Almost one in five children in Alberta live in poverty, according to the latest annual child poverty report from Public Interest Alberta (PIA) and the Edmonton Social Planning Council.

The report uses data from the Centre for Income and Socioeconomic Well-being Statistics, which uses tax filer data to determine the rate of poverty for different family types, rather than the typical market basic measure, which has a more limited sample size that is harder to break down regionally. 

In 2022, the latest year for which data on child poverty is available, 189,940 children in Alberta, or 18.2%, lived in poverty, meaning they face “inequities in accessing the conditions they need in order to thrive mentally, physically, and socially.” For children under six, the poverty rate is even higher at 19.2%.

Public Interest Alberta's Bradley Lafortune on picket at the 2022 CP Rail strike. From Lafortune's Twitter

“The trend that we're seeing is a situation that's going from bad to worse,” Bradley Lafortune, executive director at PIA, told the Progress Report.

“There's no reason why child poverty rates should be at the level they're at in a province as wealthy as Alberta.”

The overall child poverty rate varies greatly by family type. Half of children in single-parent families live in poverty, compared to one out of 10 children in two-parent families.

Another metric, the poverty gap, measures the difference between the poverty line income threshold and the median post-tax income of families living below the threshold. 

Again, single-parent families have the largest poverty gap—the median income for a single parent with two children in poverty is $18,745 below the poverty line; for a single parent with one child, it’s $15,526 below. By contrast, for two-parent families who live in poverty, the gap is $14,256 for those with two children and $13,985 for one.

Excerpted from the report: nearly 20% of children in Alberta were below the poverty line in 2022.

The child poverty rate has “massive” variances by municipality, Lafortune noted. Wetaskawin has the highest by far at 26%, followed by Medicine Hat and Red Deer, with 19% each, and Edmonton and Lethbridge with 18% each. Okotoks had the lowest at 8%, followed by Canmore and Wood Buffalo at 12% each. 

“In communities where you have a higher median and higher average household income, you're going to see lower prevalence of child poverty, and the opposite would be true in communities that have lower median and average income, generally speaking,” Lafortune explained.

The role of federal and provincial child benefits

The federal and provincial governments have income transfers to assist families with children—the Canada Child Benefit, and Alberta Child and Family Benefit, respectively, which both play a key role in reducing child poverty. 

Without these benefits, the child poverty rate would be 30.4% for all children, and 33.4% for children under six, the report says. 

Lafortune said these benefits should be enhanced, but noted that “tax benefits and grant programs are only part of the equation.”

“Public services that are universal and accessible to all are also essential and critical in getting at the roots of poverty,” he explained.

“They are absolutely critical as a lifeline and a way to mitigate the impacts of poverty on kids in Alberta.”

Government payments can be subject to bureaucratic delays that increase financial pressure on families who have to pay their bills on time. 

In August 2024, a processing error with the Alberta Child and Family Benefit led to a month-long delay of payments for approximately 6,200 eligible families as they were preparing for the school year.

One way to mitigate these administrative issues is to “adequately resource those programs with qualified, professional, unionized staff,” said Lafortune. 

“These are highly trained professionals. They know what they’re doing,” he explained.

Paying a living wage

In addition to enhanced child benefit programs, the report’s authors are calling for increased wages. 

A living wage, the report notes, “represents more than just a survival wage, and includes the things a family needs to in dignity and participate in their community,” including child care, the ability for an adult to attend school, extended health and dental benefits, and emergency savings. 

This would enable parents to not only meet their children’s basic needs, but to enhance their quality of life by purchasing recreation centre passes, sports equipment, and birthday and holiday presents. 

Without having to work multiple jobs to pay the bills, parents would be able to spend more time with their kids. 

A living wage varies across the province, from $17.55 an hour in Medicine Hat to $31.40 in Jasper, according to the Alberta Living Wage Network. In Edmonton, it’s $20.85 and in Calgary, it’s $24.45. 

The report’s authors are calling on the provincial government to increase the province’s minimum wage, which has been frozen at $15 since 2018, eliminate the two-tier structure introduced in 2019 that reduced the minimum wage for youth to $13, and tie the rate to inflation.

“I'm hesitant to put a number out there that would fit a slogan, but what we would like to see is at least the majority of communities have a minimum wage that matches the living wage,” said Lafortune. 

The different cost of living in different parts of the province represents an “interesting policy problem,” he added. 

“Do you have to have a provincial minimum wage? Or could you break it down by municipality and region? I think it might be possible,” said Lafortune.

Addressing food insecurity

An even greater percentage of children in Alberta are living in food insecurity than poverty, with 30.3% in 2023, which is higher than the national rate of 27.4%. 

In Alberta, according to Food Banks Canada, 35.5% of food bank visitors are children, compared to 33% across Canada.

Food insecurity is experienced by people living above and below the poverty line, but is more pronounced below. 

The percentage of children experiencing food insecurity also varies based on household type, with 36.4% of children in single-parent families nearly doubling the 18.3% of children in two-parent families. 

One sign of progress the report notes is the federal government’s $1-billion five-year school nutrition program. 

A 2021 article published in the peer-reviewed Nutrients journal reviewed academic literature on the impacts of school nutrition programs in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. It found that “universal free school meals were associated with increases in participation and improved diet quality and food security.”

“One of the single best interventions that you can make from an educational attainment point of view and from a food security point of view is use the public school system as an existing structure and institution to make sure that kids are fed, and have good, healthy food,” said Lafortune.

The report identifies other key drivers of child poverty, including the cost of housing, the legacy of colonization on Indigenous communities, insufficient social supports for immigrants and high energy costs.

Disclosure: Bradley Lafortune and Public Interest Alberta assisted with the Progress Report’s most recent fundraising drive.