$216,325-per-kid estimate too low?
Federal equation missing factors, think-tank says
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2015 (3233 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Figuring out how much it costs to raise a child should be about more than just making sure they have adequate food and shelter and shirts on their backs, the head of a national think-tank on families said.
Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, was responding to a briefing note made for Finance Minister Joe Oliver last fall as he prepared a $4.5-billion increase to benefits and tax breaks for parents.
That analysis, using Manitoba data, suggested the cost of raising a child has gone up 36 per cent in the last 15 years but has not risen as fast as after-tax income, making it easier than it used to be to pay for a child.
In 2013, the cost of raising a child to the end of their 18th year was $216,325, according to the government analysis, or about $12,018 a year. The actual annual amount varies by age, with youngsters costing more because of child care, but that is partially offset by increases in food and clothing for teenagers.
But Spinks questions the math in the analysis (made public this week) and the categories used.
“The cost of raising a child is a very difficult thing to calculate,” she said.
Until 2004, a Manitoba Agriculture annual report was considered the best data set available. That report was the basis for the briefing note to Oliver, after an economist at the Finance Department used the Manitoba data and updated it for 2013.
It included the cost of food, shelter, clothing, health care, personal care, recreation, transportation and child care, using a variety of data. For food, for example, the analysis used the food basket recommendations from Health Canada and an average of prices from three different Winnipeg grocery stores.
For shelter, the cost was the difference between a one- and two-bedroom apartment in Winnipeg. Transportation costs were calculated based on the price of a public-transit pass.
But Spinks said there are many other factors that go into raising healthy children with a good future. She said it reminds her of what her professor said on the first day of her statistics class in university: “Statistics are like a bathing suit. What they reveal is interesting but what they cover up is critical.”
Winnipeg parent Kerry Macdonald, a single mother with two boys whose salary puts her firmly in the middle class, said the cost of raising her sons over the last decade has seemed fairly stable. Any changes were temporary and age-related, such as the moment her sons no longer needed diapers.
Child care is her biggest expense, consuming a quarter of her monthly take-home pay, and the bevy of small tax credits and government subsidies is overwhelming. “There are almost too many of them and not one with a big enough impact,” she said.
Macdonald wondered how studies measuring the cost of children factor in the increasing number of single parents. Where once the cost was shared by two income-earners, now, among divorced couples, one parent often bears more of the burden of child-rearing.
But the question for policy-makers shouldn’t be what is the bare minimum so a child doesn’t suffer, Spinks said.
“The real question should be what kind of investment do we as families want to make in the next generation? What kind of environment do we want to raise the next generation in?”
‘The cost of raising a child is a very difficult thing to calculate’ — Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family
Two decades ago, most children were exposed to music and sports in school. Now cuts to education have left many without those lessons unless their parents pay for them, but the cost of any extracurricular activities were not included in the report.
Macdonald estimates about half her child-related spending is on necessities. But she said there’s a lot of pressure to make sure children are in music lessons, on hockey or other sports teams, and involved in summer camps.
Then there is the need to help pay for a child to go to college. Putting money into RESPs isn’t considered a necessity — but getting a post-secondary education is becoming one, said Spinks.
Macdonald is already wondering how she’ll pay for university when her sons, six and 10, get there.
Spinks said many families may be fine, but are living with uncertainty if a job situation were to change, or someone in the family was to get sick. Costs for caring for a sick or disabled child can be overwhelming and most families don’t qualify for the few assistance programs available, she said. Plus, if you have a job today but your contract isn’t renewed, or your job doesn’t have benefits such as a pension plan or sick leave, things are all that much harder.
— with a file from Mary Agnes Welch
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca