For the ninth time in the past two decades, local child poverty activists have given Manitoba the dubious distinction of being the child poverty capital of Canada.  The NDP suggests the numbers are misleading, though.  According to the 2009 Manitoba Child and Family Poverty Report card put out by the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg yesterday, nearly one in five children (18.8%) in this province live in poverty.

"One child is too many in poverty, so 47,000 children in Manitoba living in poverty is way too many," said Donald Benham, a senior associate at SPC.  The report finds nearly 40% of children have lived in poverty for at least one of the past six years while 68% of aboriginal children under the age of six live in poor conditions. That last number doesn't take into account the number of youngsters living on reserves.

"You can't really put a number on something you live through every day," said Tayrn McLean, a 20-year-old single mother living near the SPC's poverty line. "It's harder to look at the big picture when it's just your picture you're concerned about."

The SPC uses figures that determine what the total family income is and how it is used to feed, clothe and house themselves before income tax is deducted to measure poverty.  But the province uses a different method, using federal stats that take into account individual purchasing power and government income supports, to gauge poverty levels. Using those numbers, Manitoba has the third lowest child poverty rate -- 10.1% -- in Canada.

Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said the province has cut the child poverty rate in half since 2000, but conceded there is still a lot of work to do.

"There remains 25,000 children living in poverty," he said. "That's 1-in-10, and that's unacceptably high. Whatever the numbers, the conclusion is the same. There are too many children living in poverty and there remains work to be done."

Mackintosh said in building the ALL Aboard initiative, an anti-poverty strategy announced earlier this year, the provincial government will hold a series of public consultations to help prioritize the key issues and brain-storm the determining factors for poverty in Manitoba.

The consultations begin next month.