone parents and Canadians in general. Major enhancements to the Canada Child Tax Benefit since 1998 were also key for lone parents. But with income supports at their lowest levels in decades, record household debt and job losses of the early stages of the economic crisis unmatched by anything since the Second World War, more Canadians are more exposed to poverty than in generations.
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— Polly Ng, Next Up graduate