Child benefit shows Manitoba’s income divide

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2017 (3537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Families living in Manitoba’s north are the biggest beneficiaries of the new national child benefit program.

Charleswood St. James Assiniboia Headingley has the lowest average monthly payment at $560 per family. 

Families who live in the federal riding of Churchill Keewatinook Aski received $13.5 million in October 2016 from the new program, an average of $1,080 per family with children.

Statistics provided by the Canada Revenue Agency show no riding in Canada has a higher monthly total or a higher family average.

“People don’t really seem to be aware of the scale of what is flowing,” said Liberal MP MaryAnn Mihychuk.

Mihychuk said Manitoba families are receiving $500 million more in 2017 from this benefit program, compared to previous programs. Provincewide, families receive $96.3 million a month, which spread over 12 months comes to nearly $1.2 billion.

The Canada child benefit was promised by the Liberals in the 2015 campaign to replace the universal child care benefit, the child tax benefit and the tax benefit supplement. It also made the benefit income dependent and entirely tax free.

The maximum monthly benefit is $533 for a child up to age six and $450 for a child ages six to 17. Under previous programs, the maximum benefit was $472.50 for one child under six and $372.50 for older children, with the benefits adjusted depending on the number of children in a family. The new benefit pays the same per child no matter the size of the family.

Nationally, the program paid out more than $2 billion in October 2016. Over 12 months that means it will cost $24 billion, more than $2 billion above what the Liberal campaign estimated.

Manitoba overall was expected to benefit more from the program because of its child poverty rate, which is the highest among the provinces and second only to Nunavut when you include the territories. Twenty-nine per cent of Manitoba kids live in poverty. The number rises to 79 per cent on First Nations in the province. Among indigenous children living off-reserve, the poverty rate is 39 per cent compared with 18 per cent for non-indigenous children.

In the province, 130,300 families received the benefit in October 2016, with an average payment per family of $719 a month. While 53 per cent of the families receiving the benefit live in Winnipeg, families outside the city are receiving more money, largely because of bigger family sizes.

In Churchill Keewatinook Aski, almost one in four families has three or more children, for example. Nationally, only about nine per cent of families have three or more children. The riding is also one of the poorest in the country. It is home to 41 First Nations, where more than three in four kids live in poverty.

More than 28,000 children in the riding receive money from the program. 

“These figures are a reflection of demographics in our region,” NDP MP Niki Ashton said. “We are a young part of the country, and this is particularly the case in indigenous communities.”

Ashton said while the benefit helps, it doesn’t address the “inadequate housing, non-existent childcare and recreation, overcrowded schools and insufficient health care.”

“In 2017, such measures do little to address the lack of jobs or change the third world living conditions on First Nations in northern Manitoba and elsewhere,” said Ashton.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca