Canada is not taking enough action to reduce the number of children living in poverty across the country, says a report released Tuesday by a group that represents community foundations.

The annual quality of life report by the Community Foundations of Canada, entitled Vital Signs 2008, says the level of child poverty is currently at the same level it was in 1989.

According to the report, 1.6 million children, or 23 per cent, lived in poverty in 2006.

"We have not moved fast enough anywhere in any part of the country to eliminate child poverty," said Monica Patten, president and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada, said in Toronto.

"That level of child poverty has virtually not changed in about 20 years — we just have not been able to move the needle on child poverty," said Patten.

‘Do you eliminate it by giving people who have children that they can ill afford more money, thereby encouraging them to have more children that they can ill afford?’

— Dave Hiker

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"That's in spite of resolutions both at government levels and in communities to overcome that incredible challenge for us."

The highest poverty rates among the 15 communities studied by researchers were said to be in Toronto and Vancouver, while the lowest rates were reportedly in Calgary and Oakville, Ont.

The report also found that the median income of non-immigrant families in Canada rose by more than five per cent from 2000 to 2005. But the incomes of immigrant families dropped by one per cent while that of recent immigrant families, in Canada less than five years, dropped more than three per cent.

The report also discovered that only 22 per cent of Canadians failed to finish high school in 2007, an improvement from nearly 38 per cent in 1990.

Patten said the Community Foundations of Canada is committed to helping children because "what happens to kids in our communities is absolutely critical."

With files from the Canadian Press