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On the eve of Mother's Day, a new report from an international charity shows Canada is plunging on a scale assessing the outlook for children in the world's countries.
The report from Save the Children, based in London, has Canada dropping over the past year to 25th place from 5th on the Children's Index. The humanitarian group's index ranks 140 countries on measures such as children's mortality under the age of five, enrolment in day care, nursery school and secondary school.
The United Kingdom is ranked 21st while the U.S. is at No. 30.
"I think we are slipping," said David Morely, president and chief executive officer of Save the Children in Canada. "We have been cutting back on our social programs and we start to see that happening."
Morely said while Canada's economic indicators have been getting stronger, social indicators have not.
"I think if we're going to have a discussion in the country, perhaps it should be about what are the indicators that are going to drive us. Is it going to be economic or going to be social? Or how do we get a mix of the two so that we can move forward as a society?"
He said the main reason for Canada's drop can be attributed to the fact that it lags far behind the Europeans in early childhood education.
"We know that's really key for child development and societal development. We're just not up to the same rate as other countries who are as wealthy as we are," he said.
Canada spends 0.25 per cent of its GDP on early childhood programs while other developed countries spend up to two per cent.
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- reprinted from the Toronto Star