First Nations child poverty and care rates at crisis levels: AFN

November 26, 2009

“It’s been twenty years since Parliament unanimously agreed to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Today, far too many of our First Nations children live in extreme poverty and all its ugly manifestations,” said Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Shawn Atleo.

Atleo attended a breakfast Nov. 24 with MPs and Senators to mark the 20th anniversary of Parliament’s 1989 motion, and the release of the Campaign 2000 Report Card on Child Poverty in Canada.

“All politicians and all Canadians must be reminded that the tragic circumstances faced by Indigenous peoples on a daily basis, from high suicide and incarceration rates to missing and murdered women and children, are all rooted in poverty and despair,” said Atleo. “We all have a responsibility to make a difference and contribute to even the small steps such as ensuring access to breakfast programs and affordable healthy food so that no child goes to school hungry.”

“The long term solutions must focus on education and economic development so parents are able to work and provide for their families,” said Atleo. “We urgently encourage the federal government to work with us to implement treaties and agreements and to stabilize fair funding so that every community has good homes, good schools and clean drinking water.”

Wilton Littlechild, a commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a former Regional Chief for the AFN, was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wetaskiwin, Alberta from 1988 to 1993.

“Today, one in four First Nations children live in poverty and nearly 30,000 are in state care. This is a national crisis. I urge today’s government and all Canadians to make the elimination of poverty our country’s immediate priority. We must not fail our children, our future,” Littlechild said.