Let's See If Canada Keeps Their Promise!

The 0.7 per cent goal was first proposed in 1969 by Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

Elections are over and it's time to put those promises to work! Canadian Children are in desperate need of attention. Nearly 1 in 6 live in Poverty! Ontario is the richest Province in Canada, what is wrong with this picture!

There are a few major problems that need immediate attention.

1st in my mind is we need more money! We have Canadian parents working for less than $10.00 per hour forcing them to take on two and three jobs!

Don't you think that our Children deserve to have their parents home with them rather than in Daycare. If we raise the minimum wage to $10.00 per hour it is a start, and it needs to happen immediately.

If we can get a new holiday in one day, why not raise the minimum wage in one day and really make a difference!

All statistics prove children do better in school, and overall when they have quality time with their parents. Let's allow parents to work one job, and be able to spend that quality time with our children whom we love more than life!

2nd Daycare is a necessity, parents need to have reliable daycare provided in order to keep their jobs. Paying high daycare fees defeats the purpose of working! We need government funded/affordable daycare.

3rd Affordable Housing! When people pay out 2/3 of their income to housing there isn't much left to feed their children. It shouldn't be a decision each month whether to pay bills, or feed your family!

The following bulletin was posted yesterday. Canada is the only country out of 27 who have not announced our goal plans on fighting global poverty.

(Save the Children UK Newsletter)

Hello

I am writing with some great news. In the last hour, (Oct 9th) the UK government has announced its spending plans for the next three years, and thanks to your pressure they've agreed to keep their promises to the world's poorest children.

They've promised an aid increase of at least 11% every year for the next three years. If that rate continues, the UK government will be on track to meeting its funding commitments on fighting poverty - 0.7% of Gross National Income. This only happened because you cared enough to act.

The government has clearly felt the heat from people like you:

In 2004, campaigners helped pressure the government into committing to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on fighting global poverty by 2012/13.


In 2005, millions came together under the banner of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and got G8 leaders to agree a comprehensive package of action to fight poverty in Africa.

Every email you have sent, every letter you have written and every event you have attended has kept this on the politicians' agenda and reminded them they must not fail.
Today we took another big step forward. But of course we have a long way to go. We'll need to keep a close eye on the UK government, and really step up the pressure on other governments to make sure they spend what is needed and spend it well. Our next campaign action on child poverty in the UK will be on hitting your inbox very soon...

But for now, thank you. Let's keep working together to make child poverty a thing of the past.


Adrian Lovett
Director of Campaigns and Communications
Save the Children