The Toronto Star

Campaign 2000 released it's annual report card warning the Liberal government that gains made in reducing child poverty are at risk.

“What’s needed is leadership,” said the report’s author, Anita Khanna, co-ordinator of the Campaign 2000 anti-poverty coalition. “The 2013 budget is a good place where they can get back on track.”

Campaign 2000 noted that even work is no guarantee of not living in poverty - one third of all children in poverty have a parent that works full time, full year.

"But the minimum wage has been frozen at $10.25 per hour for more than two years, while last year’s budget delayed part of another $210 annual increase in child benefit payments to July 2014. This, the report cautions, could put the province’s poverty reduction goal in jeopardy.

“Instead of delaying the increase in the Ontario child benefit, they need to implement it,” said Khanna.

The report also proposes to freeze tuition, raise low-income and disability payments, bump up the minimum wage to $14 an hour, offer monthly housing benefits to the least well-off and “accessible” child care for kids under 6."

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